Icons have bad resolution

[Brian Bischof]

The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem b/c they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these are bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines the icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution. Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom. The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

 

[Guest]

The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem b/c they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these are bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines the icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution. Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom. The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

------------------------------

I had a similar problem after installing an update once -- or maybe it
was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply that the
installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and* color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill

 

[Brian Bischof]

Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons are still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the graphics that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know. Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to 16
Close Registry Editor.

 

[Brian Bischof]

I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian

Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to 16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the graphics that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know. Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"

wrote in message news:%[email protected]...

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

Did you set both to 32?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After
rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian

Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to 16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the graphics that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know. Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"

wrote in message Brian Bischof wrote:
The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky
now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were
people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem
b/c
they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have
icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these
are
bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines
the
icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution.
Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom.
The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
------------------------------

I had a similar problem after installing an update once -- or maybe it
was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply that the
installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what
you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and* color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill

 

[Brian Bischof]

Yes, I did that too! Nothing seems to work. How frustrating...

Did you set both to 32?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After
rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian

Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to 16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the graphics that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know. Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"

wrote in message Brian Bischof wrote:
The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky
now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were
people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem
b/c
they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have
icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these
are
bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines
the
icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution.
Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom.
The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
------------------------------

I had a similar problem after installing an update once -- or maybe it
was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply that the
installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what
you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and* color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill

 

[Ramesh, MS-MVP]

Brian,

Use the "Repair icons" feature in Tweak UI.

TweakUI v2.00 for Windows XP/XP MCE [564 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

TweakUI v2.10 for Windows XP SP1/XP MCE/2003 [147 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

Sometimes, Tweak UI corrupts the icons by assigning incorrect value to Shell
Icon BPP. If that happens, see:

Icons get corrupted after using Tweak UI "Rebuild Icons" function:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairicons.htm

Another option is to delete the iconcache.db file present in this folder:

%Userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Yes, I did that too! Nothing seems to work. How frustrating...

Did you set both to 32?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)

I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one
right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After
rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian


Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to
16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that
idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons
are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the
graphics
that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know.
Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"
<[email protected]>
wrote in message Brian Bischof wrote:
The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky
now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were
people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem
b/c
they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have
icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these
are
bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines
the
icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution.
Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom.
The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
------------------------------

I had a similar problem after installing an update once -- or maybe it
was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply that the
installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what
you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and*
color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced
from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill

 

[Brian Bischof]

Hi Ramesh,

You seem to be a wealth of information. However, my system still eludes you.
Running the TweakUI makes the icons blink on and off (obviously resetting
them) but the resolution is still bad. Delete the IconCache didn't have any
effect. In fact, with the litte Norton AV icon when the system boots up it
draws a red X over it until its fully loaded. That little red X is just a
bunch of tiny boxes connected by their corners. It looks like a line drawn
by a computer back in the 80s when you had really bad monitors. Plus, when I
open some programs that use icons I see that their resolution is the same.
However, the desktop icons are very clean with smooth rounding. Anyway, I
think I'll have to put on my schedule next month to do a rebuild of the
system. It seems like such a trivial problem, but now that I see it
effecting the icons in the software I use then it's time to bite the bullet
and wipe the drive.

Thanks for your worthy efforts.

Brian

Brian,

Use the "Repair icons" feature in Tweak UI.

TweakUI v2.00 for Windows XP/XP MCE [564 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

TweakUI v2.10 for Windows XP SP1/XP MCE/2003 [147 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

Sometimes, Tweak UI corrupts the icons by assigning incorrect value to Shell
Icon BPP. If that happens, see:

Icons get corrupted after using Tweak UI "Rebuild Icons" function:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairicons.htm

Another option is to delete the iconcache.db file present in this folder:

%Userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Yes, I did that too! Nothing seems to work. How frustrating...

Did you set both to 32?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one
right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After
rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian


Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value to
16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that
idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons
are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the
graphics
that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know.
Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"
<[email protected]>
wrote in message Brian Bischof wrote:
The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very blocky
now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could find were
people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem
b/c
they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings for the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs have
icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on these
are
bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines
the
icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly resolution.
Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on zoom.
The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.

maybe
it

was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply

that
the

installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what
you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and*
color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced
from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill

 

[Saavedro]

Did you check to see if it was something as simple as the monitor resolution
or color depth?

Click Start> Control Panel> Appearance and Themes> Display
Next click the 'Settings' Tab.
Drag the 'Screen Resolution' slider one click to the right and click
'apply'. Change the color quality to a higher setting.
Preferable 32 bit (or whatever the highest is).

Hi Ramesh,

You seem to be a wealth of information. However, my system still eludes
you.
Running the TweakUI makes the icons blink on and off (obviously resetting
them) but the resolution is still bad. Delete the IconCache didn't have
any
effect. In fact, with the litte Norton AV icon when the system boots up it
draws a red X over it until its fully loaded. That little red X is just a
bunch of tiny boxes connected by their corners. It looks like a line drawn
by a computer back in the 80s when you had really bad monitors. Plus, when
I
open some programs that use icons I see that their resolution is the same.
However, the desktop icons are very clean with smooth rounding. Anyway, I
think I'll have to put on my schedule next month to do a rebuild of the
system. It seems like such a trivial problem, but now that I see it
effecting the icons in the software I use then it's time to bite the
bullet
and wipe the drive.

Thanks for your worthy efforts.

Brian

Brian,

Use the "Repair icons" feature in Tweak UI.

TweakUI v2.00 for Windows XP/XP MCE [564 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/download/whistler/Install/2/WXP/EN-US/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

TweakUI v2.10 for Windows XP SP1/XP MCE/2003 [147 KB].
http://download.microsoft.com/downl...a6-b352-839afb2a2679/TweakUiPowertoySetup.exe

Sometimes, Tweak UI corrupts the icons by assigning incorrect value to Shell
Icon BPP. If that happens, see:

Icons get corrupted after using Tweak UI "Rebuild Icons" function:
http://windowsxp.mvps.org/repairicons.htm

Another option is to delete the iconcache.db file present in this folder:

%Userprofile%\Local Settings\Application Data

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org

Yes, I did that too! Nothing seems to work. How frustrating...


Did you set both to 32?

--
Colin Barnhorst [MVP Windows - Virtual Machine]
(Reply to the group only unless otherwise requested)
I looked up that reg key and it was already at 16. However, the one
right
below it, Shell Icon Size, was at 32 so I changed it to 16. After
rebooting
my toolbar icons had not changes, but my desktop icons were now half
their
size! Bummer. So I changed it back to 32. Thanks anyway.

Brian


Brian,

Open Registry Editor and navigate to the following key:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
In the right-pane, double-click Shell Icon BPP and set it's value
to
16
Close Registry Editor.

--
Ramesh, Microsoft MVP
Windows XP Shell/User
http://windowsxp.mvps.org


Well, that was definitely a worthy effort. I had not tried that
idea.
Unfortunately it didn't work. The thing is that the Desktop icons
are
still
very smooth and clean looking. It's just the toolbar icons have low
resolution. Very strange how its just this one aspect of the
graphics
that
aren't working. I would be that there is a registry setting that
differentiates the toolbar icons from the desktop icons. Don't know.
Still
hoping someone comes across an answer for this one.

Brian


"Bill Martin -- (Remove NOSPAM from address)"
<[email protected]>
wrote in message Brian Bischof wrote:
The icons in the toolbar lost their resolution. They are very
blocky
now.
Don't know how it happened! I googled this and all I could
find
were
people
telling you how to make your icons smaller. This isn't my problem
b/c
they
didn't change size at all. I went ahead and tried these ideas
anyway
(choosing Small Icons as well as going to Advanced Settings
for
the
desktop). Nothing works. The weird thing is that some programs
have
icons in
their dropdown menus and I just noticed that the resolution on
these
are
bad
also. Somehow there must be some type of setting which determines
the
icon
resolution. Again, this is not a size problem - strictly
resolution.
Its
like what happens when you look at a low resolution picture on
zoom.
The
edges go from being smooth to being blocky.

Any ideas?

Thanks.
------------------------------

I had a similar problem after installing an update once -- or maybe
it
was new software? Anyhow, my problem turned out to be simply that
the
installation had lowered the bits of color resolution on the
display.
That made some of the icons look very squirrelly similar to what
you're
describing.

Right click on an empty spot on your desk top then select
Properties>Settings and make sure your screen resolution *and*
color
quality are set to what they should be. I was surprised at the
difference it made on my machine when the color quality was reduced
from
32 bits to 16.

Good luck...

Bill