The look of the Windows desktop creates a certain mood when using your computer for work or play. And in itself, designing the appearance of its elements can be an interesting activity. The most significant component after the background image are desktop shortcuts, and the presence of a background fill under their captions can greatly spoil the appearance. The system has several settings that will make the background of icon labels transparent.
Instructions
Step 1
Open the System Properties component window. To do this, open the context menu by right-clicking on the "My Computer" shortcut on the desktop and select the lowest item in it - "Properties". If the display of this shortcut is disabled on your system, then open the main menu on the "Start" button and right-click on the "Computer" item - this is the same system element and the context menu with the "Properties" item will look exactly the same. If for some reason you do not find the desired item there, then use the WIN + Pause hotkey combination.
Step 2
Go to the system properties window on the "Advanced" tab and click the one of the buttons labeled "Options", which is placed in the "Performance" section.
Step 3
Check the box for "Special effects" if it is not there. Then, in the list of effects below this field, find the line "Drop shadows from desktop icons." Put a mark in the corresponding checkbox and click the "OK" button.
Step 4
If this is not enough, in Windows XP, you can right-click the space on the desktop that is free of shortcuts and select Properties from the context menu.
Step 5
Go to the "Desktop" tab of the window that opens and click the "Customize Desktop" button to open an additional window titled "Desktop Elements".
Step 6
Click the Web tab and uncheck the Freeze Desktop Items box. Then uncheck the checkboxes of all lines of the "Web Pages" list.
Step 7
Close both windows with settings for display properties by clicking the "OK" buttons in each of them.
Step 8
Another possible reason may be that the system is using high contrast mode. The corresponding OS setting can be canceled through the Windows Control Panel. Open the main menu on the Start button, launch Control Panel and click the Accessibility link.
Step 9
Click on the "Adjust text contrast and screen color" link in the "Select a job" section.
Step 10
Uncheck the High Contrast box and click OK.
