Is there any update on this?

My wife was complaining about this and I can't seem to get it to work. Just upgraded my latptop from 8.1 to 10 a couple days ago and have the same problem. I tried the change the background to a solid orange (which has worked in the past). I unchecked the system->advance->drop shadow setting. Still nothing. So I downloaded the reg file and ran it. Still have drop shadows. checked the registry entry. Looks like it should work but I still have the shadow and of course can't read the text.





bld 1903

Neither method works.

So 4 weeks ago, I reported that my drop shadows remained after the settings and registry change. Well somewhere along the way, the drops did go away. But I don't know when. If I can believe update history, there has been 1 update, KB4522738, since that posting.

Was a little reluctant to report it given I have no idea why the drop shadows disappeared. But maybe this post provides some hope to others.

The other thing is that the advanced settings did work on a desktop running 1803 (my laptop above is 1903) after a reboot.

I'll probably update that as well soon so we'll see if the shadows come back.

Brink said:

Hello George,

As a test, see if restarting the computer after using Option Two may work better for you.

Brink, thanks for the interest but as you can see in the snip the shadows appear based on the background color. I wish they would just go away, but...

Brink said:

When this happened to me for not changing, I believe I toggled changing the desktop background to something else and then back, used option 2, and restarted the computer to get it working again.

It's hard to replicate this issue since it appears to happen randomly.

I was just playing around with two machines (blds 1803 & 1903). I had read some time ago that changing to a solid orange forced a black non-shadow text. Then you would put back your picture and it would stay a non-shadow black. And I'd swear that did work for me at one point.

However, just now with those machines showing black text with no shadow, I went to personalize and changed to the solid background. In both cases, I GOT the shadow back as soon as I changed to the solid color. The shadows stayed when I put back the (different on each machine) pictures.

I then did the below change sequence to each of those machines.

Went in to advanced system settings / settings. The "Use drop shadows . . ." was still off. I checked the setting and got completely out. Went back in to advanced settings and unchecked the "Use drop shadows. . .". Got completely out. Still had drop shadows. Rebooted and the drop shadows were gone.

I did a second iteration. I did the same sequence starting with the "Personalize" which brought back the shadows. Then I went through the above sequence, rebooted and the shadows are gone. So I've got four trials of that method (2 times on 2 machines).

I should have checked the registry setting before but didn't. I did check it at the end and it is '0' on both machines.

- - - Updated - - -

I just did a little more playing around in the 1803 build. The Advanced System Settings / Settings ? Use drop shadows . . . does toggle the Computer\HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Advanced\ListviewShado w setting (you all probably already knew that).

But the personalize stuff seems to break some other linkage. Checking/unChecking the Use drop shadows . . . does continue to toggle the registry between 1 and 0, but as whatever that other link is is broken, nothing happens. But a reboot fixes the link and I can switch back and forth between shadows and no shadows using the Use drop shadows . . setting as long as I don't do something in personalize.

With me the option "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop" is unchecked.
At times, for unknown reason, Windows decides to enable shadows.
Rebooting the pc will remove the shadows again.

Just now, I clicked on 'Task View' button in the taskbar and then again (to go back) - shadows were enabled but the "Use drop shadows" remained unchecked.