Why Do My Icons Have a Background Color in Windows XP?

If you’ve been wondering why your XP desktop icons have a background color, you’ll be glad to know you can flip a checkbox and have them go back to a normal transparent background.

Here’s the two versions side by side.

To set the transparent background on the icons, we’ll need to open System Properties in Control Panel (or right-click on My Computer and select Properties).

In this dialog, click the Advanced tab, and then the Settings button under the Performance section.

Now scroll down to the button where you’ll find a checkbox for “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop”. Make sure you check this box if you want transparent backgrounds on the icons.

Why this option isn’t just labeled “Enable Transparent Icons On the Desktop”, I just can’t say.

Update

If the above does not work, you might want to also check these additional settings suggested by readers in the comments.

You can’t be displaying a web page as your background. To check this, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. Select Customize desktop on the Desktop tab, then select the Web tab on the desktop items window and deselect any web pages that are shown.
You need to make sure that High Contrast is not selected under Accessibility \ Display Options in your Control Panel.

This article was originally written on 05/1/07 Tagged with: Windows

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Comments (125)

May 2, 2007 7:37 am

Bob

This has been driving me nuts on several (but not all) otherwise identical systems in our company. Thanks for the tip!
May 2, 2007 8:42 am

Chad Everett

I agree, nice tip – but it doesn’t (always) work.

In other words, the box is checked, but my desktop still has the background. I think it may have something to do with another function (which, I can’t say).

I’m running Windows XP SP2, and I’ve got no love for drop shadows here. Thanks though!
May 3, 2007 5:11 am

AV

Chad that could be because you may have set to display a web page in the background, To disable the webpage

Right Click on your desktop–> Properties Select Customize desktop under Desktop tab.

Now select Web tab in the Desktop Items window, and deselect if any web pages are shown.

And you will have the transparant background
May 3, 2007 5:32 am

The Geek

Thanks AV… My readers are great!
May 9, 2007 12:17 am

Shravan

hey thanks for the TIP , the second one worked.
May 17, 2007 8:24 pm

Lips

none of the suggestions worked, what next
May 25, 2007 12:19 am

Siva Rama Krishna

Thanks alol sir,

It is very useful to getrid some problems

Thanking you sir,

yours sincerely,
siva rama krishna
June 3, 2007 8:55 am

Raj Nooti

When both of these do not work, there is a third way (or an addition to the second step). Under web (Customize desktop -> Web), de-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties. I had the same problem and solved it this way.
June 10, 2007 1:34 am

Prameet Sinha

Hey, the second one worked its great to see the desktop. I need your help in an anoher problem, i have windows XP Media Center. I dont have sort by name option in Start -> Program Files.

Can you help me in This??
June 10, 2007 2:38 pm

Shawn

Thanks for the help, worked like a charm.
June 15, 2007 8:11 am

Sweetest gibbon

I’ve followed all of the above instructions, but still can’t get this to work! Any other suggestions?

Cheers
June 25, 2007 12:22 pm

Ted McC

HOW-TO GEEK,

YOU ARE AWSOME. THANK YOU GREATLY FOR THE 2nd SUGGESTION. MY DESKTOP ICON LABELS’ BACKGROUNDS ARE NOW TRANSPARENT. I CAN’T THANK YOU ENOUGH.
July 26, 2007 6:50 am

LeAnne W

I had this same problem and the only thing that worked for me was this: In Display Properties, click the Desktop tab and then Customize Desktop. Under the Web tab, make sure that none of the web page checkboxes are selected to display on your desktop. I tried many other suggestions, and this was my winner
August 7, 2007 1:30 am

Taboo Tongue

If you still can’t get it to work, like myself, check the file type of your background image. I was always using PNGs because ‘why have any-loss when I can have lossless?’. Answer: it gives you that color behind the text and icons you hate…
Convert your background image to jpg and you will probably be fine.
August 7, 2007 4:11 am

Alex

I’ve been having this problem for a while! The tip from Raj Nootie:

‘Under web (Customize desktop -> Web), de-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties’

worked perfectly!
August 19, 2007 5:25 am

Marilou David

thanks for the help…..
August 20, 2007 12:09 am

Cody

Wow thanks a lot .
August 29, 2007 8:44 am

paul

I’m really getting frustrated, none of the above suggestions have worked for me, de-seclting web pages, lock desktop icons, checking the drop down menu box, none of them, but a few of you said that when you unlock the desktop icons it allows you to modify icon properties, how do i get to icon properties? If anyone has any other suggestions for me i would love it. I do have a brico pack installed on my system to make XP look like vista, would that have anything to do with it?
October 2, 2007 7:06 am

Mohammed Malik

Hi all,
Thanks for the help!
October 5, 2007 2:01 am

Suneel

Thanks for the help guys.
October 5, 2007 4:36 pm

Deadpool

Thanks a million! I have been looking everywhere for that!
October 21, 2007 1:02 pm

Tom McDonnel

i spent WAY too much time trying to find a solution to remove this seemingly benign (but oddly irritating !!)artifact. your directions took me all of 15 seconds to finally rid my icons of its’ shadow. Thank you for the simple and useful info..

.
October 28, 2007 9:11 am

Diane

I did what you stated in the web site.

My icons have a background color in window and I was trying to make it transparent,
and I did what you did in the web site.
But it didn’t work.

What else can I do to make it transparent?
October 30, 2007 6:08 am

Paul

I tried over 5 different things to try to fix this but nothing helped. I noticed that my Windows Picture and Fax Viewer was not working also. So I tried an old trick to fix that, and it fixed the icon issue also. I went to the command prompt (start, run) and typed in “regsvr32 shimgvw.dll” without the quotes, and then changed my resolution to a smaller one and back again, and both issues were fixed.
October 30, 2007 10:06 am

Diane

Thank you for your help but ooops! it didn’t work again!
Is there any other solution for my problem?
October 30, 2007 10:10 am

Diane

Thank you for your help but that didn’t work well.
Is there any other solution I can solve my problem?
November 8, 2007 9:53 pm

kim SR

Thats great!!.Thanks for such a wonderful tip.
November 12, 2007 3:28 pm

Julian

This was a lifesaver. Thanks. I can get back to work now.
November 30, 2007 11:27 am

Chris

Thanks AV! You saved me from having to go to an asylum for the rest of my life!
December 7, 2007 9:22 pm

metatlvi

A big …Thank You!… You guys professionally answered an annoying XP question about how to make the desktop icon captions transparent. I agree.. the phrasing: “..use drop shadows..” must be Bill G’s practical joke! Thanks again.
December 28, 2007 6:48 pm

Ted

My desktop icons still have the color behind them,

i have tried and did not work for me, any other option??? please help.
December 29, 2007 10:27 am

kishor

i have tried all three options but still not got the solution , by unchecking the web i got the caption color with little colored
background
January 1, 2008 10:54 pm

lakshmi

Hey AV, awesome dude
after trying for sooo long it worked… thanks for ur suggession.. u r genius
January 1, 2008 10:56 pm

lakshmi

hey kishore.. delete that web page fror the list, it wud work.
January 2, 2008 7:08 am

skynyrd

nice tip! really helped me… thanx!!!
January 18, 2008 10:57 am

Terry

If anyone is still having this problem, also check the Accessibility–>Display options under the Control Panel. Make sure High Contrast is unchecked.
January 19, 2008 11:25 pm

gekko

Thanks AV.. You are the man! It worked for me.. may god bless you..
February 8, 2008 2:22 am

Happy Computer User

Thanks AV…saved my life!
February 10, 2008 2:06 pm

Baboy

thankz dude!!! when i follow ur first instruction its working!!!
February 23, 2008 1:37 pm

Christoffer

I just went through this guide, and the tips in the comments but i still could not get the icons to be transparent. If anybody still have this problem, my solution is based on the tip from “Taboo Tongue”, but instead of using JPG (which in some sneaky way enables web content for the desktop without showing it anywhere) I converted the image to BMP to get it to work.
March 2, 2008 10:03 pm

Mattcthis

To “The Geek”,

Man I’ve been through so many forums looking for a solution…
This one actually worked….. I was suprised myself. I guess been thru a lot forums that really don’t give you any soution does that to you. LOL

Thank You
March 21, 2008 11:06 pm

Joel

There is also another way that would cause such a thing. Make sure that your icons are not “locked.”

Right click on the desktop and make sure they are not locked
March 28, 2008 4:21 pm

Puck Robinson

so the 3 didn’t work for me, but going into the properties of the display settings / desktop / customize desktop / web tab / I clicked properties on ‘my current home page’ (it was the only web page in the selection) and then I deselected ‘make this page available offline’.
that made the text background go away.

I don’t know why I had to do this extra step since deselecting desktop web pages should have done it, but it worked for me. try it if the other three options didn’t work.

good luck.
March 29, 2008 5:25 am

Marcus

Thanks it worked for me

good blog
March 30, 2008 1:14 pm

Kevin

I tried evry solutions and none did work =(
April 2, 2008 3:14 am

Abouzar

Thanks to AV. It worked for me!
April 3, 2008 5:19 am

Lokesh

Its wonderfull for my its works
April 3, 2008 1:36 pm

Sanket

I was whacking my brains over this for a month.. I had a silly web page set under desktop –> customize –> Advanced… Thanks.. It works now..
April 5, 2008 5:59 am

Raja

Enabling drop shadows is fine and dandy unless you have a light colored background then it becomes difficult to read the captions.

Microsoft provides no way to change the font color so you have to turn to a third party tool.
April 8, 2008 8:55 pm

Eddie

I was fretting over this all day. This helped tremondously.
April 8, 2008 9:25 pm

ak

I have tried each and evrything what u ppl have said but none worked for me ….plz help !!!
April 10, 2008 4:10 pm

Wally

Even if you don’t have a web page selected as your background, you still need to uncheck the “Lock Desktop Objects” box in order to get transparent background for your icons.
April 10, 2008 7:44 pm

Beefcake

Raj Nooti is the best the third option was the one that worked for me !!!! Now my desktop looks normal again; I don’t know how it got whacked out in the first place; but Thank God for the Smart dudes like you Raj Nooti !!!!!
April 30, 2008 4:45 am

Ann Stevens

Thanx a lot…..The third comment was wonderful and I cud change the background of icons.
May 1, 2008 10:04 am

Erik

Okay, I have tried every single suggestion posted here and NONE of them have worked. I didn’t have this issue until this morning when one of our IT people logged into my PC remotely, after that was when the background color appeared and not being able to get it back to transparent is driving me CRAZY.
May 8, 2008 4:42 am

Krissi D

Thanks to Raj Nooti. Nothing worked until I read your comment!
May 9, 2008 12:30 pm

Erik

I’m still stuck with background color. Any other suggestions?
May 15, 2008 1:00 pm

Bill

Thank you Paul! I tried 10 different things to fix this before I read your suggestion. I was getting ridiculously frustrated about this. Thank you.
May 17, 2008 3:40 am

jaded

Raj Nooti’s tip worked!!! thanks so much!!
May 19, 2008 7:52 am

Shivajee

Hey AV

Great man,,,,i was dieing to solve this problem from last so many months,

I did it today,,,,you really deserve a big THANKS man
May 29, 2008 6:07 pm

Dave Walton

Thank you so much for this help,
I have eventually worked out how to do it!!

Raj Nooti
When both of these do not work, there is a third way (or an addition to the second step). Under web (Customize desktop -> Web), de-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties

This bit helped me so much and cracked my problem!!

Thanks alot
June 10, 2008 5:56 pm

Arron

I noticed it will do that with all my images unless they are saved as .bmp
June 16, 2008 8:38 pm

bob

the second one helped me! thanks
June 24, 2008 3:23 pm

Adrian

Thanks a lot man, this really helped me.
I was driving nuts with that horibble look of my desktop….and can you imagine that I was using my computer like that since a few weeks. MMMM
Apreciated man….
June 25, 2008 12:58 am

Aman

I hv the unique solution for this�..if all attempts fails and u still face the issue�
Desktop> Right click> Properties> Desktop> Customize Desktop> Web> then u�ll see couple of web pages just uncheck all� and press OK�
this will definitely help u
June 29, 2008 10:19 pm

rezzsa

Thank you. That worked.

AV May 3, 2007 5:11 am
Chad that could be because you may have set to display a web page in the background, To disable the webpage

Right Click on your desktop�> Properties Select Customize desktop under Desktop tab.

Now select Web tab in the Desktop Items window, and deselect if any web pages are shown.

And you will have the transparant background
June 30, 2008 2:34 am

Shailesh Joshi

Thanks a lot for the solution.
June 30, 2008 5:08 am

Sherif

This is really works

THANKS

Right Click on your desktop�> Properties Select Customize desktop under Desktop tab.

Now select Web tab in the Desktop Items window, and deselect if any web pages are shown.

And you will have the transparant background
July 9, 2008 11:50 pm

kalyan

Thnx a bunch.. I never understood why the background color was showing even though I applied the “use drop shadow” option…
July 12, 2008 6:27 am

George

Raj Nooti

this worked for me , 10x a lot
July 28, 2008 9:40 pm

bb161325

I have tryed everything listed here and STILL have shadows the same color as my backgorund, and I would like to see no shadows and just the picture and icons, this is really irritating and I feel like breaking something now, is there ANYTHING else I can do?
August 2, 2008 6:37 am

f2002246

Thanks a lot for the tips…. Such a great relief man!!
August 21, 2008 1:37 pm

thesaleboat

THank you very much, this was very useful, but it was actually AV’s solution from may 07 that worked for me… you should add that to the main part of the article. ~Thank Agian
September 7, 2008 8:10 am

Kyle

This was my issue listed below,

Thanks

You can’t be displaying a web page as your background. To check this, right-click on the desktop and choose Properties. Select Customize desktop on the Desktop tab, then select the Web tab on the desktop items window and deselect any web pages that are shown.
September 9, 2008 7:47 am

hazelg

thanks guys, esp. raj nooti. your third suggestion worked. thanks.
September 13, 2008 3:07 am

Lambert

Cool tip! i never thought i have a webpage displaying on my desktop, i can’t see a thing, my AV cant detect anything too, my anti-spyware too.. i most likely think that this thing was a trojan.. thanks for the tip…
September 14, 2008 12:45 am

Mike Thompson

For those of you who still are having trouble with this… try this option.

START-RUN – TYPE “GPEDIT.MSC
Go to User Congifiguration-Administrative Templates-desktop-active desktop
Look to the right and find the setting that says disable active desktop..double click and choose enable…..
then go to your desktop and hit refresh.
September 16, 2008 3:01 pm

Breathless

THANKS PAUL!

Paul’s fix was the only thing that did it for me. If you have tried everything except for Paul’s fix, please try, it will likely work.
September 17, 2008 12:11 am

Praveen

Dear Raj Nooti,

thanks for the info..that solved my problem.
September 21, 2008 12:42 am

Bijay Acharya

Great.Thank you very much.The first step is known to me,but that was not working.The second step you provided that was absolutly perfect.Great work.Thank you.
September 25, 2008 6:39 pm

Stormrider

Hey. Thanks for all the great advices. BUT I have a simpler and more complicated problem – I can’t find my ‘Web’ tab in my ‘Customize Desktop’ page!! Meaning: I don’t have one for me to click on. Why???!!!

I have to say that this problem occurred after I downloaded some virul program and after having them removed by (AVG 8.0), all the backgrould colour of the icons appeared.

Please advise in getting my Web tab back!! Thanks.
September 26, 2008 10:29 am

Mike Thompson

Click Start, Run and type REGEDIT

Navigate to the following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ Explorer

Delete the two values NoActiveDesktopChanges & NoActiveDesktop in the right-pane

Navigate to the following keys:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ ActiveDesktop

and

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ ActiveDesktop

Delete the value NoComponents in both the above locations.
September 26, 2008 11:27 am

Mike Thompson

Sorry, the above is for stormrider
September 30, 2008 11:59 am

Danny Boy

If all else fails with the desktop icons background try this. Right click on My Computer/properties/ (this brings up the system properties)click on the advanced tab/ then on the performace section, click settings this takes you to performance Options select the Visual Effects tab and scroll down to the second from the botttom “use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop” this should be ticked. Hope this helps
October 16, 2008 6:11 am

Suneel

Hey guys,

If any of the above things dint work for you….then try the procedure as explained by Mike Thompson.
It worked for me. Give it a try and see.Thanks Mike.

Good luck
October 16, 2008 8:36 am

Stormrider

Hey. I got the icon back to tranparent mode already. Thnaks for all the great advices!!
October 19, 2008 8:50 am

Blake88

THANK YOU!!!!!
October 28, 2008 1:25 am

Vadi

Thanks a LOT. the second one worked perfectly.
November 7, 2008 5:55 am

James

THANK YOU!! as alot of other people said, the second one worked!
December 8, 2008 12:23 am

Raju

Thanks AV. The web setting Changes working fine for me.
January 12, 2009 3:49 pm

Ken

Thanks, really got annoying after awhile, finally used the third option of “Lock desktop items” unchecked….then press OK!!

Thanks again
January 18, 2009 11:19 am

Gerhard

Thanks to Mike Thompson 14 September 2008. The gpedit.msc bit did it for me. Also all credit to The Geek and others, I followed all the steps up to Mike’s suggestion. I guess Christoffer might also be on the ball with his BMP suggestion, because following Mike’s advice only allow BMP as background image.

Thanks all!
January 28, 2009 6:46 am

Danny

“Chad that could be because you may have set to display a web page in the background, To disable the webpage

Right Click on your desktop�> Properties Select Customize desktop under Desktop tab.

Now select Web tab in the Desktop Items window, and deselect if any web pages are shown.

And you will have the transparant background”

HEY THIS ONE SURE WORKED FOR ME I TRIED EVERYTHING ELSE THANKS….
January 31, 2009 5:22 am

Nikhil

It took long but finally i was able to have my dektop icons without any background . Thanks to above solution
February 13, 2009 9:48 am

Eric

I have tried the original suggestions, there are no web pages checked, the icons aren’t locked and I have tried both of Mike Thompson’s suggestions. That should cover every suggestion that has been made thus far. Are there any other ideas?

I have a dual monitor display, if that matters.
February 16, 2009 7:46 am

Gopi Nath

Thanx Raj Nooti… it’s worked
March 11, 2009 7:54 am

gaurav--poddar

thanks bro its work
March 15, 2009 2:24 pm

jumpogon

thanx so much! iv been trying this for weeks (by myself ), when i have read this it workd thanx
March 21, 2009 7:17 pm

Liam D

I dont understand why do i not have a ‘Web’ Tab on the ‘customize desktop’ bit?
April 1, 2009 8:46 pm

User

why in the first place they have this ver BAD description in Windows software?
and this is just a sample. In spanish version , several descriptions are very long, and without horizontal scroll, you have no clue on what are the remaining words of the “description”. aaaarrggh

“usability 101″ remember that?
April 3, 2009 3:31 am

Sanjoga Subudhi

I have a suggestion to all those readers whose 1st solution don’t work.
After changing(make tik) the option (right click my computer->properties->Advance tab->performance setting->use drop shadows for icon levels on the desktop)if it do not work then after changing you restart or (logon and logoff) your computer.After that the shadow will surely disappear.
April 10, 2009 8:00 pm

dave k

the update under (Why Do My Icons Have a Background Color in Windows XP?)worked for me!!!!thanks a million how to geek!!!!
April 14, 2009 11:59 am

Eric

I found this fix that edits the registry. If you are nervous about running that Registry program, then you can just go into the registry and delete those values. The only one’s that I had were “…\Control Panel\Desktop”

Hope this helps!

-Eric

Direct link:

http://boardsus.playstation.co.....amp;page=2

I finally got it fixed…

Click “Start”, “Settings”, and then click “Control Panel”. Open the “Display” applet.
Click on “Desktop”, “Customise Display…” and “Web”.
In the box under “Web pages”, select all the checkboxes and click “Delete”.

#2Next, launch Notepad (Start>All Programs>Accessories), and copy/paste all the blue REGEDIT below to it
be sure the REGEDIT4 is included.
Save in: Desktop
File Name: fixme.reg
Save as Type: All files
Click: Save

REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General]
“WallpaperFileTime”=-
“WallpaperLocalFileTime”=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Poli
cies\System]
“NoDispAppearancePage”=-
“Wallpaper”=-
“WallpaperStyle”=-
“NoDispBackgroundPage”=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Poli
cies\Explorer]
“NoActiveDesktopChanges”=-
“ForceActiveDesktopOn”=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
“Wallpaper”=-
“WallpaperStyle”=-

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]
“Background”=”0 78 152″
April 19, 2009 9:57 pm

Sultana

**** de-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties. I had the same problem and solved it this way. **** this option solved my problem. thanks a lot!!!
April 25, 2009 12:13 am

Kevin

Thanks AV!! Your method worked a treat! I now have a desktop that looks smooth again! Am wondering though how it came to have a web file all of a sudden…
Cheers!
April 30, 2009 9:25 pm

Derek

Another thing I just recently found was an image I did for my self, I had it saved as a .png image and for a few days I been going nuts trying to figure it out, I tried everything I could think of and I found, by saving it as a .gif or a .jpg will allow it to have the icons with the transparent background. I am not sure if it was caused by the layers in the image or if it was a matter of just being a .png file, not sure but if you have a .png file as a background, try saving it as a different file type and give that a try.
May 8, 2009 1:29 am

Vlad

Very useful discussion. After trying many things (not tampering with the registry though) what worked for me is unchecking the option Lock Web Items on Desktop that can be found right-clicking on Desktop -> Arrange Icons By -> Lock Web Items on Desktop. Thanks everyone!
May 9, 2009 6:18 pm

Michael

Ok wtf. First none of the examples worked, then eventually I just made the visual effects “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer” in the performance options and that was the ONLY thing that worked yesterday. Now once again today out of nowhere the all changed BACK to having the same backgronud color as whatever the desktop background color is set to.

WTF. I’m about to throw my computer out the window this is pissing me off so much. Everywhere I look online gives the same damn advice that doesn’t work. So now what?

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
May 27, 2009 9:10 am

Taz

i done what you said but no luck!
it didn’t work for my computer it still has a background anything else i can do?
please help!!!
June 11, 2009 9:32 am

akis

The idea of TABOO TONGUE in converting the background to jpg and after this following the stepsof the How to Geek was fantastic. Everything works properly now. Thank you both of you
June 18, 2009 2:32 am

EverSpike

Yes, you`re the best AV you`re tip was perfect!!! I had this proble many times but no one could answer it! You`re a GOD!!!
June 18, 2009 6:45 am

overmidnight

Thanks AV. It worked.
July 18, 2009 1:04 pm

the pa

this is the way that worked for me:

“Under web (Customize desktop -> Web), un-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties”

i figured this one out on my own, and so did “Raj Nooti”
July 27, 2009 10:35 pm

Syam

Haii Their is an another idea

right click on desktop > properties > Desktop> Customize Desktop > web > delete all other options except ” My Current Home Page” then click ok then Apply

Hai its not a fake its true……………………………..
Enjoy
August 6, 2009 8:46 pm

Carol

It worked! Note: The first time I unchecked the box “Use drop shadows for icons on the desktop”, nothing happened. But I tried it again. I checked the box and then unchecked it and THEN it worked. I can’t tell you how happy I am to get rid of the background on all my desktop icons’ captions. Thank you so much.
August 17, 2009 6:50 pm

Kelly

Thank you so much it was a great tip!!!!!!!!!!
August 20, 2009 10:23 pm

R.siva

asdfasdfasdf
October 1, 2009 8:49 am

Prajeesh

Great !

You made my day i been searching across the web for solution, finally spotted here the best result.

Thanks
October 2, 2009 11:23 pm

Vidyasagar

This is how it worked for me:

“Under web (Customize desktop -> Web), un-select ‘Lock desktop icons’ which then enables users to modify icon properties”
October 26, 2009 2:58 pm

Teddi

Thank you Mike Thompson!!!

Nothing else worked… there is no “Web” tab under desktop properties –> customize desktop on my computer, only “General” so reading the same suggestions over and over again was getting incredibly frustrating…

The tip that worked for me:

For those of you who still are having trouble with this… try this option.

START-RUN – TYPE “GPEDIT.MSC
Go to User Congifiguration-Administrative Templates-desktop-active desktop
Look to the right and find the setting that says disable active desktop..double click and choose enable…..
then go to your desktop and hit refresh
November 4, 2009 9:21 pm

Tony

Thanks for your advice on Why Do My Icons Have a Background Color in Windows XP? I accidentally changed my desktop to a web page and with your help i fixed it thanks again
November 5, 2009 11:30 am

Adam

I don’t have a “web” tab under customize desktop

Yes, I’m using XP, but am on a work computer and don’t have admin rights.
November 5, 2009 11:39 am

Adam

Teddi seems to have the same problem (no “web” tab) but I did what you said (run gpedit.msc, etc) and it didn’t work.
November 8, 2009 8:00 am

Arthur

Ou thank you all! But the one that worked for me was De-selecting that Lock the icons. Now those annoying backgrounds are gone! thankyou!
November 17, 2009 12:24 am

viesty

Thanks for help. I was really piised off before )))

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