Windows 10: How do I get grid of the transparent icons and keep my background?

Hello,


My computer update and now my icons on my start menu in tablet mode are all transparent. I have tried going into personalization under settings and turning off transparency then changing the background to a color so my apps aren't transparent, but in doing so I lost my background. I would like to be able to see my background in tablet mode and still have my icons colored like they used to be. How do I do that?

This is what everything looks like now. I would like the icons to be colored in the various blues, greens, and oranges they were.

:)

 

My desktop icons move to a grid on the left for no reason

Hello,

If your icons are aligned to a grid, this means that the settings of your desktop are currently auto arranged and automatically aligned. Since you want to rearrange your desktop icons on however you like them, we suggest that you follow these steps:

• Right-click at a blank area on your desktop.
• Hover on View.
• In the right pane, look for Auto arrange icons. If it's checked, make sure to uncheck it.
• Hover again on View.
• This time, look for Align icons to grid. If it's checked, make sure to uncheck it.

After doing these steps, you'll be able to rearrange all your desktop icons again on how you want it.

Let us know how it goes and if you need further assistance, feel free to post back.

 

Transparent Start menu icon background?


On the start menu each application / file has an associated icon. Unfortunately it appears that Windows 10 is using the accent color as the icon's background. So I get squares of color with the icon in the middle. There are screen shots from Windows 10 previews that show the icon backgrounds as transparent, or at least matching the background color of the start menu. But with transparency turned on, the icon backgrounds are not transparent, but instead the accent color.

It is as if Microsoft said "Hey - ALL icons should be SQUARE - so we will make all icons SQUARE just like tiles, whether you like it or not".

Bleh. So - how does one make the start menu icon background color transparent?

 

Desktop Icon Background Color

Your example is a shortcut for the Camera app, a UWP app managed by the Store. I'm betting that the other blue desktop icons are also for Store apps.

The icon is part of the app, and would be updated whenever the Store automatically updates its apps. Going from transparent background to blue suggests MS have modified the Store app icons in the latest update and messed up its transparency effect. You'll have to wait for the next Store update to see if they correct this.

You cannot uninstall a Store app update to revert to an earlier version, but you can change its shortcut's icon. Right-click on the icon and select Properties, then click the Change icon button. Choose an appropriate icon, there is a camera icon available in the SHELL32.dll that it will offer by default - and that one is transparent .