Desktop and other icons no longer transparent

[Arnold Hendriks]

For a couple of weeks now, a lot of icons have lost all transparancy.
Not only the desktop icons, but icons in many other programs as well.

It happened quite suddenly, while just working at my PC during the
afternoon. Rebooting, using safe mode, downgrading, upgrading video
drivers, reinstalling
service packs, all fail to fix the problem. As far as I know I haven't
installed any software which modifies icon text transparancy, such as
Transtext

On the web I can only find some mention of similair problems with
WindowsXP, but never with Windows 2000. Interestingly, enabling active
desktop fixes the desktop icons, but all other icons are still broken.

A screenshot of the icons can be seen at:
http://home.student.utwente.nl/a.hendriks/Image2.jpg

Any suggestions as to what could be going on?

 

[Dan]

On 14 Dec 2003 05:31:46 -0800, (e-mail address removed) (Arnold Hendriks)
wrote...
| As far as I know I haven't installed any software which modifies icon text
| transparancy, such as Transtext

Win2000 does not have transparent icon text backgrounds unless you are
running a utility to set and maintain the transparency. There are
several free programs which do this, such as Activicons -
www.cursorarts.com/ca_ai.html and Transparent.

I suspect that you had such a program running in the tray or
background, and you have since uninstalled it.





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[Arnold Hendriks]

On 14 Dec 2003 05:31:46 -0800, (e-mail address removed) (Arnold Hendriks)
wrote...
| As far as I know I haven't installed any software which modifies icon text
| transparancy, such as Transtext

Win2000 does not have transparent icon text backgrounds unless you are
running a utility to set and maintain the transparency. There are
several free programs which do this, such as Activicons -
www.cursorarts.com/ca_ai.html and Transparent.

The icon texts themselves aren't transparent, and have never been so - so
that shouldn't be the problem. After the problem occured, I did install
Transtext though, to see if it would cure the problem - the only thing it
did was make the icon texts transparent, but not the icons.

I suspect that you had such a program running in the tray or
background, and you have since uninstalled it.

Nope. The only desktop 'fiddling' I do is to turn off all fades and effects
through the Desktop settings panel. I really can't be bothered to 'tweak'
the desktop with all those desktop 'enhancment' programs, so I'm pretty
certain I never installed anything that should
legitimately touch icon transparancy.

The icon transparancy wasn't lost immediately after installing a program or
modifying a setting - I was just working in Borland Builder (in plain old
C++ code, nothing VCL or desktop related) and suddenly noticed transparancy
disappearing. If any installed program caused it, it must have been
installed at least several days before the problem occured.

 

[Dan]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 23:08:53 +0100, "Arnold Hendriks"
| The icon texts themselves aren't transparent, and have never been so - so
| that shouldn't be the problem

Try right-clicking the desktop background, choosing Properties. Then
go to the Settings tab and make certain that you are running in either
High Color or True Color mode. 256 Color mode or less forces the icons
to display using only 16 colors, and if the icon does not contain a
16-colors version, then I suppose that transparency could be lost.

Also go to the "Appearance" tab, and select "Icon" from the drop-down
"Item" list. Make sure that the Size is set to 32.





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[Arnold Hendriks]

On Sun, 14 Dec 2003 23:08:53 +0100, "Arnold Hendriks"
| The icon texts themselves aren't transparent, and have never been so - so
| that shouldn't be the problem

Try right-clicking the desktop background, choosing Properties. Then
go to the Settings tab and make certain that you are running in either
High Color or True Color mode. 256 Color mode or less forces the icons
to display using only 16 colors, and if the icon does not contain a
16-colors version, then I suppose that transparency could be lost.

It's running in true color mode. Trying 256 colors doesn't make a difference
either.

Also go to the "Appearance" tab, and select "Icon" from the drop-down
"Item" list. Make sure that the Size is set to 32.

That one's okay to. I tried modifying it to something else than 32, but that
doesn't change it either. Selecting a completely different color scheme
doesn't help either.

Thanks for the suggestions, I fear I'll have to keep on searching...