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Background

I have a client who uses Windows Server 2012 R2 with the Remote Desktop Session Host (RDSH) role installed, and all their employees work on them (two servers in an RD pool). They have a standard theme layout with their logo on a white background. The theme is applied through Group Policy at logon, and up until Monday, this had been working fine (they've been using this for a few years now).

On Monday, the long-standing 'Desktop Icon Drop Shadow' bug came back in spite of our previously implemented work-arounds. Through GP, we were pushing out:

  • HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced ListviewShadow = 0

  • Theme file with [Control Panel\Colors] Background=255 255 255

as per these articles. Together, these two GPOs turned off the drop shadow effect and set the underlying background color to white, which is supposed to force Windows to render black desktop icon text, but for some reason that has stopped working.

I've done as much reading as I can find on this issue, but every fix I've found either already exists in our AD (and I've deleted and remade them), or hasn't worked (will link in comments, need 10 rep)

The closest answer I've seen from Microsoft is them admitting this is a bug, but not offering a free solution (will link in comments, need 10 rep)

Possible Leads

  • The "High Contrast White" theme correctly renders the black text on a white background. If this theme could be configured to look more like a standard Aero theme rather than the harsh high contrast theme, that could lead to a workaround.

  • The tool "Iconoid" was successfully able to force black text on a black background, but not black text on a white background. If anyone is familiar with this tool or any similar tool, that could lead to a workaround.

Question

Has anyone else dealt with this issue recently (since all articles are around 2011), and what did you end up doing? Does anyone have anything else to suggest I try, other than forcing them to use a black background? I'm at about wits end with this issue, and I'm open for trying nearly anything.

Community
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Nicholas Dechert
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  • "Show translucent selection rectangle" fix - [link](http://superuser.com/questions/540101/issues-with-desktop-icons-on-windows) MSFT says its a bug -[link](https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/office/en-US/a87d3ef8-f3a3-497f-9f4b-5efdf698f427/desktop-icon-label-drop-shadow-issue-on-rds-enabled-windows-2008r2?forum=winserverTS) – Nicholas Dechert Oct 19 '16 at 22:23
  • Other reading: [technet question](https://social.technet.microsoft.com/Forums/windowsserver/en-US/8e3fba8b-6362-48bb-8dd9-417a669fb265/icon-labels-smudge-after-mouse-over-except-recycle-bin?forum=winserverTS) [Server 2008 Blog Post](http://www.paraesthesia.com/archive/2010/04/14/fixing-the-desktop-icon-drop-shadow-problem-on-windows-server.aspx/) – Nicholas Dechert Oct 19 '16 at 22:25

0 Answers0