Black squares over desktop icons in Windows 7

Hi!

No matter but thanks anyway. While I am appalled at the casual manner Toshiba Support treats customers I wish to take back most of what I said about them in my last thread. The issue over the black squares is simple as I discovered and will not forgive myself for being plain stupid. The real culprit is this registry tweak to remove those unsightly (to me at least) desktop short cut arrows http://www.mydigitallife.info/2009/01/31/workaround-to-remove-shortcut-arrow-make-transparent-in-windows-7-yet-can-pin-to-taskbar-or-start-menu/.

I am absolutely certain because after using this tried and tested made-for-Vista short cut remover, my black squares have not come back again. http://www.howtogeek.com/howto/windows-vista/disable-shortcut-icon-arrow-overlay-in-windows-vista/

A good number of people don't like those arrows and in XP and Vista, you simply went into the Windows Registry Inkfile and deleted the  IsShortcut entry and they disappeared. But Microsoft in its infinite wisdom has made that simple operation in Windows 7 impossible. By deleting the IsShortcut entry in Windows 7, you will not be able to pin programmes onto the task-bar as we are "sagely" informed in the first hopeless solution.

Am a bit embarrassed by all this but I figure I have got my just desserts by jumping onto third party tweaks that ain't tweaks at all.

Anyway thanks for your help and hope this will help others running into similar black square issues

Happy Holidays

Not that I know of. It would seem that your Toshiba isn't a good fit for Win7. Since the Toshiba support people refunded your money, I'd just accept that and continue to use Vista on the machine. Not all hardware works well with all operating systems. I'm sorry, but really if Toshiba itself can't fix the issue - and it is their hardware, their drivers - then I don't know what else you can do.

I'm sorry I was unable to help you.

MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

After you upgraded to Windows 7, did you then install Windows 7 drivers for all your hardware and the various Toshiba laptop utilities? If not, that's your next step. You will only get them from Toshiba's tech support website for your specific model machine.

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MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!

Hi Malkeleah

Thanks for your response. The plot actually thickens. I am six days into figuring out why my Toshiba L550 won't upgrade to Win 7 successfully. Turns out its not the updates or HP printers at fault as I had earlier supposed. I have contacted all the Toshiba support offices I could find and  they have zilch solution to this display problem. Strangest of all is the Toshiba Windows 7 Upgrade Team which I contacted and demanded a solid solution on pain of getting a refund on the upgrade purchase. They elected to refund me without a single hint as to why the Microsoft product they sold me  won't work on their Toshiba laptop. Now that casts customer care in a completely new light does it not?

I have done everything ( I mean everything like following the upgrade sequence to the most minute detail) technically possible to rid my desktop of the black squares and failed soundly. Toshiba has no answer, and neither does their local support side-kick in Switzerland. There is of course a convoluted  solution I found on the Internet which goes like this:

1. Downgrade resolution to 16 bit- which rids of the black squares
2. Reboot computer- and you have the black squares back
3. Upgrade resolution to 32 bit which rids of the black squares

Now how about that for a workaround? Trouble is  I am wasting valuable time troubleshooting Win 7 instead of using it. I switched from HP in September and think that was a darned foolish decision on my part. Toshiba is clueless, at least for now and think they have a very poor CRM approach.

Is there any answer out there before I run out of hairs to pull?

After you upgraded to Windows 7, did you then install Windows 7 drivers for all your hardware and the various Toshiba laptop utilities? If not, that's your next step. You will only get them from Toshiba's tech support website for your specific model machine.

MS-MVP - Elephant Boy Computers - Don't Panic!