XP Icon Text Color... can you change it?

[MrPunkin]

Im running a white background and its hard to see the text when it is also white with jsut a small drop shadow. I love the drop shadow, was just wondering if there is an easy way to change this without third party software, a reg hack or something?

 

[BlueWeasel]

I don't think XP has the abililty to change the color of the text (at least I couldn't find it), but Transparent can do this. It sets the color of the text to be the same color as the Windows desktop.

 

[Lord Evermore]

I'd assume you're using an entirely white background for the desktop, not just the icon text background, so making the text the same color as the background would sort of not do anything. But Transparent can set it to any color. Seems kind of odd that you can't change it with Windows itself, apparently no version has allowed this and I just never noticed. I don't modify that sort of thing usually.

 

[BlueWeasel]

After reading LE's reply, I think my initial post was a little confusing.

The Transparent program will let you change the text color to anything you want, but you set it by changing the color of the Windows desktop. It doesn't matter since most users run some type of wallpaper, and not a solid color screen.

 

[Lord Evermore]

From their homepage:

This utility will turn your Windows 9x or NT desktop icon text backgrounds transparent; allowing your wallpaper to show through. It will also allow you to easily change the icon text to any color.

If in fact it is only able to change it to the color of the background, that's kind of misleading and not as useful as it would be (and a really weird limitation, having the icon and desktop colors linked).

I don't think "most" users necessarily use a background wallpaper. I certainly don't since it causes a noticeable difference in desktop performance (refreshing icons, closing windows to reach the desktop, initial desktop display on boot) on every system and every Windows version I've ever used. If that's really the very limits of how possible it is to change the text color, then I certainly don't blame people who make it available but it is pretty lame. I would think if you can turn it transparent, or force it to show the desktop color through the wallpaper, you can set it to a color.

Of course, I also don't see the point of transparent text so you can see the wallpaper, obviously it means you can see the wallpaper instead of text and just see the icons (and even make those transparent) but what's the point of a desktop that you are always worried about keeping clear so you can see the picture?