Desktop items text visibility (Win 7)

[Carol Haynes]

Anyone found a solution to make desktop icons more readable in Windows 7.

In earlier versions you could apply a background colour to the text but it doesn't seem to be possible in Win 7.

I find the only way I can often read titles is to highlight them - which is annoying. Even then if the text is white the selection highlight washes the text out.

The only other solution is to restrict wallpapers and slideshows to exculsively dark or light images and then set the desktop colour to an opposite setting.

Its really frustrating!

[IainB]

I had the same problem in XP and in Win7.
Try this approach: Windows 7 - Make my desktop icons more readable!

I used everything in that post:

• 1. to get the icon text clearer, I used the Advanced Appearance Settings - Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization\Window Color and Appearance
• 2. to make the icons bigger I used Ctrl+ scroll UP on the Desktop.
• 3. to give a better background, I installed Fences. This is not necessary, but it makes for an uncluttered/tidier Desktop and helps if you like to see your wallpaper.

Example of my Desktop at 10pt Segoe UI bold (Step 1), with scrolled-up (bigger) icons (Step 2), and Fences (Step 3), as above:
[attach]

[Carol Haynes]

Thanks - ctrl scroll is useful (something I hadn't noticed).

Also the article you pointed to linked to another article which got me to look at the visual performance applet in control panel - I had that set for performance (basically all options off) changing it to quality has made a big improvement.

See Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools

and click Adjust Visual Effects on the left.

Cheers

[IainB]

See Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Performance Information and Tools
and click Adjust Visual Effects on the left.

Interesting suggestion! I followed it and ticked "Adjust for best appearance" - that's something I'd never done before. Everything is now turned ON.
Like you, I had most of it turned OFF, to maximise performance. It was one of the first things I did with my new laptop, almost without thinking.

I guess I had not really appreciated the fact that my HP Envy 14 has:

• Intel Core i7-720QM 1.6GHz Quad Core Processor
• ATI Mobility Radeon HD5650 1GB Dedicated Graphics

- and the 64-bit Windows 7 OS...
So it probably has power to spare - so why not squander some of it on better ergonomics?
I must admit to a strong dislike of animations though - they irritate me and slow things down - so I shall probably turn those off after a while.