Transparent v4.1
Freeware by Jay Guerette
Released June, 27, 1998
www.pobox.com/~jayguerette/transparent

What

This utility will turn your Windows 95 or NT desktop icon text
backgrounds transparent; allowing your wallpaper to show through.
Starting with version 4, you can also change the icon text color! It's
completely free, with no splash, and is only 19k. It can optionally
stay in memory to automatically fix the transparency if your desktop
gets changed or reset.

What's New!

Version 4.1: (06-27-98) Changed the way Transparent works when you
tell it to use the desktop color as the icon text color: if
Transparent is resident, it will automatically change the text color
to match the desktop color if the desktop color changes. Also added a
command to specify the text color by RGB value or number. Grew to 25k.

Version 4: (06-12-98) Now changes icon text color without changing the
desktop color. Has a new command option to change the text color to
match the desktop color! Nifty! Lowered the default update interval to
500 milliseconds. This program uses so few CPU cycles there is no real
penalty, and the crisper response time is a notable aesthetic
improvement. Added another version dedicated to using the desktop
color; and packaged them all up into a ZIP file. The basic program is
still only 19k.

Version 3: (06-09-98) Takes command line arguments, and can stay
resident to automatically fix the transparency after the desktop gets
changed or reset. Increased to 19k.

Version 2: (05-29-98) Rewritten to use a different approach, and
supported both black and white text. Also added 2 extra dedicated
versions that set the text to black or white automatically. Grew to
16k.

Version 1: (05-14-98) Exploited an API trick to create transparency,
but text color was limited to black. Only 3k!

What's Next?

Version 5: (06-??-98) Will allow you to interactively set the icon
text color to any color you want! I'm also working on some sort of
installer. Check back for this version!

Why

Because I hate those big blocks of color under my icons!

There is a utility that does the same thing; called Disappear; that is
huge, ponderously slow, doesn't support colored text, doesn't work on
Windows NT, and has a splash screen that begs for money. It drove me
nuts; so I was forced to write this.

I have used many great free utilities in my life. This is my way of
paying back a debt. I will never ask for money for this program; it
will always be free.

How

This is the most important thing you need to know:
The program needs to be run each time you start your computer, because
the transparency doesn't 'stick'. Windows simply doesn't officially
recognize transparency, and so doesn't save it. Put Transparent in
your Program Files\Accessories folder, and create a shortcut to it
your StartUp folder, and it will be run each time you start your
computer.

The simplest way to use this program is to use the TransparentB,
TransparentW, or TransparentD versions. You could put the version you
are going to use directly in your StartUp folder.

Which?

All three of these will stay in memory, and check every 1/2 second to
see if your icons are still transparent, and your icon text is still
the color you specified. Why? Because some programs; most notably
DirectX games; will reset the desktop and wipe out the transparency.
This will also happen with programs that automatically change the
wallpaper at timed intervals. If this happens, Transparent will
automatically fix it. This program uses an extremely small amount of
memory, and less than 1/2 of a percent of the typical computer's
processing power.

Now you just have to decide what color text you want. Use TransparentW
if you want White text, or use TransparentB if you want Black text.
The TransparentD version is special; it sets the icon text color to
match the desktop color. If you have no wallpaper the icon text will
become effectively invisible. Using this version, you can change the
icon text color to any color you want. Simply click the right mouse
button on the desktop, select properties from the menu that pops up,
click on the Appearance tab, pick the desktop color that matches the
text color you want, and click Apply. Now you can custom match the
text color to your unique wallpaper!

If you want to remove Transparent from memory, simply run it a second
time. Transparent will beep to let you know it has been unloaded.

Huh?

Transparent made big blobs of your icon text?
You have an old version of COMCTL32.DLL that has a bug!
Download and run the COMCTL32 update from web site.

Transparent doesn't seem to work with Active Desktop in WebView mode.
I'm looking in to it.

Advanced

Use the plain Transparent.exe if you want to configure it by using
command line arguments. You could use the W, B, & D versions and use
command line arguments to override their built-in defaults. To specify
arguments, create a shortcut to the program, and edit the shortcut.
Put any arguments you want to specify at the end of of the Target box
in the shortcut dialog.

Transparent takes four arguments:

/Rn

Stay resident and fix transparency if the desktop gets changed or
reset, where n is a number between 100 and 10000; specifying the
interval in milliseconds between checks. Even at 100 milliseconds
Transparent uses less than 0.4% of the CPU on my machine. If you don't
specify an interval, Transparent defaults to 500, or 1/2 second. If
you want to remove Transparent from memory, simply run it again; it
will remove itself and beep to let you know it's gone. If you don't
tell Transparent to stay resident with an /R, it simply sets up the
transparency and quits.

/B or /W

Set the icon text color to /Black or /White. This will be checked and
automatically fixed when Transparent is resident. If you don't specify
a color, Windows uses the default. Windows decides whether the icon
text will be black or white, depending on the color of the desktop.
White desktop means black text, and vice versa. You could simply set
your desktop color to the opposite of the text color you want.

/D

This switch will set the the text color to the same as the /Desktop.
If you are using a full screen wallpaper, then you will have colored
text the same color as the desktop. Another option would be to have
either no wallpaper, or a non full screen wallpaper with icons around
the outside; and your icon text would be invisible. In this case, the
transparency is not really obvious. An example of this is to can be
seen to the right. To change the text color, just change the desktop
color. In resident mode, Transparent will detect that the desktop
color has changed, and will change the text color accordingly.

/Cn or /Cn,n,n

This allows you to specify the text /Color you want as a number or as
RGB values. For example: /C0 would specify black text, /CFFFFFF would
specify white, and /C128,128,128 would specify grey. In resident mode,
Transparent will automatically fix the text color if some other
program changes it.

Example: Transparent.exe
Sets the text background transparent, without changing the text color;
and quits.

Example: Transparent.exe /W
Sets the icon text color to white and the text background transparent;
and quits.

Example: Transparent.exe /R /B
Sets the icon text color to black and the text background transparent;
and stays in memory to fix the transparency every 500 milliseconds, or
1/2 second.

Example: Transparent.exe /R1000 /D
Sets the icon text color to the same color as the desktop, and the
text background transparent; and stays in memory to fix the
transparency every 1000 milliseconds, or 1 second.

Disclaimer

This program is free. You may distribute it, but you may not charge
money for it. It is incredibly extraordinarily unlikely that this
program will cause an problems on your computer. If you think it did;
it is incredibly extraordinarily likely you are mistaken. Sorry, but
there it is. I can not be held responsible for any damages or losses.
I am happy to provide technical assistance via email. If you have a
problem or question, please be kind enough to read this entire
document before you send me mail. If you have no desktop wallpaper,
and thought by running Transparent you would suddenly be staring into
the guts of your monitor; please don't mail me. I got tired of coming
up with witty responses, so now I just delete them. If you do mail me,
please tell me where you found out about my program.


Mail Accolades, Questions, Problems to:
JayGuerette@pobox.com