Noticed that the drop shadows on a Remote Desktop session to Server 2008 R2 are inconsistently displayed.
On a Windows 7 PC you get a black drop shadow around each (white) letter of the text under all desktop shortcuts. On Server 2008 R2 remote desktop this drop shadow is often missing. Clearly a bug (or is it – no, it really is).
The top left icon’s text usually displays correctly. The other icons’ text comes and goes randomly. If you have a dark background image this is not a problem. If your corporate branding means that you have a pale background image it is a problem, as the white text obviously is somewhat hard to read.
Workaround, both steps needed:
- Add the following to your .theme file:
[Control Panel\Colors]
Background=255 255 255 - Use a Group Policy preference (or your favourite alternative method) to update each user’s registry:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software
\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion
\Explorer\Advanced
ListviewShadow (REG_DWORD) = 0
This will set the desktop background to a solid colour of white (your background image will still be overlayed on top of this). With a white background Windows will use black text for icon labels, if the drop shadows are turned off, and that is what the registy value does. It’s equivalent to right-clicking Computer then going to Properties – Advanced system settings – Performance, Settings… – unticking “Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop”.
