# It's the simple things, I'm telling ya... **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [January 20, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968 "2001-01-20T03:04:36Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 3:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/1 "2001-01-20T03:04:36Z")
That make you happy. Never mind I might need a 30yr mortgage for my gas bill. Never mind it’s still damp, cold, and dark. Never mind all that depressing stuff. I finally found a utility which will allow the titles under the icons on my desktop not to have that stupid colored background. I’ve got this beautiful picture from digital blasphmey as background, and I hate to see it torn up with a black box. So I found transparent (4.2). It turns the background of the title on the icon transparent. \*\*[Cool!\*\*](http://www.bit-net.com/~jadamg/transparent/) ---
**Author:** ![Just\_A\_Girl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/5daacb/32.png) [@Just\_A\_Girl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Just_A_Girl)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/2 "2001-01-20T05:12:07Z")
mine are a little more simple… Nevermind that I have a 3-page paper due Monday that I’m stressed about… Nevermind the guy I was dating dropped me for no apparent reason… I’m listening to “Brass Monkey” by the Beastie Boys…and somehow I’m amused enough to forget about it… I feel so simple…and yet, so unconcerned… 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Molson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e0b2c6/32.png) [@Molson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Molson)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 5:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/3 "2001-01-20T05:27:06Z")
Mine are a little more complicated… All I need to do is make my way to the ocean and find a female dolphin. ---
**Author:** ![CnoteChris](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/278dde/32.png) [@CnoteChris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CnoteChris)\ **Post date:** [January 20, 2001, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/4 "2001-01-20T05:42:53Z")
> [@](#): > > It turns the background of the title on the icon transparent. You know, I found the registry key that allows that function- if you don’t want to pay for it at your site. If anyone’s interested, I can do some digging and find out how I did it. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/5 "2001-01-22T18:32:20Z")
It’s those desktop Icons that I was talking about. 🙂 Transparent does more than that, you can set the color of the text, and the program stays in memory and makes sure they stay that way. Very Cool. ---
**Author:** ![dantheman](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dantheman/32/9421_2.png) [@dantheman](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dantheman)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/6 "2001-01-22T18:52:08Z")
Heck, I don’t even display my desktop icons anymore. I just dragged the ones I need/use onto the taskbar at the bottom, then right-clicked the desktop and turned on Active Desktop (then Show Web Content). This freed up the desktop completely for whatever background I choose. Finally, I click on Start|Settings|Taskbar and Start Menu and choose Auto Hide. This hides the taskbar until my mouse hovers over it at the bottom of the screen. The upshot is that o the entire background is visible, not obscured by icons o because the icons are not on the desktop (except for My Computer, Recycle Bin, et al., which can’t be moved), the computer boots up more quickly, because it doesn’t have to read all that information. Of course, it DOES have to read the icons’ info to put them on the taskbar - but to my knowledge this still takes less time. Oh well! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![BunnyGirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/22d042/32.png) [@BunnyGirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BunnyGirl)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 7:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/7 "2001-01-22T19:59:10Z")
**Saint** , I love [http://www.digitalblaspemy.com](http://www.digitalblaspemy.com) ; they have the best pictures - very cool. ---
**Author:** ![Saint\_Zero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c4cdca/32.png) [@Saint\_Zero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Saint_Zero)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2001, 8:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/its-the-simple-things-im-telling-ya/50968/8 "2001-01-22T20:28:14Z")
Bunny: I clicked on your link, and it took me to a turkish website. Wierd. Dan: I’ve never played with the active desktop. I just leave it off and keep just what I need on the desktop. I do have my atguard bar on the top of the screen, but I could remove that if I wanted. I don’t like hiding the bar at the bottom. Tried it, found it awkward. 🙂 I love the “docking” idea like you find in darkstep or NeXT, where it came from, but I haven’t found an explorer replacement that’s that stable. They look cool, but still…