How to Remove the Background Color of the Desktop Icons

May 8, 2008

If you are using a computer which is not only yours, and others use it frequently and always put a finger in every PROHIBITED pies (settings) in Windows XP, you might have encountered the problem that I have just had.

I had Desktop Icons with annoying colored background which stopped me from enjoying the beauty of my desktop wallpaper. I tried some of the ways that I always use to fix the problem. None of them worked. I did some googling and some solutions found again. They were all the same as I already knew. I’ll put them all here; then I offer my own solution as the last resort.

1st suggestion:

- Right click on the desktop and hover on “Arrange Icons By”.
- From the appeared sub-menu, select “Lock Web Items on Desktop”.
- If it is checked, “uncheck” it.

2nd suggestion (alternative for the 1st suggestion):

- Right click on the desktop and select “Properties”.
- “Display Properties” window appears. Click on the “Desktop” tab.
- Click on the “Customize Desktop” button.
- On the “Desktop Items” you can add/remove or modify desktop items. Check “Lock desktop items” from the “Web” tab.

3rd suggestion (Achilles heel):

- Right click on “My Computer” and select “Properties”.
- Choose the “Advanced” tab, then click on the “Setting” button.
- You can check or uncheck the settings to the ones preferred.

If you are not sure of the appropriate settings, you may choose “Let Windows choose what’s best for my computer” or “Adjust for best appearance” as well.

I, myself, prefer the last solution because I did fixed mine using the last.

Entry Filed under: How-to, IT, windows. Tags: , .

53 Comments Add your own

  • 1. Edsel  |  May 16, 2008 at 1:27 am

    After trying your suggestions (and they happen to be echo’ed throughout several sites!) my icon background was still present. By accident while showing someone else I found that there was a web page in the window above the “Lock desktop items” box that was selected (see 2nd suggestion). After de-selecting the link, the problem cleared!.

    Thanks,
    Edsel

    Reply
    • 2. vineeth  |  September 6, 2009 at 4:47 pm

      thanks edsel… thank u very much… you have done a great thing..

      Reply
  • 3. piscine  |  June 4, 2008 at 1:24 am

    Piscine says : I absolutely agree with this !

    Reply
  • 4. Aman  |  June 25, 2008 at 11:13 am

    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…

    Reply
    • 5. cejoy  |  June 28, 2009 at 6:46 am

      aman u trick really worked……………thanks dude………….

      Reply
    • 6. Ambreen  |  July 17, 2009 at 2:07 pm

      Very Good..

      Reply
    • 7. jp  |  August 5, 2009 at 4:55 pm

      hi,,,,,,,,,
      thanks for ur suggetion……

      Reply
    • 8. Laurle  |  September 29, 2009 at 8:34 pm

      Aman, YOU TOTALLY ROCK! I had tried everything to get rid of those colored boxes and your suggestion did the trick. THANK YOU!

      Reply
  • 9. JonB  |  August 11, 2008 at 5:19 pm

    This is a problem with the Active Desktop. If you post a web page or an image etc to the desktop, it sometimes comes up with an Active Desktop box.

    Aman and Edsel are correct in how to get rid of it.

    Reply
  • [...] from desktop shortcut name, Why Do My Icons Have a Background Color in Windows XP? или How to Remove the Background Color of the Desktop Icons or Items). Все пак, прилагам надолу и няколкото възможни [...]

    Reply
  • 11. joseph  |  October 18, 2008 at 7:10 pm

    hi this may help…….

    http://sidsuniverse.blogspot.com/2008/10/removing-blue-rectangular-background.html

    Reply
  • 12. Mohamed Khatab  |  November 20, 2008 at 6:25 am

    Hi,
    The Solution :-

    1- Right click on “My computer” , Click on “Properties”
    2- Click on ” Advanced ” tab.
    3- In the “performance” section , Click on “Settings”
    4- In the list which will appear , Check the box infront of
    ” Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop”

    Reply
    • 13. Nelson  |  September 10, 2009 at 4:00 am

      Dear Moh. Khatab,…

      Thanks for for u’r solution. I tried….. and solved my case.

      regards

      Reply
  • 14. rowena  |  December 15, 2008 at 9:44 am

    tthanks aman! your way is the best. i tried others but still the same. yours really solve my problem.

    Reply
  • 15. Kathy  |  December 20, 2008 at 6:56 pm

    None of the solutions worked!!!! I have XP Professional on my computer… :S

    Reply
  • 16. ZaN  |  December 20, 2008 at 8:27 pm

    Thanks man helped a lot!

    Reply
  • 17. Farshid  |  December 25, 2008 at 10:19 pm

    Great job man!

    Reply
  • 18. flony  |  December 25, 2008 at 10:31 pm

    Nice job!

    Reply
  • 19. garry  |  December 28, 2008 at 6:20 pm

    hey nothing to worry at all. u guys can just open properties of desktop>desktop>web>then uncheck all web pages u can c there. it worked for me

    Reply
    • 20. Rakesh  |  May 15, 2009 at 11:37 pm

      thanks

      Reply
    • 21. big boy  |  July 26, 2009 at 6:21 pm

      hey thnx thi idea realyy works

      Reply
  • 22. Miki  |  January 8, 2009 at 2:51 am

    Mohamed Khatab has given best way!
    Bravo!

    Reply
  • 23. ram  |  January 8, 2009 at 4:27 pm

    thank you very much

    Reply
  • 24. ram  |  January 8, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    thanxd

    Reply
  • 25. muhammad ali  |  January 19, 2009 at 10:53 am

    thanks aman for solution.

    Reply
  • 26. sessei  |  January 21, 2009 at 2:49 pm

    wow, fixed it perfectly, i’ve been searching my computer from A to Z to fix this problem… thanks alot, this lightend my day

    Reply
  • 27. suresh  |  February 12, 2009 at 6:14 am

    very good job. Thank you for your kind help.

    Reply
  • 28. Alan  |  February 26, 2009 at 11:34 pm

    Thanks Mohamed Khatab your idea worked for me, I am using Windows XP Corporate

    Reply
  • 29. bunty  |  March 17, 2009 at 7:12 pm

    thanks aman

    Reply
  • 30. Abid  |  March 31, 2009 at 9:28 am

    Mohamed Khatab’s suggestion worked !!
    Thank u sir :)

    Reply
  • 31. Sophia  |  April 4, 2009 at 5:23 am

    ho ! good now i can remove color of the desktop icons
    Thanks for your explain.​​ អគុណចំពោះការណែនាំរបស់អ្នក

    From
    Cambodian Girl

    Reply
  • 32. Majid  |  April 21, 2009 at 2:59 am

    This one worked for me:
    Right click on desktop/Properties/Desktop/Costomize descktop/Web (uncheck all) / ok

    Reply
  • 33. April Desktops - Page 7 - Project Reality Forums  |  April 26, 2009 at 12:38 am

    [...] Re: April Desktops @ Viki try this: How to Remove the Background Color of the Desktop Icons ITView [...]

    Reply
  • 34. dp  |  June 8, 2009 at 5:46 pm

    Nice efforts. But I much prefer an ObjectDock (free from Stardock) and then HIDE all those dull old XP icons: R-click Desktop, Arrange Icons By, UNcheck Show Desktop Icons. Voilà.

    Reply
  • 35. Matt  |  July 4, 2009 at 6:26 am

    Also from what I just figured out, if your PC is set to run for best performance, if wont let the icons blend in the the wallpaper.

    Reply
  • 36. van  |  July 4, 2009 at 5:27 pm

    Aman’s solution was great. Problem SOLVED!..

    Reply
  • 37. Kristeen  |  July 4, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    The solutions here are concise. Solution elsewhere keeps on mentioning something similar to suggestion 3. Which is not always the case. I apparently had “Lock Web Items on Desktop” checked and didn’t know that the option rendered the background on the icons, so thanks.

    Reply
  • 38. Jephot  |  July 8, 2009 at 7:45 am

    Thanks men!

    Reply
  • 39. killerd  |  July 25, 2009 at 4:09 pm

    the advice given by aman works

    Reply
  • 40. Richard  |  July 29, 2009 at 2:22 pm

    Thanks a lot Aman

    Reply
  • 41. bob  |  July 30, 2009 at 3:03 am

    that only works if you dont use active desktop….there are many of us who actually use the full potential of XP and have some html embeded on our desktops via active desktop so unchecking things in that list is simply not an option, was hoping you knew of a real method of removing the color

    Reply
  • 42. Ashwin  |  August 17, 2009 at 9:43 pm

    Thank You Very Much, the second option worked for me, thank you for sharing the information.,

    Reply
  • 43. prasad varma  |  August 22, 2009 at 7:54 am

    Thanks for your suggestion

    Reply
  • 44. seraj  |  August 26, 2009 at 11:55 am

    i have used all the suggestions but still i did found the solution please hel me out of this problem

    Reply
  • 45. koteswararaonvv  |  September 1, 2009 at 5:15 pm

    thanks aman your solution really worked

    Reply
  • 46. Pradeep  |  September 3, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    ThanQ AMAN!!!! Ur simple trick worked on my system..

    Reply
  • 47. jed  |  September 4, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    tnx mate

    Reply
  • 48. Rafii  |  September 7, 2009 at 9:56 am

    1st suggestion: worked for me.

    Tanx a lot champ.

    Reply
  • 49. sandrar  |  September 11, 2009 at 2:31 am

    Hi! I was surfing and found your blog post… nice! I love your blog. :) Cheers! Sandra. R.

    Reply
  • 50. dhruv  |  September 14, 2009 at 11:40 am

    works gr8 !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  • 51. vijay  |  September 19, 2009 at 8:47 am

    thank you boss very good post

    Reply
  • 52. Avadhut  |  September 27, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    thank you…

    very very much

    Reply
  • 53. krimali  |  September 28, 2009 at 4:51 pm

    pls give details of my dekstop icon how to remove the background color of the desktop?

    Reply

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