Border around icons on desktop

[Hakon]

Is there any way to get rid of this dotted border around the desktop icons? (see screenshot, around the Computer icon)
I know it only appears sometimes, but its really annoying

 

[zigzag3143]

Hakon

I can see why. did you make any changes to the theme? Is it stock win 7?

that doesnt look like a standard win 7 icon.

let us know and if it is i will have to look for it


Ken

 

[Hakon]

Its a fresh install of win 7 (4 hours ago), and no, i haven't made any changes to the theme (other than set a desktop wallpaper).
This happens if i click the desktop and press any key, it selects that icon, if i press C it selects Computer, and the border appears!

edit:
Otherwise its normal like in the screenshot attached, the Documents folder selected and mouse hovering over the Computer icon

 

[hacku]

Weird... mine has never done the dotted border around icons.

 

[Linden5150]

Ok this happens to me too, I don't know if this helps but for me when I want it to go away I click on the show desktop button far far right and it goes away

If this is what you are looking for send me some rep

 

[Hakon]

Same here, i can fix it by clicking show desktop.
There has to be some way to fix this, even tho it doesn't happen often its still annoying (and i am a perfectionist lol )

 

[smarteyeball]

If the icon itself is a small image and does not scale, you will have the borders.

For example, if the icon image itself is 32x32 and you have all other icons at 128X128, when you scale that 32x32 image to 128x128, the image doesn't change size, but the border does.

If there is only one icon that is 'bordered', then that is simply the icon highlight.

 

[musiclover7]

I like to download custom icons from Rocketdocks pool in .png format, and then convert them to .ico format. If you install Rocketdock from here:

Download RocketDock - RocketDock.com

you get handy dock for windows 7, that may or may not grow on you.. personally, I cannot get by without it.. anyways, once installed, if you right click on one of the icons on the dock, and click icon settings, and then select "get more", it will bring you to the Rocketdock website, where there lies a plethora of killer icons and icon packs.. Download the ones you are interested in, then convert them to .ico format using this site:

ConvertICO.com - Convert .PNG format files to .ICO or .ICO format files to .PNG : Windows Vista compatible icons

Once converted, then right click the icon on the desktop you want to update, and hit on change icon, then eventually browse to where the .ico file is listed.. I change all my icons pretty much in this way..

Hope this helps.

 

[garysgold]

As smartey says, it is the last selection made on the desktop. If you were to use the arrow keys to move around the desktop, this would be the starting point. If you wanted to open that program you could press the spacebar to highlight and enter to open. The desktop must be in focus of course.

 

[musiclover7]

Yeah, actually that is not the same thing as Smarteye and I were thinking now that I look at it closer.. Windows highlights things that are selected, in this case, the icons on your desktop.. Just select something else, or click on the empty space on your desktop, and the box you are referring to should go away...

I was more referring to the annoying scaling issue, that can occur when you have icons that are smaller than standard. I like to increase the size of my desktop icons slightly, and if the icons are smaller, eventually, they will no longer grow, and a little grey dotted box will be around them.. Itunes for instance, is notorious for this.. My method describes a place to score many free icons, and also a way to replace the icons on the desktop with large, resize-able icons..

 

[Hakon]

I know i can hide it and just get the normal one back, but i don't wanna see it in the first place, my question is: Can i get permanently rid of it, so it never appears?
Surely i'm not the only one here annoyed by this, i would classify this as a bug that MS need to fix, or at least give the user an option to disable this

 

[musiclover7]

When you select something by single clicking on it, it gets highlighted. This has always been the case. Not sure if there is a way to tell windows 7 to not highlight things you click on. There are various apps out and about that allow you to customize certain nitty gritty aspects of the appearance and behavior. Lamicsoft makes a fairly comprehensive and good "Windows 7 Manager", but I do not recall seeing this change option when gave it a trial run, but it easily could be..

 

[reuben159]

Yeah i'm having the same exact issue except it's on my "trash can" icon since it's the only one on my desktop. just as annoyed .

If i right click and hit "refresh" the dashed border will go away. however, if i alt tab away from desktop and then alt tab back, it's like windows automatically 'selects' the only icon on there and the dashed border is back.

anyway, i have no idea of how to fix this. there was an update and i restarted. it seemed like it had gone away and i remember thinking, "oh wow, that actually fixed that" but then i've added more wallpapers to my changing desktop and it's back
here's a pic:



post if you figure anything out!

 

[Joshatdot]

I keep getting the same thing from time to time...its annoying! I am not sure when it happened or how, but I keep getting dotted outlines of the Desktop Icons. If I Refresh the Desktop, it goes away, until I select/use a new icon.

attached is crop of my desktop.

 

[logicearth]

Click anywhere on the desktop, then hit TAB a few times.
The dotted border is keyboard focus for navigation.

 

[Joshatdot]

that does nothing but move the dotted border to a new area. Once you click the desktop or use a icon it shows again.

 

[logicearth]

that does nothing but move the dotted border to a new area. Once you click the desktop or use a icon it shows again.

Hit it a few more times...it will go some where else. After moving it onto the start menu button and select then deselect a desktop icon it does not get dotted.

 

[phantomxfr]

dotted box me too

i have exactly the same problem and looking for a solution. i m now seeing in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop to find something wrong but i m not an ingeneer... if someone have THE solution to make this dotted line disapear, please let us know!!! (sorry about my english, i m french)

 

[logicearth]

i have exactly the same problem and looking for a solution. i m now seeing in HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop to find something wrong but i m not an ingeneer... if someone have THE solution to make this dotted line disapear, please let us know!!! (sorry about my english, i m french)

Click on the desktop then hit the TAB key until the line disappears.

 

[phantomxfr]

ho..... i invit you to hit tab on my keyboard all time i need it.... . i know its a bug and i m looking for a real solution.