this is driving me crazy!! wallpaper and icon colour??? (2 Viewers)

[N.U.G.]

hey guys,

using Windows XP, how do you guys make your wallpaper and icons work well together???

it seems as though I can either have a icons with WHITE transparent text which looks sh*t/unreadable with certain wallpaper (for example try tiling this image http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1403/stezcanvas27pj.jpg) with that option

OR

I can have some stupid looking coloured blocks around the icon text

any advice???

thanks!!

 

[RCMasterAA]

Turn on ClearType if you have an LCD monitor?
Btw, I can't see the wallpaper on the link you give.

 

[ogmzergrush]

only BMP and PNG images can have the shadows underneath the icons, jpg files cannot. If by chance your images ARE bmp/png, you can check if the settins in
control panel>system>advanced>performance settings>"adjust for best appearance" is checked.

Providing "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop" is enabled in the menu you pointed towards, I've never noticed any issues with displaying said shadows on a jpeg background, on any of the XP machines I've ever worked with.

In response to the question, if the white text with or without drop shadow, and the coloured rectangle, aren't to your liking, you'll find that a number of desktop enhancement programs will let you customise the text color (As well as similar sorts of things). Some of these include ActivIcon (Freeware afaik), and DesktopX (Not free). Aside from these, you may find more programs here which are of use, in both free and paid flavours.

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^

thanks for the responses guys

I fixed the link to an example of wallpaper I'd like to have, here it is again;
http://img380.imageshack.us/img380/1403/stezcanvas27pj.jpg

^^^
I'm trying to tile that image but with white icon text it looks crap, check out how it looks below;
http://img360.imageshack.us/img360/8946/screenhunter17by.jpg

see what I mean?

does the same thing happen to you guys or not?

 

[ogmzergrush]

Yes, without third-party extensions as far as I know there are no provisions for anything other than white text with a transparent background (With or without shadowing), and a desktop colour (Set in the appearance tab in display) opaque background on icon labels. I did read a little about some registry tweaking which allows you to change the text to black instead of white, but with that background I'm not sure that this would help with readability.

Your best bet, at least as I read the situation, is probably trying out some of the programs I linked in the last post and seeing if any do what you'd like.

 

[N.U.G.]

^^^

thanks man, I tried ActivIcon and it would only let me change icon colour if I removed the transperancy, thus I'm back to square one where I have big blocks around the text.

oh well, it looks like I'm stuck with white icons for the rest of my life

my only hope is to get the great freeware prgram "Wallpaper Changer" to work with XP http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/ It ised to work so well with Windows ME, it would accurately guess what colour icon text would work best and make the changes. I emailed the designer of the program and hopefully he can help me. If anyone else has any luck getting this program to work effectively in Win XP, please let me know

thanks

 

[ogmzergrush]

Ah damn any luck with this one http://www.majorgeeks.com/Iconoid_d723.html ? Sounds a little similar to what you've described.