I fixed this problem yesterday. The fix was fairly
simple, but required editing the registry - and for that
reason, I'm not saying that you should do this. I'm
simply going to point out the steps that I did to fix my
problem. If you are comfortable with goofing with the
registry, then that's up to you (you never said how
computer literate you are).
First off, I should mention that I have a dual monitor
setup through a single Radeon 9700 Pro. The problem
cropped up when I finally installed Service Pack 4.
Looking back, I should have tried reinstalling the video
drivers just to see if that would do anything (if anything
but to find alternate fixes).
I started out by turning off the second monitor then
restarting. I right-clicked on the desktop and hit
the "Effects" tab. In that tab there is a "Show icons
using all possible colors" checkbox. Make sure that is
checked as well as making sure you are still in 16 or 32
bit color mode. I then used Regedit and expanded
HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Control Panel > Desktop >
WindowMetrics. I then looked for the "Shell Icon BPP"
entry. Mine said "16" when I first opened it up. I
edited to "24" (minus the quotes) and closed Regedit. I
restarted and the colors were back to normal. Though the
icon colors were normal again, I went back in
the "Effects" tab and re-checked the "Show icons..." box
as it unchecked itself after editing the registry.
I also should state that I fixed both my work box (also
dual monitor setup, but using an extra PCI video card) and
home boxes this way. But the steps above were done for my
work box. Fixing my home computer had more steps because
the Radeon had some extra settings that needed to be
turned off before getting to the registry fix (after
disabling the extra monitor, the computer booted up the
second monitor as a clone of the main - turning it off in
the advanced settings of the card got me on my way).
-JJ
