How to Remove Drop Shadows for Icon Labels in Windows 10

By Zubair Alexander

- On February 25, 2020

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Once in a while you may run into some issues in Windows 10 where it's difficult to find a solution for the problem. One such issue is a bug that has been bothering a lot of people for years. It's the drop shadows on the icon labels on Windows 10 desktop. It's tough on your eyes and makes you feel like you have a double vision. There are many solutions that people have tried over the past 5- 6 years, but most of them work temporarily, if they work at all. In March 2018, I wrote an article on this topic and am updating it today because it needed some tweaking. I started to play around with the drop shadows around the icon labels on Windows 10 desktop because it was really annoying. I won't go through the laundry list of things that I tried, but will mention the solution that worked for me. I have documented two steps below. The first step is the official solution available in Windows 10, which doesn't work and if it does it is almost guaranteed to work only temporarily. The second step is what makes the first step work. In other words, you need to do both steps. In my original article I called these steps METHOD #1 and METHOD #2. However, I discovered that I can only consistently remove the drop shadows from the icon labels on Windows 10 desktops if I do both the steps. Therefore, in this article I am referring to them as STEP #1 and STEP #2. Here are the two steps that are necessary to get rid of the drop shadows for icon labels in Windows 10. NOTE: I've tried these steps on several computers running Windows 10 Pro and Windows 10 Enterprise. I haven't tried them on Windows 10 Home edition. I don't see a reason why this solution won't work on Windows 10 Home. If you have had a chance to try these steps on Windows 10 Home, please let me know in the comments section at the end of this article.

STEP #1

Log in to Windows 10 and follow these steps. By default, the Windows 10 desktop icons have a drop shadow around the labels that makes the icon labels blurry and difficult to read. NOTE: You must complete step #1 and step #2 to in this article to get rid of drop shadows around your desktop icons. If this step alone worked for you, chances are it would be a temporary solution.

Hold down the Windows icon on your keyboard and press the Pause/Break key next to the Scroll Lock key.
In the System window, click Advanced system settings. In the past, the above key combination took you to Control Panel. Now it takes you to Windows 10 Settings screen. They both have an option for Advanced system settings.
In the System Properties window, on the Advanced tab click Settings in the Performance section.
In the Performance Options window, clear the option Use drop shadows icon for labels on the desktop. This option is available on the Visual Effects tab.
Click Apply. This may remove the drop shadows for the icon labels on the desktop, but unfortunately due to a feature/bug, for most people this option doesn't do anything. If it does what it's supposed to do, it is highly likely to revert back to the old setting and start displaying shadows. If it doesn't revert back then your problem is solved. That's great!
If you disable the drop shadows for icon labels in the above screenshot and go to the Windows registry, you will notice that the setting ListviewShadow is disabled (set to zero). Obviously, enabling or disabling this setting has no effect on the icon labels.

TIP: You may want to play around with another option called Smooth edges of screen font in the above screenshot. By clearing this box, I was able to get rid of the shadows, but noticed that the labels on the desktop icons were not very easy to read because the screen fonts didn't have the smooth edges that makes them more readable. I also noticed that every time I cleared the option and applied the setting, the text on my browser window disappeared. The text on the entire page turned white on white so it wasn't readable and this happened on several tabs in my browser. Obviously, I decided to leave this setting to its default value.

STEP #2

This second step is necessary to get rid of the shadows.

Right-click Start button and select Task Manager.
Look for Windows Explorer on the Processes tab.
Right-click Windows Explorer and select Restart.
You will see the drop shadows around the icon labels on your desktop disappear. Here's what my icon labels looked like before and after on my Windows 10 desktop. No more double vision!

Workaround

In 2018 when I wrote the first article on this topic, there was a price to pay for this workaround. The above solution prevented me from having a desktop background picture or a slideshow. I had to use a solid color as my desktop background to get rid of the shadows. I was willing to live without a background image on my desktop back then, as long as I could get rid of the shadows around the icon labels. Luckily, today you are not forced to use a solid color. You can use an image and not have the irritating drop shadows around your icon labels. After trying BOTH the steps above, if you are still seeing shadows around the icon labels, try this workaround. If you are using an image as a desktop background, change your background to a solid color. Here's how.

Right-click the Windows 10 Start button and select Settings.
Click Personalization -> Background and change the background to Solid color. In my example, I selected Seafoam teal.

Hopefully there are no more drop shadows around your Windows 10 desktop icons.

Thanks for reading my article. If you are interested in IT training & consulting services, please reach out to me. Visit ZubairAlexander.com for information on my professional background.