How to stop icons of selected shortcuts from being dimmed?

[LowStrung]

I'm using the Windows Classic theme in Win7 Starter. By default, Windows always dims the desktop icon of a shortcut when it is selected, whether it's a transparent icon or not. Is there a way to prevent this? Highlighting the text of the shortcut is enough of an indication that it has been selected.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Hello LS I see you have ben waiting for some time and sorry about that - but I don't know if that is possible - probably it is if you are proficient at altering the registry values. But where you would find them I have no idea and playing around in there is fraught with problems.

One thing I can suggest you try are running these scans
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/433-disk-check.html < if necessary include the /f and /r in the command line as per Option2
These will at least attempt to get the system files back into some sort of order if there is something a little out of whack because my machines do not have that problem with icons. .

 

[LowStrung]

@ICIT2LOL: Thanks, and don't worry about the delay; I've seen much longer ones in forum discussions.

This is actually the way my icons were treated even when the computer was brand-new right out of the box and I hadn't installed any 3rd-party software yet, so I doubt if there's anything out of whack in the system files. Since my Windows 7 version is the Starter Edition, I have no access to themes other than Windows Basic, Windows Classic -- which I'm using now -- and a couple of high-contrast color schemes. My partner's machine is running Windows 7 Home Premium. His desktop icons behave differently, but then he's not using the Classic color scheme, but I don't want to switch to that on his system just for comparison's sake.

What I have noticed is that icons in the Windows Explorer file lists don't get dimmed when selected, only the desktop icons. In XYplorer, which I also use for file management, there's a setting to disallow dimming of selected icons in the lists, and the help file explains that dimming them was the default in Win XP, but not in Vista or Win 7.

Anyway, I'm quite proficient in tweaking the registry, which I've done for a lot of other Windows 7 features (aka deficiencies) without causing problems, but if there is no obvious key or value that applies in this case, I won't pursue the matter any further.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok well I ma not that proficient to be honest in tweaking the reg values only for optimizing or deleting unwanted software that is a pain to get rid of even when using the correct removal tools. I talk of things like Symantec (Norton) that leaves remnants behind unbeknown to the user. That goes for a lot of especially the security stuff.

But I digress now if it came with that set up that way then if it is not affecting the performance of your machine then I suppose it will have to be just one of those little annoyances one gets from time to time. I suppose you could try your partners setup you can always revert back if it really doesn't suit eh?

Just for your info if you want a little more out of your machine/s take a look at this - I call it the bible and I use it on every machine I have and fixes I do because it does rev the machine up quite a bit (note point 9 especially) and adds that little bit more speed and efficiency. You lose some of the "bling" like transparency if you so decide to disable it but I think it is an unnecessary add on personally.
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/11728-optimize-windows-7-a.html

Oh and if you are going to play in the registry this is a good one to do
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4230-registry-backup-restore.html takes all of two minutes to do and covers your back should things go south.

 

[LowStrung]

Thanks for the Optimizing link. Lots of good pointers there, some of which I had already used. Transparency is one I needn't worry about, because it's not available in this Windows version, thank goodness; if it were, I'd disable it in a flash.

Regarding registry backup and restore, every time I make deliberate changes to my system that I want to preserve and have experienced no ill effects from them, I create a new restore point manually, deleting the old ones first. That backs up the registry, desktop and start menu shortcuts, etc. Restoring with a previous restore point would obviously lose the new settings, as well as some shortcuts, along with newly-installed programs and their configurations. To be on the safe side, all the programs that didn't require installation have been copied to an external hard drive, including their configuration files. For programs with entries in the registry -- typically under HKCU -- I export their keys, too.

But rather than letting myself get even further off topic, I think I'll just let this thread stand as it is now.

 

[ICIT2LOL]

Ok as long as you are happy with it the reg back up I really only meant for use if one is not real sure of playing in there or just in case you do actually make a real trash of a mistake while in there.

PS Meant to add I do images using this http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/73828-imaging-free-macrium.html and set it to weekly and on an ad hoc basis.