This is driving me nuts....

Hi there,

Windows 2000 - Icons are stuck in Low color mode (the display works great at 1280x1024@32bit)

tried the "show Icons using all possible colors"

tried "icon Packger" and "Tweak UI"

Tried deleting "shellIconCache"

Tried changing manualy/ deleting HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics\Shell Icon Bpp

Tried different Users....

- Everything worked great until I uninstalled a few apps ( spring cleaning..)

I will reformat my computer in a while (as soon as SP2 will be available) but I would like to try and solve it..

just for fun here are the specs for this system.. (remeber it worked..)

AMD K7 750 MHz
Asus K7V, Bios 1.08 beta 01d, VIA 4in1 Beta 4.30
256MB PC 133 Kingston RAM
2x 10GB Quantum UDMA 66, 7,200
Toshiba DVD 1202 (UDMA)
Adaptec AHA-2940UW
Yamaha CDR-400t
Guillemot Geforce DDR - Det. Beta 12
Intel Pro 100+ NIC
SBLive Value 1024

Windows 2000 Pro + SP1 + all updates..

nothing runs in the background except AudioHQ (sblive) and ZoneAlarm..

this is not my main station but I still want to solve it....

any help is appreciated - any wiseass jokes are not :)

A pretty simple thought but did you try changing resolutions and color settings? (e.g.640x480x16bit) How about rebooting into safemode and then back?

changing resolutions I did - no effect..

safe mode is a nice thought - I'll try it..

this is so weird it actually might work :)

Safe mode didn't help..

I also removed the display adapter drivers - clean the Registry and reinstalled...

still not working...

Sounds like when you uninstalled some excess software, a DLL file or something like that got deleted. Try the MS knowledgebase for any clues (or even a solution)

Reinstalled Service pack 1
trued SFC /Scannow ..

still doesn't work..

Another wild idea...do you have an old PCI video laying around that you could use to temporarily replace the current AGP adapter with? If the new hardware and drivers trigger a change then you could go into safe mode completely delete the old drivers (and search the INF folder and dump old video INF's as well and then reinstall your good video.

it still didn't work (downgraded to an old s3 vige, 325 4MB PCI) still doesn't work...

I think something is worng with a DLL or the Registry - it completely ignores the Shell_BPP key (I tried 1 bit in hope it will turn b&w)

Thanks for all the help - especially for the "crazy" ideas :) keep 'em comming ...