[Release] Jay's Transparent Icons for Windows 2000 v4.2

Mrs Peel · Post by **Mrs Peel** » Tue Mar 07, 2006 10:54 pm

I do a lot of Windows 2000 builds for old PC's that I recycle and I sometimes make special desktop wallpapers for them so it is annoying to see my art work messed up with desktop background colour around the icon titles. This tiny freeware utility will fix that problem. This addon will make a shortcut in your startup folder so it runs automatically with windows.

Transparent Icons v4.2
LINK: MrsP_Transparent_Icons_Win2000_Addon_v4.2-071028
MD5: 8782E843FEFF853175E89F944BA27FC2
SIZE: 18 KB

Description: Make Windows 2000 desktop icon text background transparent
Op System: Windows 2000 Only
Builddate: 1998/09/15
Language: English
Title: Transparent Icons
Version: 4.2
License: Freeware
Website: http://www.annoyances.org/exec/software/transparent
Installs to: "%programfiles%\Desktop\TransIcon"
Uninstaller: Removes program files, startup shortcut and reg entries

Transparent v4.2 - Freeware by Jay Guerette
This utility will turn your Windows 95 or NT desktop icon text backgrounds transparent; allowing your wallpaper to show through. It's completely free, with no splash, and is only 19k. It can optionally stay in memory to automatically fix the transparency if your desktop gets changed or reset.

I hate those big blocks of color under my icons! There is a utility that does the same thing; called Disappear; that is huge, ponderously slow, and asks for money. It drove me nuts; so I was forced to write this. The funny thing is; I know just how much code is required to do this, and just how much time it took to write this program: I think it's ridiculous to charge money for this program! I have used many great free utilities in my life. This is my way of paying back a debt. I will never ask for money for this program; it will always be free.

This is the most important thing you need to know: The program needs to be run each time you start your computer, because the transparency doesn't 'stick'. Windows 2000 simply doesn't officially recognize transparency, and so doesn't save it. Put a shortcut to it your StartUp folder, and it will be run each time you start your computer.

This will stay in memory, and check every 1/2 second to see if your icons are still transparent, and your icon text is still the color you specified. Why? Because some programs; most notably DirectX games; will reset the desktop and wipe out the transparency. This will also happen with programs that automatically change the wallpaper at timed intervals. If this happens, Transparent will automatically fix it. This program uses an extremely small amount of memory, and less than 1/2 of a percent of the typical computer's processing power. If you want to remove Transparent from memory, simply run it a second time. Transparent will beep to let you know it has been unloaded.

Enjoy (or not)

[Edit 2007/09/13] Rebuilt with uninstaller, changed install directory
[Edit 2007/10/28] Fixed entries file to reflect new installer path

Mrs Peel · Post by **Mrs Peel** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 7:59 am

Not one reply to this EVER?????

So we either have NO windoze 2000 users here OR several hundred lazy lurking leechers.

I'm betting it is the latter, so consider this added to my "Nuke Alert List".

Seven days to save it by letting me know you use it....

Tick-tock.... tick-tock....

TechnoHunter · Post by **TechnoHunter** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 3:38 pm

sounds worth a try.. oddly enough i DO work with enough older machines that it would probably be worth adding something other than the un-official service pack 5 to the disc before i install em

you realize of course that now i have to find _other_ win2k addons and its all your fault for reminding me that they exist.. curse you MrsP.. oh well.. time to go searching

TechnoHunter

Mrs Peel · Post by **Mrs Peel** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 6:52 pm

TechnoHunter wrote:sounds worth a try.. oddly enough i DO work with enough older machines that it would probably be worth adding something other than the un-official service pack 5 to the disc before i install em

you realize of course that now i have to find _other_ win2k addons and its all your fault for reminding me that they exist.. curse you MrsP.. oh well.. time to go searching

TechnoHunter

I only have two addons specifically for win2000 only, and you have both of them now. The rest of my collection (except for a couple of platform-specific ones, as stated in my release notes) I have coded the entries files so that they will also support win2k installations.

I still install nlited win2k on a lot of old recycled machines for friends who can't afford to buy new computers (because it runs so much faster on pre-1ghz CPU's) and most of them seem to like having family photos as their desktop wallpaper - hence this addon which means their desktop icons won't ugly-up their precious pics.

Cheers

Mask · Post by **Mask** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 2:00 pm

I recently rediscovered W2K for older Machines too, so I'll be using this too. Thanks!

Mandarin · Post by **Mandarin** » Sun Sep 16, 2007 6:37 pm

Think I have an old laptop which is going to be running W2K coming my way so I'll try this out when I do the rebuild. Thanks Mrs. P.

Mandarin · Post by **Mandarin** » Fri Oct 26, 2007 2:20 pm

Finally got round to doing a W2K build and unfortunately I got file copy errors with this addon - speciically trans.ico I think it was called. It may have been a glitch with nLite so will repeat the whole process from scratch next week and give some feedback on the results.

tamilcheetas · Post by **tamilcheetas** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 7:51 am

Mandarin wrote:Finally got round to doing a W2K build and unfortunately I got file copy errors with this addon - speciically trans.ico I think it was called. It may have been a glitch with nLite so will repeat the whole process from scratch next week and give some feedback on the results.

Yeah, I too got this error mate!

I done via nLite!

TechnoHunter · Post by **TechnoHunter** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 4:00 pm

Confirmed MrsP.. Ya got PM.

TechnoHunter

Mrs Peel · Post by **Mrs Peel** » Sat Oct 27, 2007 10:08 pm

TechnoHunter wrote:Confirmed MrsP.. Ya got PM.

TechnoHunter

Yikes I see what happened now, forgot to update the entries file when I changed the installer path.

Thanks for saving me heaps of time to discover where the error was TechnoHunter!

Sorry about that peeps! All fixed now

Mandarin · Post by **Mandarin** » Sun Oct 28, 2007 8:52 am

Thanks Mrs. P - fixed nice n quick!

Mandarin · Post by **Mandarin** » Tue Oct 30, 2007 6:48 pm

Tried it tonight on a new W2K build and everything works as it should, along with a whole bunch of your other addons too.

tamilcheetas · Post by **tamilcheetas** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 1:23 pm

Links dead !

TechnoHunter · Post by **TechnoHunter** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 5:38 pm

@tanilcheetas :: we know! try looking around at the other posts before just postings a links dead post..
-sigh-