Windows Desktop Icons
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Is there any way to make the desktop icon background transparent? I'm using NT4, and will soon be able to boot to 98 and 2k as well, so it would be nice if the solution worked on all three versions. Anybody?
You could download a program called Desktop Architect. It is a free desktop theme replacement program that lives in the system tray. It has an option to draw the desktop icon backgrounds transparent. You can get it here if you are interested. "das leid schlaft in der maschine" -Einstürzende Neubauten
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You could download a program called Desktop Architect. It is a free desktop theme replacement program that lives in the system tray. It has an option to draw the desktop icon backgrounds transparent. You can get it here if you are interested. "das leid schlaft in der maschine" -Einstürzende Neubauten
Given that this is a forum for software developers, I think it's possible that John wanted a more programmatic solution that could be integrated into his own product. I, too, have often wondered how to go about making the desktop icons transparent. From what little I've been able to find, I think it's just a system-wide message hook that intercepts
WM_ERASEBKGND. The message handler substitutes a "solid" transparent brush for the usual solid color brush, and uses it to fill the rectangle that represents the background of the icon's label. This sounds like the perfect topic for a tutorial. Anyone? :-) -- Paul "I drank... WHAT?" -
Given that this is a forum for software developers, I think it's possible that John wanted a more programmatic solution that could be integrated into his own product. I, too, have often wondered how to go about making the desktop icons transparent. From what little I've been able to find, I think it's just a system-wide message hook that intercepts
WM_ERASEBKGND. The message handler substitutes a "solid" transparent brush for the usual solid color brush, and uses it to fill the rectangle that represents the background of the icon's label. This sounds like the perfect topic for a tutorial. Anyone? :-) -- Paul "I drank... WHAT?" -
Actually, I'm too damn lazy to write the code myself. I was looking for a program to do it (unless someone's got some code that will do it). :) I haven't been able to find anything anywhere that does just that - most of them are theme managers.
There are a zillion little programs that do this. Just do a search in Google with the words "transparent icon desktop" and you'll see a whole bunch. Here is one: http://www.simtel.net/pub/pd/53907.shtml I have not used this program so a can't vouch for how well it works. Good luck. Later, Dustin
