I have a question about Use True-Color Icons:

I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color" is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out, but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it.. Very Annoying.


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

On Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 10:18 am, Brent Smith wrote:
>I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it.. Very Annoying.
>
>


>On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried
>to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

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. :-)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

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.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This happened to me too after installing service pack 2, if anyone resolves this 
problem please let me know! 

Th@nks 






On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use 
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started 
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried 
to 
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color" 
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out, 
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have the same problem when my monitor is set to 24 bit depth. When I set it to 32 bit depth at a different resolution and then toggle the use-high color icon check box, I get the high color icons back. Switching back to 24 bit leaves it at a high color icon. However it is currently not permanent.


On Tuesday, November 20, 2001 at 11:52 am, Steve Mundro wrote:
>
>
>


>On Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 10:18 am, Brent Smith wrote:
>I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it.. Very Annoying.
>
>


>On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried
>to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i have that same problem... i tried going to my registry many times and it still doesnt work... i hear youre not supposed to click show icons using all possible colors... im only running 256 colors on my icons when i have 32 bit graphics on every thing else... can anyone, any one at all please help me? please contact me.. if you do

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

What my previous post was supposed to say is that I have this problem on a Dell OptiPlex GX110, so I am wondering if it is a Dell-related issue. I'm also running two video cards, which could possibly also be related. I'm running a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 PCI card, and the on-board Intol 82810E Graphics Controller. Anyone see a common thread with their machine?


On Thursday, November 15, 2001 at 10:18 am, Brent Smith wrote:
>I have the same problem. Can't seem to fix it.. Very Annoying.
>
>


>On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried
>to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

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. :-)

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

in the course of this whole series of messages having to do with true-color icons, several solutions have been offered as to how to fix the problem where shell icons (icons in taskbar, start menu, windows explorer, etc.) are displayed as 8-bit/256-colors, even though the screen display is set to 16-bit/65536-colors or higher. none of these solutions have worked for me, but im going to go over all of them anyways, if just to simply make things eaiser for others with the same problem.

1. download a program such as Tweak UI (http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp). after installing Tweak UI, in its "repair" section, there is an option to repair icons. use it.

2. go to "start / settings / control panel" and double-click "display". under the "effects" tab, make sure there is a check in the box for "show icons using all possible colors". click the "apply" button.

3. go to the "settings" tab, and make sure that there is a picture of only one monitor. if there are multiple monitors, try to disable the non-primary ones (im not sure how to do this, since i dont have multiple monitors or video cards, but i believe it can be done with some right-click menus). again, hit "apply", then "ok".

4. go to "start / run" and type in "regedit". in the program that runs, navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ WindowMetrics". if there is no "Shell Icon BPP" entry on the right side of the window, create one by going to "edit / new / string value". make sure its value is 16 or higher; if not, right-click it, select "modify", and change it. close the program.

5. open up windows explorer, and navigate to "C:\windows\". delete a file called "ShellIconsCache". note that you must be able to view hidden and system files to find this file; to enable this option, go to "tools / folder options" in windows explorer, and look under the "view" tab.

6. restart your computer.

anyways, even after following all these options, i still have crappy icons. ive even tried the option of setting the BPP down to 4, restarting, then changing it back to 16, in hopes of one of those random times when the problem goes away from unlikely fixes. so, if anyone has any more ideas, PLEASE email me at "nevermind@phreaker.net" immediately. i really cant stand these low-color icons. well, hope i maybe helped out someone else in the process of this post.

~ nevermind
EMAIL: nevermind@phreaker.net
EMAIL: nevermind@twmi.rr.com
AIM: NevermindPhreak
MSN: NevermindPhreak@hotmail.com

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Even I had the same problem with Win2K (using SP2). Today some how the icons started displaying in 16 colors. After lot of tweaking nothing worked. So in frustration I deleted the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] Key and rebooted the machine. And to my surprise the Win2k started showing Icons in true color (you may need to check the "Show Icons in all possible colors" in display properties). Hoping this will work for you all too ! Nishant

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml (this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons ) 4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top) - This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon) in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable "display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should be restored - do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff actually works. ------------- Malice


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It worked indeed. I followed all the other steps mentioned by other users but none of the other techniques worked. NetMeeting is really the one screwing up everything... try this solution, it worked for me!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

THANK YOU! This stupid problem has happened to me 3 times already and I ran through all the other solutions at least a dozen times and nothing ever worked until I disabled Desktop sharing. Stupid Netmeeting!!!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Wow, thanks for the tip. Netmeeting WAS in fact the true culprit. I followed the steps and it worked. I wonder if un-installing Netmeeting would have had the same effect. . .


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

although some people have had some luck with the whole "desktop sharing / netmeeting" thing, i cant even find something close to "desktop sharing" anywhere on my computer... still, i fixed my problem... the only thing i did was uninstall norton systemworks... i thought i had disabled all of it, but apparently, much of it will still run at all times, regardless of whether you want it to or not... anyways, after uninstalling it and rebooting, everything looked perfect... not to mention the fact that all the graphical errors i had with my computer games in direct3d mode went away immediately, too...

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have have had nice clear icons running win2k for along time then suddenly last nite i had 16 color icons, and everything i tried in here didn't work. I followed every single suggestion in here and nothing worked. Then i read this one, but the problem is.. i WANT my dual monitor display. So it ended up this was the only one i hadn't tried....so i reached a dead end, so i followed this suggestion and i disabled by secondary monitor, restarted.... and it worked, then i turned my secondary monitor back on..... and i still have my true color icons. :) so i dunno why they went all crazy for, i've been running a dual monitor system for months now and it never did this before, but at least now i know i can fix it.


On Friday, February 15, 2002 at 2:41 am, M Wilson (Web Developer) wrote:

>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
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I was experiening the same problem. One by one I went through each of these steps. Changing one thing, rebooting, went to the next. It wasn't until I unchecked show icons using all possible colors applied, went into the registry and changed 4 to 16 again (for the third time), and then clicked add/remove programs that everything changed. As soon as it loaded all the icons loaded into 16-bit. Very interesting.


On Sunday, April 14, 2002 at 10:34 am, Rudemeister wrote:
>Wow, thanks for the tip. Netmeeting WAS in fact the true culprit. I followed the
>steps and it worked. I wonder if un-installing Netmeeting would have had the same
>effect. . .
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

dude... you rock. I too tried every single suggestion in this post... and none of them worked... UNTIL I did what you said, and bingo! full color depth restored. I feel better now.


On Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at 6:09 pm, David wrote:
>I was experiening the same problem. One by one I went through each of these steps.
>Changing one thing, rebooting, went to the next. It wasn't until I unchecked show
>icons using all possible colors applied, went into the registry and changed 4 to
>16 again (for the third time), and then clicked add/remove programs that everything
>changed. As soon as it loaded all the icons loaded into 16-bit. Very interesting.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thank you so much. DOnt you hate microsoft and how they make things not compatible. Why would having Desktop sharing enabled mess up your VGA??? I would have never thought that desktop sharing was the cause of my Icons looking crapy. I tried everything else....this actually worked! Thanks


On Sunday, April 14, 2002 at 10:34 am, Rudemeister wrote:
>Wow, thanks for the tip. Netmeeting WAS in fact the true culprit. I followed the
>steps and it worked. I wonder if un-installing Netmeeting would have had the same
>effect. . .
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Wow! Tried everything without success... But this worked!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

What do ya know, after 6 hours (all night) of trying everything else, this works! You need to follow it EXACTLY though, like at the very last step uncheck the show icons with all possible colors, clicking apply, then checking it again and clicking apply. Thanks for the solution, i did a number of other things including reinstalling my video drivers a number of times with a number of different versions, reinstalling my videocard after disabling it in hardware manager, reinstalling SP2, reinstalling IE 6 and patches, deleying the entire WindowMetrics key out of the registry, only changing the "Shell Icon BPP" value, i tried 4/8/16/24/32 etc. etc. etc. nothing worked until now! I knew i had probably found the solution when I saw everyone was using Windows 2000 (SP2) and had recently used netmeeting (as I had). Thanks again for the solution, i was seriously considering backing up my 40GB, formatting and reinstalling Win2000... saved me from a bigger headache!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have this same problem with my icons, only I never used NetMeeting. I have tried everything listed here, but with no luck. I even installed NetMeeting, and then did all the things listed on how to fix the NetMeeting problem. None of them worked. I've read some places were a recent "critical" update may be the culprit, however I haven't found anything more. If anyone know how I can fix this...I would greatly appreciate it.


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I am also having the same problem and have tried everything that has been listed 
on this board including the netmeeting solution.  I have not been able to resolve 
the problem.  I would also appreciate any advice.  I am running Win2000/sp2 with 
all of the security updates.  I have a nVidia Quadro4 display adapter which is capable 
of having dual monitors, but I only have 1 installed.  I was suspect that the dual 
monitor capability might have something to do with the problem, but I am not sure. 
All drivers are up to date.  

It would be most interesting to see what similarities our systems have to see if 
we can narrow down where the problem might be.  

Any help would be most appreciated!






On Tuesday, June 4, 2002 at 10:02 am, RFOAP wrote:
>I have this same problem with my icons, only I never used NetMeeting.  I have tried 
>everything listed here, but with no luck.  I even installed NetMeeting, and then 
>did all the things listed on how to fix the NetMeeting problem.  None of them worked. 
> I've read some places were a recent "critical" update may be the culprit, however 
>I haven't found anything more.  If anyone know how I can fix this...I would greatly 
>appreciate it.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

JUST FIXED MINE !! i did this : go to "start / run" and type in "regedit". in the program that runs, navigate to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ WindowMetrics". if there is no "Shell Icon BPP" entry on the right side of the window, create one by going to "edit / new / string value". make sure its value is 24 NOT higher; if not, right-click it, select "modify", and change it. close the program.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have the same problem with Icons. Twin screen setup, mail video card is NVIDIA RIVA TNT. hmmmm coincidence? maybe


On Tuesday, January 22, 2002 at 11:02 am, Steve Mundro wrote:
>What my previous post was supposed to say is that I have this problem on a Dell OptiPlex
>GX110, so I am wondering if it is a Dell-related issue. I'm also running two video
>cards, which could possibly also be related. I'm running a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model
>64 PCI card, and the on-board Intol 82810E Graphics Controller. Anyone see a common
>thread with their machine?
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I was able to:

1. Go to effect menu and DESELECT "show icon with all possable colors"

2. Go to WINNT Directory and show all hidden files

3. Delete "ShellIconCache" file. (This is a temp icon folder for the desktop and 
will be rebuilt)

4. Go back to Effects menu and SELECT the "Show icon with all possable color"


Good luck.  Of course there is no gurentee this will work.

Scotty

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have finally fixed the problem.  My setup may be somewhat unusual, but this may 
help someone who is running a program similar to Netmeeting that uses Desktop Sharing.

I am running Win 2000 along with a program called Netsupport which uses a type of 
Desktop Sharing.  When I read all the posts that talked about Desktop Sharing I got 
suspicious that Netsupport might be my problem.  Sure enough I uninstalled Netsupport 
and unchecked and rechecked "Show Icons in True Color" and my problem was solved. 
My version of Netsupport was 6.1. They have created a newer version 7.0 that I suspect 
has resolved the problem.  I will install newer version and see if it does indeed 
work.

Hope this helps!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Is it possible that my computer no longer contains the icons of higher resolution? It seems so strange that everything else on my computer is shown in such a high resolution but yet my desktop icons, along with explorer icons (icons in general) do not display correctly. It seems odd and highly unlikely that the higher resolutioned icons could have been erased, however I wonder if anyone knows the likelyhood of this? Thanks.


On Tuesday, June 4, 2002 at 10:02 am, RFOAP wrote:
>I have this same problem with my icons, only I never used NetMeeting. I have tried
>everything listed here, but with no luck. I even installed NetMeeting, and then
>did all the things listed on how to fix the NetMeeting problem. None of them worked.
> I've read some places were a recent "critical" update may be the culprit, however
>I haven't found anything more. If anyone know how I can fix this...I would greatly
>appreciate it.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You guys rock!!! I've had this same icon problem for a while now, didn't really put it together with using NetMeeting for the first time a while back. I was trying hard to find an answer -- MS knowledge base yielded nothing. I figured I wasn't the only one with this problem and searched the net on a variety of keywords until I stumbled across this article on this site. I went into NetMeeting, enabled desktop sharing via the wizard, then disabled it and rebooted, and BAM nice new icons, like they're supposed to be. Whoever originally figured that one out deserves some serious kudos. Got my nice "candylike" IE/OE icons back and Winamp has returned to orange from yellow. Woohoo! Thanks! Sean


On Monday, April 1, 2002 at 6:43 am, Cory wrote:
>THANK YOU! This stupid problem has happened to me 3 times already and I ran through
>all the other solutions at least a dozen times and nothing ever worked until I disabled
>Desktop sharing. Stupid Netmeeting!!!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This totally worked for me. Thanks :)


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I've had a similar problem but the solution was simple. I run a win98 machine that you log into at start up (give user name and password). You have to change the default desktops options in some cases for it to have effect on the user desktops. Just hit cancel instead of ok when logging into windows to change the use all colors possible option in display/effects. It seems like it's an unlikey problem for anyone else but just incase I thought I might share.


On Monday, June 10, 2002 at 5:20 am, RFOAP wrote:
>Is it possible that my computer no longer contains the icons of higher resolution?
> It seems so strange that everything else on my computer is shown in such a high
>resolution but yet my desktop icons, along with explorer icons (icons in general)
>do not display correctly. It seems odd and highly unlikely that the higher resolutioned
>icons could have been erased, however I wonder if anyone knows the likelyhood of
>this? Thanks.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I have been dealing with this for a long time. I found that doing the Netmeeting fix alone and the Shell Icon BPP fix alone did not by themselves fix the problem. However, doing the Netmeeting fix, rebooting, and then modifying the Shell Icon BPP key to 32 and rebooting fixed it for me. Hope everyone else has similar luck.


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I tried everything, then tried the Netmeeting solution which fixed the stubid problem. If some one knows a microsoft programer please slap him/her for me. Doing the above aslo solved my DVD problems overlay iissues.


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hey all, I just upgraded to SP3 as well as SP1 for IE6 and now all my icons are back to normal. I think for some of us, especially the non-netmeeting users, the icons just disappear and are replaced by the low res icons. When I installed these service packs, the icons were replaced by the new high resolution ones and now all is well...so if you haven't already upgraded, try it and see what happens!


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You're right... I had netmeeting installed on startup and after reading your post I tried quitting that, and now after putting on the 'use all possible colors' option, it actually works! :) Thanks a lot guys :)


On Friday, June 7, 2002 at 1:40 pm, Lisa wrote:

>I have finally fixed the problem.  My setup may be somewhat unusual, but this may 
>help someone who is running a program similar to Netmeeting that uses Desktop Sharing.
>
>I am running Win 2000 along with a program called Netsupport which uses a type of 
>Desktop Sharing.  When I read all the posts that talked about Desktop Sharing I 
got 
>suspicious that Netsupport might be my problem.  Sure enough I uninstalled Netsupport 
>and unchecked and rechecked "Show Icons in True Color" and my problem was solved. 
>My version of Netsupport was 6.1. They have created a newer version 7.0 that I suspect 
>has resolved the problem.  I will install newer version and see if it does indeed 
>work.
>
>Hope this helps!
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

hi all i doubt that the problem you are having is manufacturer dependant, try to go to "services" in "Administrative Tools" in control Panel, you will find a list of all the services that your system has started, look for "et meeting desktop sharing" service, right click and go to properties then in the startup mode drop down list select disable. Then go to your desktop properties in the Effects tab and make sure to check the "Show icons in all possible colors".


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ah Check your video mode setting. I wrestled with this for a week and found that TweakUI, registry keys and rebuilding the shelliconcache were temporary fixes. I set my video mode to 800 X 600 High color (Not True Color) and the problem as not re-apeared.


On Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 12:54 am, nevermind wrote:
>in the course of this whole series of messages having to do with true-color icons,
>several solutions have been offered as to how to fix the problem where shell icons
>(icons in taskbar, start menu, windows explorer, etc.) are displayed as 8-bit/256-colors,
>even though the screen display is set to 16-bit/65536-colors or higher. none of these
>solutions have worked for me, but im going to go over all of them anyways, if just
>to simply make things eaiser for others with the same problem.
>
>

>1. download a program such as Tweak UI (http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp).
>after installing Tweak UI, in its "repair" section, there is an option to repair
>icons. use it.
>
>

>2. go to "start / settings / control panel" and double-click "display". under the
>"effects" tab, make sure there is a check in the box for "show icons using all possible
>colors". click the "apply" button.
>
>

>3. go to the "settings" tab, and make sure that there is a picture of only one monitor.
>if there are multiple monitors, try to disable the non-primary ones (im not sure
>how to do this, since i dont have multiple monitors or video cards, but i believe
>it can be done with some right-click menus). again, hit "apply", then "ok".
>
>

>4. go to "start / run" and type in "regedit". in the program that runs, navigate
>to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ WindowMetrics". if there is no
>"Shell Icon BPP" entry on the right side of the window, create one by going to "edit
>/ new / string value". make sure its value is 16 or higher; if not, right-click it,
>select "modify", and change it. close the program.
>
>

>5. open up windows explorer, and navigate to "C:\windows\". delete a file called
>"ShellIconsCache". note that you must be able to view hidden and system files to
>find this file; to enable this option, go to "tools / folder options" in windows
>explorer, and look under the "view" tab.
>
>

>6. restart your computer.
>
>

>anyways, even after following all these options, i still have crappy icons. ive even
>tried the option of setting the BPP down to 4, restarting, then changing it back
>to 16, in hopes of one of those random times when the problem goes away from unlikely
>fixes. so, if anyone has any more ideas, PLEASE email me at "nevermind@phreaker.net"
>immediately. i really cant stand these low-color icons. well, hope i maybe
>helped out someone else in the process of this post.
>

>~ nevermind
>EMAIL: nevermind@phreaker.net
>EMAIL: nevermind@twmi.rr.com
>AIM: NevermindPhreak
>MSN: NevermindPhreak@hotmail.com

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Enabling remote sharing of Desktop on Netmeeting did the trick for me


On Monday, July 1, 2002 at 3:59 pm, Sean Bartnik wrote:
>You guys rock!!! I've had this same icon problem for a while now, didn't really
>put it together with using NetMeeting for the first time a while back.
>
>I was trying hard to find an answer -- MS knowledge base yielded nothing. I figured
>I wasn't the only one with this problem and searched the net on a variety of keywords
>until I stumbled across this article on this site.
>
>I went into NetMeeting, enabled desktop sharing via the wizard, then disabled it
>and rebooted, and BAM nice new icons, like they're supposed to be. Whoever originally
>figured that one out deserves some serious kudos.
>
>Got my nice "candylike" IE/OE icons back and Winamp has returned to orange from yellow.
> Woohoo! Thanks!
>
>Sean
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

YOU ARE THE GREATEST THNX YOU VERY MUCH ;)


On Friday, June 7, 2002 at 7:53 am, Scotty wrote:

>I was able to:
>
>1. Go to effect menu and DESELECT "show icon with all possable colors"
>
>2. Go to WINNT Directory and show all hidden files
>
>3. Delete "ShellIconCache" file. (This is a temp icon folder for the desktop and 
>will be rebuilt)
>
>4. Go back to Effects menu and SELECT the "Show icon with all possable color"
>
>
>Good luck.  Of course there is no gurentee this will work.
>
>Scotty

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

good boy! solved my problem too! i unticked "extend desktop...", set icons to low-colour, apply, set icons to high-colour, apply, reticked "extend desktop..." and all is beautiful again. i was going to scream if i had to look at my mozilla icons all grey and gross. what a leap of logic you made. Matt.


On Friday, February 15, 2002 at 2:41 am, M Wilson (Web Developer) wrote:

>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
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Stopping the NetMeeting service in Administrative tools worked on my Win2000. I looked all over Microsoft's Knowledge Base for the solution. They mention nothing of simply stopping a service. I have been editing Explorer registry keys and deleting files per Microsoft. Microsoft should be embarrased that they do not have this solution posted.


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I tried a lot of things and nothing worked. then i tried increasing and then decreasing the icon size by 1 and it worked. i found out about this from a microsoft support article: http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q199152 Uninstall TweakUI from the system (if installed). Open Start Menu, Settings, Control Panel, then click the Display icon. Select the Appearance tab. Select the icon in the Item Box. Increase the icon unit by 1. Select Apply. Decrease the icon unit by 1. Select OK.


On Tuesday, December 10, 2002 at 9:28 am, Chris Cooper wrote:
>Stopping the NetMeeting service in Administrative tools worked on my Win2000. I
>looked all over Microsoft's Knowledge Base for the solution. They mention nothing
>of simply stopping a service. I have been editing Explorer registry keys and deleting
>files per Microsoft. Microsoft should be embarrased that they do not have this solution
>posted.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It worked! Thanks for the info. Disabling desktop sharing in NetMeeting worked and I have my desktop icons back in true color.


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You kick ass !!!!, After a long night- that's it. Stupid NetMeeting... Thanks


On Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at 6:09 pm, David wrote:
>I was experiening the same problem. One by one I went through each of these steps.
>Changing one thing, rebooting, went to the next. It wasn't until I unchecked show
>icons using all possible colors applied, went into the registry and changed 4 to
>16 again (for the third time), and then clicked add/remove programs that everything
>changed. As soon as it loaded all the icons loaded into 16-bit. Very interesting.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ok I must be completely lost here. Where do I find this stuff? I have netmeeting installed but I dont see any icons called Desktop Sharing Wizard. Someone wanna clue me in here? Thanks.


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

OK it works fine! I've disabled netmeeting desktop sharing by services but probably with this method direct3d and agp will not be restored. Using wizard to disable also direct3d and agp are restored Now all is ok!!! Thanks!!! Ottavio


On Friday, January 24, 2003 at 11:45 am, James Bivens wrote:
>It worked! Thanks for the info. Disabling desktop sharing in NetMeeting worked and
>I have my desktop icons back in true color.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi there, I've got the same problem here with my W2K. I've turned on and then off the Active Desktop and my icons is using high-colors again! regards, Adriano Prado.


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ok, I had to change these directions around a little bit to make it work for me. 

Here's how to fix it:
1) Open RegEdit (Run>regedit)
2) Search for "Shell Icon BPP" 
    You should find three of them.
3) Change the value from "16" to "32" for all
     three "Shell Icon BPP"'s
4) Reboot.
5) If they don't change to true color mode after that:
     1) Open Display Properties
     2) Click "Effects" tab
     3) Check "Show icons using all posible colors" 
     4) Click apply.

That should be it!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks for the Netmeeting solution, i found that it was netmeeting's desktop sharing prior to the fix and somehow it always fixed on its own but i did not know exactly what to do. It was screwing up my programs requiring Direct 3d and some were even not detecting the video card. When I did this it all worked out great. Thanks now i don't have to wait for the problem to fix itself.


On Friday, March 28, 2003 at 6:47 am, Adriano Prado wrote:
>Hi there,
>
>I've got the same problem here with my W2K.
>
>I've turned on and then off the Active Desktop and my icons is using high-colors
>again!
>
>regards,
>Adriano Prado.
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Oh my god! This thing has plagued me before and the only fix I found was a complete reformat! Finally, I am so glad to find a stupidly simple solution to a unbelievably irritating programming bug... thank you all!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Bien, soy de Argentina. PAra la gente de habla hispana: TEnía el problema de los colores de los íconos, y lo arreglé haciendo el truquito de "Netmeeting". Fui a accesorios->comunicaciones-> netmeeting, y luego a herramientas ->Escritorio remoto compartido. Le di todo SIGUIENTE al asistente. Apareció un nuevo iconito al lado del reloj. Le dí ahí y destildé el "HABILITAR ESCRITORIO". Después reinicié y fui a PROPIEDADES DE LA PANTALLA y destildé y volví a tildar "Mostrar usando todos los colores posibles". Listo así funcionó! SALUDOS!!!!


On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:
>I have a question about Use
>True-Color Icons:

>
>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started
>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried to
>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color"
>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out,
>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You guys wanna see something strange?!?!?!!? I started netmeeting.....enabled desktop sharing then disabled it and now I got my icons back to true color!!!!


On Friday, January 24, 2003 at 11:45 am, James Bivens wrote:
>It worked! Thanks for the info. Disabling desktop sharing in NetMeeting worked and
>I have my desktop icons back in true color.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Hi! maybe there are also easier methods (see the posts) but I just removed all netmeeting instances from windows registry and...HERE WE GO! Luca


On Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 11:00 am, crs wrote:
>
>I tried a lot of things and nothing worked. then i tried increasing and then decreasing
>the icon size by 1 and it worked. i found out about this from a microsoft support
>article:
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q199152
>
>Uninstall TweakUI from the system (if installed).
>Open Start Menu, Settings, Control Panel, then click the Display icon.
>Select the Appearance tab.
>Select the icon in the Item Box.
>Increase the icon unit by 1.
>Select Apply.
>Decrease the icon unit by 1.
>Select OK.
>
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Dude, thanks you rock! I have tried everything like u did, modify, reboot, etc, but your solution finally worked! I guess it will be a mixture of these solutions with yours! Thanks !


On Wednesday, April 24, 2002 at 6:09 pm, David wrote:
>I was experiening the same problem. One by one I went through each of these steps.
>Changing one thing, rebooting, went to the next. It wasn't until I unchecked show
>icons using all possible colors applied, went into the registry and changed 4 to
>16 again (for the third time), and then clicked add/remove programs that everything
>changed. As soon as it loaded all the icons loaded into 16-bit. Very interesting.
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

So, 'm using a compaq Deskpro EN and came across the same problem. Here's how I fixed it: Installed the monitor driver. Dropped resolution to 256. Upped resolution to 24 bit. Icons came back.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You guys are the best. I had just installed SP3 and my icons went to 16 color. I had also updated my video drivers, so I thought that was the culprit. Matrox was as baffled as I was. And more improtantly, Adobe Gamma would no longer work. No slider in the control panel made any difference. I was pulling my hair out. I went into Netmeeting, which was installed by the SP3 update *I think*, then enabled desktop sharing. Went back, disabled it and then uncheked and rechecked show icons in all colors. They're back and Adobe Gamma works again. Who would have ever thought it!!! Thanks again. I was ready to buy a new video card tomorrow. You folks are the best! -=Bob=-

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I tried this and the icons stayed in low color. But when I changed: "HKEY_CURRENT_CONFIG\Display\Settings\BitsPerPixel" to 32 (or 24, or whatever) the icons were back in high color.


On Sunday, December 9, 2001 at 1:43 am, Kenric Tam wrote:
>Find the key "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics"
>Select it.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Where is desktop sharing wizard on W2K?

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I was having the exact same problem in that FS 2002 would start up in "safe" mode. This seems to have fixed it.. Brilliant!

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Really appreciate it, Malice! I tried just about every other suggestion on this thread...only this worked. True color icons are back.


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Wow!! I tried everything mentioned here.. but this one worked!! You saved us some real headaches.. Thanks a ton!


On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 5:37 am, Malice wrote:
>The following is a copy/paste from: http://dynamic.gamespy.com/~q3app/board/messages/70.shtml
>
>(this helped me to get rid of the 16color icons )
>
>4. Why is my Direct3D and/or AGP disabled in Windows2000? (top)
>- This will occur if you have Netmeeting 3.01 running. Since NetMeeting 3.01 is built
>in to Windows 2000, it cannot be removed. The DESKTOP SHARING element of NetMeeting
>DISABLES DIRECT3D and in most cases, also disables AGP automatically. To reenable
>Direct3D and/or AGP, do the following: - enable desktop sharing by using the desktop
>sharing wizard. - right-click on the Desktop sharing icon (NOT the Netmeeting icon)
>in the taskbar and choose "Exit". - go back into the desktop sharing configuration
>and disable Desktop Sharing. - reboot. Direct3D and/or AGP should be restored. If
>your desktop icons are now in 16 color, go into display properties, click on the
>Effects tab, disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your colors should
>be restored
>
>-
>do as it says, the OpenGL & yaddayadda is irrelevant. but the stuff about Netmeeting&stuff
>actually works.
>
>------------- Malice
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

i have tried everything for this, did the net meeting thing, did everything posted here, and it didnt start happening until after i ran net meeting on accident, now can someone please tell me step by step on what to do, cause i do not know if i am doing it right, and i am running W2K Pro.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You guys rock! Unbelievable idea about Netmeeting and activiting and then deactivating Remote Desktop sharing. I have no idea how the original person stumbled acorss this but it worked! Thanks!


On Wednesday, November 5, 2003 at 7:22 pm, Tiffany wrote:
>
>
>Wow!! I tried everything mentioned here.. but this one worked!! You saved us some
>real headaches..
>Thanks a ton!
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

It worked for me anyway! And I tried all the tricks in the thread.


On Sunday, May 25, 2003 at 5:34 am, Luca wrote:
>Hi!
>maybe there are also easier methods (see the posts) but I just removed all netmeeting
>instances from windows registry and...HERE WE GO!
>Luca
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Frank,
Thank you so much for this post!
The low resoluton icons in Windows 2000 were really getting me down, and I would 
never have thought that NetMeeting was the culprit.

I have summarised the steps I took in case it helps others:
Open Netmeeting
From Tools pulldown, select Remote Desktop Sharing.

Go thru the wizard and end by clicking on 'Finish'. This will enable remote desktop 
sharing.
Then select Remote desktop sharing again and de-select "Enable Remote Desktop Sharing 
on this computer"

Re-boot.
Icons will still show in low resolution

Go to Display Properties, Effects tab, 
disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable 
"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your icons should 
be restored!

Keith.






On Thursday, March 21, 2002 at 1:39 pm, Frank wrote:
>It worked indeed. I followed all the other steps mentioned by other users but none 
>of the other techniques worked. NetMeeting is really the one screwing up everything... 
>try this solution, it worked for me!
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Jeremy,
Here are the steps, I am also running W2k Pro. and it worked for me.
I hope this helps:

Open Netmeeting
Tools pulldown, select Remote Desktop Sharing.

Keith.

Go thru the wizard and end by clicking on 'Finish'. This will enable remote desktop 
sharing.
Then select Remote desktop sharing again and de-select "Enable Remote Desktop Sharing 
on this computer"

Re-boot.
Icons will still show in low resolution

Go to Display Properties, Effects tab, 
disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable 
"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your icons should 
be restored.







On Wednesday, November 19, 2003 at 5:08 pm, jeremy john wrote:
>
>i have tried everything for this, did the net meeting thing, did everything posted 
>here, and it didnt start happening until after i ran net meeting on accident, now 
>can someone please tell me step by step on what to do, cause i do not know if i 
am 
>doing it right, and i am running W2K Pro.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

This worked for me as well, thank you very much -- three hours lost on this problem. Whew.


On Thursday, December 19, 2002 at 11:00 am, crs wrote:
>
>I tried a lot of things and nothing worked. then i tried increasing and then decreasing
>the icon size by 1 and it worked. i found out about this from a microsoft support
>article:
>http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;en-us;q199152
>
>Uninstall TweakUI from the system (if installed).
>Open Start Menu, Settings, Control Panel, then click the Display icon.
>Select the Appearance tab.
>Select the icon in the Item Box.
>Increase the icon unit by 1.
>Select Apply.
>Decrease the icon unit by 1.
>Select OK.
>
>
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

I used all of the methods described on this page and none worked - at best I saw limited success.
I did, however, get back my true color icons after some digging, and thought I should post the rather unusual solution here for others.
Note that what I describe applies to systems with nVidia video cards. However, the issue here is if you are displaying wallpaper on both desktops - don't! You must select to display wallpaper on one desktop only.

My system:
-two monitors
-dual-head video card (NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti4200)
-windows 2000 pro


Solution:
1 Right-click the desktop and select nView Properties.
2 Select the Desktops tab.
3 Click Properties.
4 "Allow different wallpapers per monitor" will be selected. Leave it selected. Highlight monitor 2 and click the Clear button. This leaves only monitor 1 displaying wallpaper.
5 Reboot the PC.
6 The icons will display at the color setting of your choice.


Gary

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

*spanish only, translate message* Yo perdi los colores de los iconos al ejecutar el TweakUI para XP (y server 2003)..mis iconos se convirtieron a 16 colores. Solucion: Editar en el registro el Shell Icon Bpp: -> 16 salir del Regedit. Usar el Viejo TweakUI.. "reapair icons".. Listo!... iconos nuevamente a plenitud de color... :) BYE


On Monday, March 18, 2002 at 3:03 pm, Nishant Upadhyaya wrote:
>Even I had the same problem with Win2K (using SP2). Today some how the icons started
>displaying in 16 colors. After lot of tweaking nothing worked. So in frustration
>I deleted the [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics] Key and rebooted
>the machine. And to my surprise the Win2k started showing Icons in true color (you
>may need to check the "Show Icons in all possible colors" in display properties).
>Hoping this will work for you all too !
>
>Nishant

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Like you, I tried all of these fixes but none worked until I clicked use large icons! Go to "start / settings / control panel" and double-click "display". Under the "effects" tab, make sure there is a check in the box for "use large icons". Click the "apply" button. After which I reverted back to small icons and everything is now fine!


On Tuesday, February 26, 2002 at 12:54 am, nevermind wrote:
>in the course of this whole series of messages having to do with true-color icons,
>several solutions have been offered as to how to fix the problem where shell icons
>(icons in taskbar, start menu, windows explorer, etc.) are displayed as 8-bit/256-colors,
>even though the screen display is set to 16-bit/65536-colors or higher. none of these
>solutions have worked for me, but im going to go over all of them anyways, if just
>to simply make things eaiser for others with the same problem.
>
>

>1. download a program such as Tweak UI (http://www.microsoft.com/ntworkstation/downloads/PowerToys/Networking/NTTweakUI.asp).
>after installing Tweak UI, in its "repair" section, there is an option to repair
>icons. use it.
>
>

>2. go to "start / settings / control panel" and double-click "display". under the
>"effects" tab, make sure there is a check in the box for "show icons using all possible
>colors". click the "apply" button.
>
>

>3. go to the "settings" tab, and make sure that there is a picture of only one monitor.
>if there are multiple monitors, try to disable the non-primary ones (im not sure
>how to do this, since i dont have multiple monitors or video cards, but i believe
>it can be done with some right-click menus). again, hit "apply", then "ok".
>
>

>4. go to "start / run" and type in "regedit". in the program that runs, navigate
>to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Control Panel \ Desktop \ WindowMetrics". if there is no
>"Shell Icon BPP" entry on the right side of the window, create one by going to "edit
>/ new / string value". make sure its value is 16 or higher; if not, right-click it,
>select "modify", and change it. close the program.
>
>

>5. open up windows explorer, and navigate to "C:\windows\". delete a file called
>"ShellIconsCache". note that you must be able to view hidden and system files to
>find this file; to enable this option, go to "tools / folder options" in windows
>explorer, and look under the "view" tab.
>
>

>6. restart your computer.
>
>

>anyways, even after following all these options, i still have crappy icons. ive even
>tried the option of setting the BPP down to 4, restarting, then changing it back
>to 16, in hopes of one of those random times when the problem goes away from unlikely
>fixes. so, if anyone has any more ideas, PLEASE email me at "nevermind@phreaker.net"
>immediately. i really cant stand these low-color icons. well, hope i maybe
>helped out someone else in the process of this post.
>

>~ nevermind
>EMAIL: nevermind@phreaker.net
>EMAIL: nevermind@twmi.rr.com
>AIM: NevermindPhreak
>MSN: NevermindPhreak@hotmail.com

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Ok, I was running dual monitors with 2 video cards. Just before I installed the second video card, everything looked great, but after, it looked nasty. Well, come to find out that I was running 16 bit colors on one monitor and 24 bit on the other. I changed them both to 16 bit, rebooted, but to no help. I then unchecked the box for use all possible colors, applied that, and then rechecked it, and low and behold, it worked!

So, in conclution, If you are running dual monitors, make sure the bitrate are the SAME on both monitors. Then make windows rebuild the cache file.

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

are there some other tips? i tried EVERYTHING, nothing worked. i use w2k pro german, sp4. thanks in advance!


On Sunday, February 8, 2004 at 4:58 pm, Keith wrote:
>
>Jeremy,
>Here are the steps, I am also running W2k Pro. and it worked for me.
>I hope this helps:
>
>Open Netmeeting
>Tools pulldown, select Remote Desktop Sharing.
>
>Keith.
>
>Go thru the wizard and end by clicking on 'Finish'. This will enable remote desktop
>sharing.
>Then select Remote desktop sharing again and de-select "Enable Remote Desktop Sharing
>on this computer"
>
>Re-boot.
>Icons will still show in low resolution
>
>Go to Display Properties, Effects tab,
>disable "display icons in all possible colors", click Apply, enable
>"display icons in all possible colors", click "Apply" again and your icons should
>be restored.
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Well, i have had the same problem: My beautiful desktop-icons suddenly turned ugly!
The solution was too simple. As most solutions to most problems are ;)
It started when I started using the double head feature of my graphics card to watch 
movies on my TV.
So I guess this problem has to do with the desktop-extending feature!
Here's what you do:
- Right-click on your normal desktop.
- Click "Properties"
- Click "Settings"
- Click "Effects"
- Make sure that "Display icons in all possible colors" is turned on.
- Now, Select the OTHER monitor
- Click "Effects"
- Make sure that "Display icons in all possible colors" is turned on.

This should solve your problems!
If you need more info, contact me.

Cheers!

Willy







On Tuesday, October 30, 2001 at 6:20 am, Prippy wrote:

>I have a question about Use 

>True-Color Icons:


>

>I have a Dell Inspiron 8000 with Win2000 and had nice true-color icons when I started 

>using it. However, this suddenly changed and I got bad Low-color Icons. I tried 
to 

>use the instructions in this article to correct that, but the checkbox "use high-color" 

>is already checked. I tried to uncheck it, go out, in again, check it and go out, 

>but this didn't help (although it redrew all icons). Any ideas? Thanks!

>
 

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

Thanks the NetMeeting answer works great!!!!


On Wednesday, July 28, 2004 at 6:17 am, just_another_user wrote:
>are there some other tips? i tried EVERYTHING, nothing worked. i use w2k pro german,
>sp4.
>
>thanks in advance!
>
>
>

[Reply or follow-up to this message]

You have to be sure that both monitors a at the same color depth


On Tuesday, August 3, 2004 at 7:50 am, cowboy wrote:
>Well, i have had the same problem: My beautiful desktop-icons suddenly turned ugly!
>The solution was too simple. As most solutions to most problems are ;)
>It started when I started using the double head feature of my graphics card to watch
>movies on my TV.
>So I guess this problem has to do with the desktop-extending feature!
>Here's what you do:
>- Right-click on your normal desktop.
>- Click "Properties"
>- Click "Settings"
>- Click "Effects"
>- Make sure that "Display icons in all possible colors" is turned on.
>- Now, Select the OTHER monitor
>- Click "Effects"
>- Make sure that "Display icons in all possible colors" is turned on.
>
>This should solve your problems!
>If you need more info, contact me.
>
>Cheers!
>
>Willy
>