icon color problem

[leoa]

Have successfully saved various photo or graphic files as a .bmp and then renamed to .ico for custom shortcut icons in the past.
Tried this recently and altho the graphic part of the new icon appears when renaming to .ico - the icon background is always black causing the new icon graphic to be barely visible. Have reviewed the archives and lokked for display setting changes in control panel/display but must ne missing something.
Am using Win/95 on Dell NT workstation.
Any ideas ? Thanks

[BFlurie]

Try deleting the "ShellIconCache" file in your windows directory & rebooting.

[dexmax]

Well, it really depends on the background where you place your icon when it is finished. If you made it using a white background, w/c graphic utilities usually assumes it is transparent, when you place it on a dark color, you could hardly see the your icon. SO the technique is, get a specific bacground color for your icon, and save the backgound as if it was part of the graphics. Thus, you get the same colors, in any background.

[leoa]

Good ideas - thanks but still have problem.
Did a quick test. Created a simple "white" square graphic and saved as .bmp file. Next - I clicked on .bmp file, do a rename, changed to .ico. Can watch file change to icon graphic on desk top - but shows up as "black" square. Could there be a Windows display setting some where defaulting all my new icons to black backgrnd????

[BFlurie]

You might try switching your screen's color depth to more colors and then back. Also try this registry hack:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_USERS\.Default\Control Panel\desktop\WindowMetrics]
"Shell Icon BPP"="16"


Ben