Dear victims,

Please take the time to read the following -- this may well work for you immediately:

Okay, I use a Dell Optiplex GX110, which came with mainboard VGA as well as a Riva 
TNT 2 (Model 64) 32MB PCI.  I am running Windows 2000 (ServicePack 2 Installed) and 
had the icon problem as I was running at 1600x1200x32-bit @ 72Hz and suddenly got 
the icon problem where they all were being displayed with 16 (4-bit) or less colors.

I must admit that I have had Win2k installed for well over 12 months now and have 
not given it an "MOT" (reinstall).  Plus, I have a lot of junk installed on it so 
I don't know what may have caused/triggered the icon problem otherthan Windows itself 
being a idiot.

I searched Google for people sharing this problem and solutions to that end.  Anyway, 
I tried all of the tips and tricks including; programs like RebIC/TweakUI/IconPackager 
to reload/delete the ShellIconCache; Manually modifying the Icon BPP (Bits Per Pixel) 
setting in the registry; changing the screen resolution, color depth and refresh 
rate. 

None of these methods worked, so I was going to manually delete the ShellIconCache 
file itself after getting seriously annoyed with this problem.

--- HERE IS WHAT I DID FOR IT TO WORK ---

Knowing that the file would not fully delete via Windows Explorer (GUI Mode) I went 
to the Command Prompt (DO box) to delete the file.

I maximised the DOS box so it ranges left on the screen/desktop so I could see more. 
 As I was moving my mouse about, I noticed that sometimes I lost the cursor. Then 
it occured to me...The two graphic cards.

Because this system has a two VGA compliment, it gives you the ability to use more 
than one monitor (or more than one VGA device). The mainboard VGA is inferior to 
the TNT and may have caused the TNT to slack.

All I dd was open my "Display Properties" and select the "Settings" section.  Windows 
knows you have 2xVGA and so should give you the option to select which one to use 
by displaying what looks like two monitors (one being ghosted as not in use) sporting 
a number assignment.

What I did was select the mainboard VGA and unchecked, "Extend my Windows desktop 
onto this monitor." It would be wise to uncheck, "Use this device as the primary 
monitor." if you are not going to use this VGA. Finally, switch back to the VGA use 
want to use.

By this point, I got my 32-bit color icons back and I was a happy bunnie!

--- HEY PRESTO! ENJOY, IF IT WORKS ---

If it doesn't work, please email me at mwilson@vianetworks.co.uk and I would be glad 
to help.

M Wilson
Web Developer for VIA NET.WORKS







On Sunday, December 9, 2001 at 1:43 am, Kenric Tam wrote:
>i found a solution, at least for me.  I had the same problem in Windows XP, and 
it's 
>even worse in XP because there IS no optoin for "show icons using all possible colors" 
>or "high color"   Windows XP is SUPPOSED to do it ALWAYS.  But my icons were all 
>still ugly for some reason.  It just happened, and this was a fresh installation 
>of Windows Xp.
>
>In any case, a little research using www.google.com revealed to me this webpage 
at: 
>http://www.virtualplastic.org/html/icn_sys.html  which isn't exactly us, but here's 
>the kicker, it tells you how to manually edit the registry to set the icon color 
>depth:
>
>Find the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics" 
>Select it. 
>



>On the right there must be a string value called "Shell Icon BPP", 
>if it's not there, create it. 
>Rightclick on it, choose Modify. 
>Enter your color depth, i.e. 16, 24 or 32. 
>Restart. 
>The problem with me was that it would be ugly even though I was running in 16bit. 
> But when I changed my desktop to 32bit, it was beautiful once again.  I went into 
>the registry, and found that the setting was currently at 32bit.  I changed it to 
>16, reboot, and voila, it worked!  Give it a shot and let me know how things turn 
>out for you. :-)

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