also,

when i want to change the colour of the text below the icon windows has it greyed out so i can change the text colour or the backing colour.

any ideas?!

right click and choose properties.

select the appearance tab.

then choose desktop under the Item list or click on the background in the picture.

Select a colour at the right and your done.

In windows 2000 you can only choose a solid colour for the text back drop.

In windows xp the back drops are transparent.