Wolfenstein made my icons ugly !!!

[domxp]

Here's my problem: After installing (and trying) Return to Castle Wolfenstein my icons became ugly - as if they were took from old Windows and had only 256 colors (especially folder icons are really ugly). Repair icons in PowertoysXP doesn't help nor uninstalling Wolfenstein. The only things that helps is changing to 32 bits of color. But I want to work with 16-bits color as I was before (and icons were pretty). What shall I do to repair my 16-bits settings?

 

[rjkrash]

Try this:

Put your settings back to 16 bit, (32 bit is better IMO, but to each his/her own)

Re-choose your theme, maybe pick another then apply, then go back to the theme you like and apply.

Also a reboot/restart will refresh the icon cache that might help.

Hope I helped. ----
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

 

[domxp]

Thank you for your response.
Actually I checked always perfect metod for dealing with computers (turn it off, turn it on) but I didn't mention it. Unfortunatelly it doesn't help, i.e. I chenge my theme to old-style windows and the same happens there: 16 bits - ugly icons, 32 bits - the pretty ones.
The reason for having 16-bits color is: I used to it. I was always afraid that 32-bits color may slow down my system (this conviction dates back from very old times). Now I see it's time to change my habits. System doesn't look like it would slow down by any degree (though my card is only riva tnt2).
But on the other hand the harder I try to find the answer to this problem the more I try ... I think sometimes you need help more than your computer does
Thanks again

 

[rjkrash]

FYI:

XP uses a whole bunch of colors to display those pretty icons! Shouldn't hurt performance too much.

Go to help and support and search for "change the number of colors" and read that topic.

Also,
I believe your game set your monitor to 256 color mode which is less that 16bit and is available for "compatibility" mode. Which is another subject to read about if you are a "gamer".

Happy eXPerienceing. ----
"Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards."

 

[linney]

Have you tried using System Restore to go back in time to when everything was "perfect"?

 

[domxp]

Thank you for yuor responses.
Beginning with the second one - I don't use System Restore because together with Indexing Service, they made my disk work very very hard. System Restore also needs much disk space, so I don't like it. I had bad experiences with it on WinMe (WinMe had ended his career on my computer very quickly by the way ). Indexing service is very important to me. From the time when AltavistaDiscovery hasn't been updated any longer I was lacking that kind of utility.
About going to help - I always tell my students: Computer Help is a place with a smallest possibility of finding an answer . As the sentence below every response form RJkrash says, I tell them that experience is a very good way of gaining knowlegde. So again this time help didn't seem to be very helpful.
Latest updates to my problem:
- all is fine when other users log on to my computer (using accounts I created for them), they have beautiful icons on a High Color mode (16 bits)
- only me (administrator) has this problem which now I can restate clearly: when on High Color mode (65000 of colors) my icons have only 256 colors! Very strange. These are not only icons on desktop, but also those used by Explorer to show the contents of my disks.
I appreciate every response.

 

[rjkrash]

Try this to work around this issue, follow these steps:

In the Display Properties dialog box, click the Settings tab.

Click the Advanced button.

Click the Adapter tab, and then click the List all modes button.

Select the resolution, color depth, and refresh rate that you want and click OK.

------

This is different that just setting the Color quality on the settings page. If you haven't been there already I suspect the "game" changed your mode and you have to change it back. Bad GAME! Beware!, check the setting other users have for this option before you change yours. If you choose the wrong mode (particularly refresh rate) you may
screw up(<-techie term ) or even damage your monitor/video adapter.

BTW, I &quot;feel your pain&quot; re help files but when it comes to troubleshooting it is one of the first places I look. On XP the help and support is much more robust, especially the search of the Knowledge Base part. By doing a serch in Help I may not find the answer right there but it gives me key words to search on when I go searching the Knowledge base at MS or even at Google.


----
&quot;Experience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.&quot;

 

[domxp]

I'm happy knowing you still want to help me.
Well I tried it before, and now I've come to the point I'm afraid to write it: doesn't help ((
I have a feeling my computer tries to play hide-and-seek with me. I checked everything what is visible and likely to be conected with display settings in Control Panel. Nothing helped.
BTW, the game wasn't worth of testing

 

[domxp]

I'll try to be more precise: when my desktop is in High Color (65000 colors, 16 bits) EVERYTHING is in High Color and looks as should, but the icons have only 256 colors - when I read it I don't believe myself but that's true. :-(
V e r y s t r a n g e . . .

 

[rjkrash]

you say -

&quot;...but the icons have only 256 colors&quot;

Well I am at a loss. Have you tried to do a repair? You boot from the XP CD and choose the advanced option on the first screen then later when given a chance choose R for repair. It doesn't really do any harm to other user settings just repairs the OS.

This is the best I can suggest.

That game cooked someting don't know what. ----
&quot;eXPerience is a hard teacher because she gives the test first, the lesson afterwards.&quot; - annon

 

[Guest_imported]

I think I might have an answer for you. You need to download the Windows XP PowerToys program from the Microsoft web site then do the following:

1) You then need to use the Tweak UI program

2) Then select the 'Repair' option that is the last on the list of options.

3) Then select the Rebuild Icons from the drop down menu.

I hope this helps you.

Zippy

 

[Guest_imported]

You can change the number of colors in the registry.

HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics
Key : Shell Icon BPP
Values : 4, 8, 16, 24 (in bits per pixel)

 

[The6000LE]

domxp,

I just thought that I should let you know that you are not alone in this issue. Since it's been several weeks since it's happened to me, I do not recall if I had RTCW on my system at the time. However, the problem began for me when I had used the TweakUI for WinXP and had chosen to &quot;Rebuild Icons&quot;. My settings were for 16-bit color at the time, and all of the desktop icons changed as though I was in 256-color mode. Changing to 32-bit color mode also worked to restore the icons to looking as they should. However, this is not a solution for me, as I use a screensaver (Sachs Marine Aquarium) which demands to be run in 16-bit color mode (anything higher than that causes VERY poor framerates.)

I have since cleanly reinstalled WinXP on my system, so I never did find a fix for the issue. However, I would be interested if a fix would be found for this issue, in the event that it would come about again.

Good luck all!

 

[domxp]

Conydd's answer was crucial. Thank you, I did it in April, sorry for being late with thanks !

 

[Hungster]

i didn't have this problem playing it with my P4 and GeForce 3

 

[domxp]

I played it with AthlonXP 1700 and GeForce 2, but I don't think that hardware was a problem. It seems to me the game changed the registry. Maybe it is not a rule, but in my environment it did.

 

[Hungster]

Actually now you are saying it
i had a few systems with Athlon cpu changes the registry

makes me wonder why ? this are on athlon system
not the K6-2, K6 were perfectly fine