June 27, 1998
Have you ever tried for hours to get the background for the text on your desktop icons to be "unobtrusive," and finally give up, delete the cool wallpaper and just change the background to a solid color? Well, pull that wallpaper out of the trash, Transparent4 is here!
Transparent4
This utility will make the background color for the text beneath your desktop icons go
away, and all for only 19K! Also, there is no installation. Just copy the file
to your hard drive and click it. If you are salivating now, wait till you hear this:
it's free.
Turning It On
To turn on the program, copy it to your hard drive after you download it. All you
have to do is either double click the icon or have a start menu link. Then you will
notice that the text under your desktop icons no longer has a background and the wallpaper
is shining through. That is it. So, once you run Transparent4, your desktop
icons will go from this:
To This:
As you can see, this is a big improvement. But now, you say, "wait, what if I don't want the background transparent for the rest of my life?" Well, that's next.
Turning It Off
When I first tried to turn it off, I got startled and thought that perhaps I had
permanently patched my registry or something that would take time to fix. Then I
opened the Windows 95 display properties menu. Finding nothing, I changed the
background color and closed the window by pressing OK. To my delight, my desk was
back the way it was before. Anyway, the point is that you turn it off simply by
opening the window. Consequently, when you change resolution, background, or
anything, you must re-run Transparent4, so I put it on my start menu where I could easily
get to it. Shutting down your computer will turn off Transparent4, so watch out.
The Quirks
Well, unfortunately, this program is not without its quirks. There are some things
you should watch out for. The first is patterns for backgrounds. By this I
mean the ones included in Windows, and not wallpaper. These will cause the text to
be barely visible. This is more prevalent in some cases than others, but always
makes the text less readable.
You also need to choose your background color carefully even though you can't see it, because it governs whether the text will be black or white. If the luminescence of the background color is 70 or above, then the text will be white. Otherwise, it will be black. You should take this into account so that you can see the text against your wallpaper rather than your background color.
(this is the bad way)
Usually, though, if the background color pretty closely resembles the main
color of the wallpaper, then you will be o.k. Finally, watch out for the infamous
problem of shutting down your computer. This, as I have said before, will disable
Transparent4. To correct this, I suggest putting it in your start up folder.
That also provides quick access to it if you change your display settings. That
about wraps it up for the quirks. Other than that, this program is perfect.
Conclusion
Transparent4 is a great FREE solution to a real problem. It is very small and easy
to use, and the few problems it has have easy workarounds. You won't be sorry if you
go download this right now. You can download it by touching here.
This is a great program and everyone who changes their wallpaper a lot should have it. As a result, I give Transparent4 five out of five Go Inside Review Lights.
Copyright © 1998 by Shawn Lankton
"Go Inside" is a David Boles Trademark