Every time I reinstall Windows XP on my home computer, I always forget how to change the icons so that they have a transparent background. The default dark blue background with white text is just not very nice looking.

It really sucks if you have a cool looking wallpaper as a background, but all your icons have large dark blue borders. Instead, if the text looks like it’s written right onto the wallpaper, the effect is much nicer.

So how can you make the background transparent for your desktop icons in Windows XP? Follow these steps.

Step 1: First open the Control Panel and click on System.

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Step 2: Now click on the Advanced tab and click on the Settings button under the Performance section.

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Step 3: Finally, scroll down and check the Use drop shadows for icons labels on the desktop box. 

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That’s it! Now all of your desktop icons will have the blue backgrounds removed and will appear transparent.

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Now doesn’t that look much better! Sure does to me! By default in Windows Vista and Windows 7, all the icons already are set to have transparent backgrounds, so you don’t have that problem in those operating systems. Enjoy!