Your Desktop is a special folder which shows your background wallpaper that you have chosen and your files, folders, documents, shortcuts and all such items you have stored. It appears every time you sign in to Windows. Today, we will learn how to enable or disable drop shadows for Desktop icon labels in Windows 10. We will review two methods, including the GUI, and a Registry tweak.
Tip: In earlier Windows versions, the Desktop had important icons enabled by default - This PC, Network, Control Panel, and your User files folder. They were all visible by default. However, in modern Windows versions, Microsoft made most of these icons hidden. In Windows 10, only the Recycle Bin is present on Desktop by default. Also, the Windows 10 Start Menu does not have links to these icons either. You can enable classic Desktop icons as follows:
Enable Desktop Icons in Windows 10
By default, Windows shows a drop shadow for each icon label on the Desktop. These drop shadows are designed to make icon names readable with both light and dark Desktop wallpapers.
Drop shadows enabled:
Drop shadows disabled:
If the drop shadow feature doesn't play nice with your current desktop background, or if you are using a plain color instead of a colorful image, you can try to disable the drop shadows feature.
To Disable Drop Shadows for Desktop Icon Labels in Windows 10,
- Press Win + R hotkeys on the keyboard. The Run dialog will appear on the screen. Type the following into the text box and press Enter:
SystemPropertiesAdvanced
- Advanced System Properties will open. Press the Settings button in the Performance section on the Advanced tab.
- The following dialog will be opened:
- Let Windows choose what's best for my computer - the operating system will automatically enable and disable some visual effects that it determines will run fine on your hardware.
- Adjust for best appearance - This will enable all available visual effects.
- Adjust for best performance - All visual effects will be disabled.
- Custom - This will allow you to enable or disable visual effects manually. Once you change the check boxes in the list below, this option will be selected by default.
- Turn off (uncheck) the option named Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop.
To re-enable the feature, open the same dialog and turn on (check) the Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop option.
Tip: You can open the System Performance dialog even faster by entering SystemPropertiesPerformance.exe into the Run box.
Disable Drop Shadows for Desktop Icon Labels with a Registry Tweak
- Open the Registry Editor app.
- Go to the following Registry key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced
See how to go to a Registry key with one click.
- On the right, modify or create a new 32-Bit DWORD value ListviewShadow.
Note: Even if you are running 64-bit Windows you must still create a 32-bit DWORD value.
Set its value to 1 to enable drop shadows for Desktop icon labels. A value data of 0 will disable them.
- To make the changes done by the Registry tweak take effect, you need to sign out and sign in to your user account. Alternatively, you can restart the Explorer shell.
To save you time, you can download these ready-to-use Registry files.
That's it.
Related articles.
- Enable Desktop Icons in Windows 10
- Disable Align Desktop Icons to Grid in Windows 10
- How to Hide All Desktop Icons in Windows 10
- Create Desktop Icon Settings Shortcut in Windows 10
- Revert Desktop icons auto arranging in Windows 10
- How to change Desktop icon spacing in Windows 10, Windows 8.1 and Windows 8
- Add a useful Internet Explorer icon to Windows 10 Desktop
- How To Add Libraries Desktop Icon in Windows 10
- Speed up your Windows 10 by having fewer Desktop icons
- Fix Windows 10 does not save the Desktop icon position and layout
- Enable Icons Auto Arrange on Desktop in Windows 10
- Tip: Resize icons quickly on the Desktop or in a folder in Windows 10
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This does NOT work. I still have the d@mn drop shadows on icon labels on the desktop, Win 10 1909
You are doing something wring.
This option is available starting in Windows XP, and it works without issues in ANY Windows 10 build or edition.
Don’t be so arrogant Sergey, Rocketman is right. I too used every one of the options and the d@mn shadows are still there at the next boot.
be sure you restarted your computer.
Win 10 Pro. Drop Shadows would not disable. I tried everything. I use Iconoid. It disables Desktop Drop Shadow and saves/restores Desktop positions automatically.