Display High Color Icons (All Windows)

Registry Guide for Windows
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Registry tweaks, tricks & hacks to optimize, enhance and secure Microsoft Windows.

Display High Color Icons (All Windows)
Category: Home > Windows > Appearance > Fonts and Icons

This tweak can be easily applied using WinGuides Tweak Manager.
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If you like a bit more quality and detail in your icons, then this setting allows you to change the number of colors used to display icons. Show your Windows icons in all their high resolution glory.

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new string value named "Shell Icon BPP" and change it to equal the color depth supported by your video card:

4 - 16 colors

8 - 256 colors

16 - 65536 colors

24 - 16.7 million colors

Restart Windows for the change to take effect.

Note: You need a graphics card capable of displaying above 256 colors for this to be effective.


(Default)	REG_SZ	(value not set)
Shell Icon BPP	REG_SZ	"16"


	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics

Settings:

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\WindowMetrics]
Name: Shell Icon BPP
Type: REG_SZ (String Value)
Value: 4, 8, 16, 24 (bits per pixel)

Disclaimer: Modifying the registry can cause serious problems that may require you to reinstall your operating system. We cannot guarantee that problems resulting from modifications to the registry can be solved. Use the information provided at your own risk.

Last Modified: August 9, 2002

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