{ 97 Intelligent Comments }

Desktop icons all have blue highlight box around text

Written on July 27th 2009 at 07:59

Icons highlighted in blueAre your icons name’s blue?

In Windows XP your desktop icons text labels used to be transparent but now the icons seem to have a blue background or blue highlight. This seems to have happened the icons for no reason i.e. you did not mess with your appearance settings or display settings.

Symptoms

The icons on your Windows XP desktop have a blue background on the text label or the whole icon.

Explanation

This usually happens the Windows XP icons for one of three reasons:

  • you have the desktop items locked
  • you have the background set as a web page
  • you have the drop shadow setting enabled

Solution 1 – Uncheck “Lock Web Items on Desktop”

  1. Right click on your Windows Desktop
  2. In the context menu, click Arrange Icons By > Uncheck Lock Web Items on Desktop
  3. Click OK
  4. Check your desktop icons

Solution 2 – Desktop Home Page Problem

  1. Right click on your Windows Desktop
  2. In the context menu, click Properties
  3. Display Properties should appear. Click the Desktop tab
  4. Now click the Customize Desktop… button
  5. The Desktop Items properties page should appear. Click the Web tab
  6. In the top pane where it says ‘My Current Home Page’, delete all entries from that pane except ‘My Current Home Page’
  7. Uncheck My Current Home Page
  8. Uncheck Lock desktop items
  9. Click OK and OK again
  10. Check you icons

Solution 3 – Disable Drop Shadow

  1. Right click on the ‘My Computer’ icon
  2. In the context menu, click Properties
  3. Click Advanced tab > Settings (In the Performance section)
  4. Look down the list and clear the Drop Shadows option
  5. Click OK > OK
  6. Check your icons

Disable drop shadows option to fix blue highlight around desktop icons

Discussion


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  1. yogesh says:
    September 28, 2011 at 12:35

    thanks yaar this is perfect solution give by u U are a very good person thank again….

    Reply
  2. Roosedon says:
    September 28, 2011 at 15:34

    Problem solved. Thanks Maureen. None of the 3 posted solutions worked, however, Maureen’s post on August 23, 2011 finally resolved the blue highlights problem.

    Thanks again

    Reply
    1. Maureen says:
      October 1, 2011 at 10:51

      I’m glad that I was able to help

      Reply
    2. Rishi says:
      December 31, 2011 at 04:50

      Perfect it worked thanks man

      Reply
  3. catat says:
    October 1, 2011 at 10:20

    thank you soooooooooooooooooo much for solution no. 3!!!!!!!!!

    Reply
  4. praveen says:
    October 9, 2011 at 04:33

    thank you very much it solved my problem

    Reply
  5. abreham says:
    October 29, 2011 at 03:04

    tanx a lot good way to sole the problem and ur way is the way the help ppl. tanx a lot

    Reply
  6. merlin says:
    November 17, 2011 at 21:08

    thanx…thanx…thanx…..

    Reply
  7. yogeshk says:
    November 20, 2011 at 04:11

    thanks bro. its really works. Most helpful answers in xp related problems.

    Reply
  8. bhuvi says:
    December 6, 2011 at 07:24

    nice troubleshoot my problem solved

    Reply
  9. Raj Narayan Singh says:
    December 16, 2011 at 01:42

    Thnkx sir for ur kind help.I’m very much glad dt i’ve successfully done my work.

    Reply
  10. Jetin says:
    December 17, 2011 at 01:24

    Thanks for the solution. It worked

    Reply
  11. adam says:
    December 20, 2011 at 07:27

    step 3 isperfectly work for me, many thanks

    Reply
  12. පූසා says:
    December 24, 2011 at 00:59

    thanks a lot. solution 2 worked for me :)

    Reply
  13. azzedine says:
    December 25, 2011 at 06:29

    the solution 2 is helpfull thanks bro.

    Reply
  14. blueGuy says:
    December 28, 2011 at 08:37

    i tried the 3 solutions and none of them worked!!

    Reply
    1. Maureen says:
      January 3, 2012 at 04:13

      Maybe the method I used can help – posted Aug 23

      Reply
  15. Bintang says:
    January 3, 2012 at 03:51

    Thank’s a lot sir..
    Its worked.

    Reply
  16. ahmad jutt says:
    January 5, 2012 at 06:20

    thankkkkkkkkkk you boss for helped me.

    Reply
  17. virendra says:
    January 6, 2012 at 03:01

    thanxxxx helpd mw a lot

    Reply
  18. virendra says:
    January 6, 2012 at 03:01

    thanxxxx helpd me a lot

    Reply
    1. Anonymous says:
      January 7, 2012 at 12:16

      many many thanks,my solution done by only this site,lotttt of thanx …it is very simple to follow any one…again thankss…

      Reply
  19. Anonymous says:
    January 12, 2012 at 19:11

    thanks it worked

    Reply
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