questions about windows wallpaper

1. What file types does Windows XP support for wallpaper?

2. When using JPG or GIF files, my desktop icons lose their transparent background looking like this:

http://img462.imageshack.us/img462/4449/untitled2ct8.png

Is that normal?

 

the place that might have a setting you can change for that is performance options. i just looked it up and it's called use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop
i haven't tried it though. that's not a picture of my computer, i'm using linux atm and found that on the internet.

http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/9145/image4rs5.jpg

 

That works when I have a BMP wallpaper but not JPG, which is what I want. Thanks though.

 

Hello,
I don't think .jpgs allow for transparency.
You could try .png.
Mrk

 

I tried PNG but the icons still have the black background.

Additionally, I noticed Windows does a poor job of stretching the PNG (and JPG too actually) compared to the BMP. Dont know why.

 

Hello,
Can you link to the examples you want to test?
I'd like to run my own experiment.
Mrk

 

I just tried using jpg wallpaper, and everything looked the same as when I was using bmp.

By "lose their transparent background", are you referring to the black box background around the program titles ? I've read that using Active Desktop could be one reason for that.

 

@Mrk - Ive uploaded a zipped wallpaper here. You can using your favorite image program to convert it to JPG/PNG.

@yeow - I cant find any option for Active Desktop. Youre suggesting it has to be off, correct?

@stapp - That doesnt help, and this computer has XP. Later this day I will be back on my Vista machine. I wonder if it has this problem or not?...

 

Hello,

Default XP install, nothing tweaked.

Took your .bmp, changed it to .png in IrfanView.
Desktop > Right Click > Wallpaper > set it.

Result:

http://www.dedoimedo.com/images/non-web/test.png

So I'm wondering where you might have gone wrong.

Try:

Right-click on My Computer > Advanced > Performance > Settings > Adjust for Best Appearance.

Mrk

 

Thx Mrk, I was afraid it would work for you.

To the nLite forums I go!

 

Hello,
Maybe I could try the Human theme and see how it goes. I think that's what you're using, right? Or have you heavily tweaked your system besides?
Mrk

 

Hi.

WSFuser, when you have this selected -



your desktop icons' text will have solid background. Check that also.

Cheers.

 

Mrk - Yes Im still using the human theme and yes my Windows is rather tweaked, but I was really hoping nLite would not be the culprit. As I said, Ive posted in their forums.

The Seer - I have that unselected

 

This worked for me in making my icons backgrounds transparent even when using a jpeg for wallpaper: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/show/article02-137

 

just do this:

 

The first XP suggestion does not work for me and the next two suggestions are for programs. WindowsFX, while not solving my problem, does looks cool. Im gonna check it out.

 

oops sorry wsfuser, just saw that someone already suggested that and it didn't work for you for some reason

 

WSFuser, the only other suggestion I found is to disable any web pages for your desktop. Right click desktop -> Properties -> Desktop -> Customize Desktop -> Web tab. Like in my screenshot -



yeow already mentioned Active Desktop. This is how you disable it.

BTW, if you find a solution/cause, by all means please report back. I am curious about this one...

Cheers.

 

Apologies, WSFuser. I didn't realize it's not called Active Desktop anymore! (even though I'm using XP now)

It's as what The Seer said in above post. Disable it, if it was somehow enabled by accident.

 

sometimes a theme can break stuff and changing to another theme fixes it!

 

Nope its not the theme, Windows Classic and an iTiger theme I found just change the color but still a solid background.

Im still waiting for nuhi to reply to my thread in the nlite forums.

 

ok nuhi thinks it *may* be caused by the removal of the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. I will need to test it to confirm though.

 

WSFuser,

Look here.. Now, that dll is a Windows Picture and Fax Viewer library. Take a look here also, comment #24.
On the other side, if you omitted Picture and Fax viewer from the installation using nLite, you may not even have a dll on your system. Try the suggested, I believe no harm can be done...
Quite annoying little problem.

 

Yes I already discovered the dll. I was just about to post that registering shimgvw.dll solves the problem.