My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I installed
Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red and
blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my desktop.
Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how can I
get rid of them?
Please help.
Thanks,
Ayla
>My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I installed
>Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red and
>blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my desktop.
>Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how can I
>get rid of them?
Ayla (of the cave bear clan? :-),
Most desktop icons have a little white square in the lower left
corner with a little black arrow pointing up and right. Are
these little arrows still present or have they perhaps been
replaced with the red and blue dots?
Does the recycle bin also have these dots? I suspect not.
I'm asking because it is conceivable that that little sub-icon
has been damaged. Not sure if that would lead us anywhere, but
it may still be good to know.
Hans-Georg,
Thanks for the answer. Some of the shortcuts are covered with those dots,
some of them are not, such as; My Documents folder does not have the dot.
But, some of the folders in that folder have. Recyle Bin, My Computer,
Control Panel, Easy-Photo, Skype do not have dots.
Ayla
"Hans-Georg Michna" wrote:
> On Wed, 31 Oct 2007 10:01:01 -0700, Ayla wrote:
>
> >My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I installed
> >Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red and
> >blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my desktop.
> >Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how can I
> >get rid of them?
>
> Ayla (of the cave bear clan? :-),
>
> Most desktop icons have a little white square in the lower left
> corner with a little black arrow pointing up and right. Are
> these little arrows still present or have they perhaps been
> replaced with the red and blue dots?
>
> Does the recycle bin also have these dots? I suspect not.
>
> I'm asking because it is conceivable that that little sub-icon
> has been damaged. Not sure if that would lead us anywhere, but
> it may still be good to know.
>
> Hans-Georg
> --
> No mail, please.
>
Use desktop properties and increase the size of the icons.
You will probably find that these are not dots, but small Microsoft emblems
indicating the file is running in compatibility mode. (Or something akin.)
"Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:E25EF470-A0F6-4D0D-A87B-E11F21A66124@microsoft.com...
> My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I
installed
> Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red and
> blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my desktop.
> Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how can
I
> get rid of them?
> Please help.
> Thanks,
> Ayla
I have tried your suggestion Mark. It did not work-sorry. Thanks anyway. Ayla
"Mark" wrote:
> Use desktop properties and increase the size of the icons.
> You will probably find that these are not dots, but small Microsoft emblems
> indicating the file is running in compatibility mode. (Or something akin.)
>
>
> "Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:E25EF470-A0F6-4D0D-A87B-E11F21A66124@microsoft.com...
> > My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I
> installed
> > Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red and
> > blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my desktop.
> > Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how can
> I
> > get rid of them?
> > Please help.
> > Thanks,
> > Ayla
>
>
>
If it's an "icon overlay", you may have a program creating it. I couldn't
find it "standard" as part of Windows.
Are the "dots" on all icons, just shortcuts, just folders?
Did they remain when you made them larger?
These overlays are typically invoked by the programs running them and
usually appear only in the tray:
Microsoft versions (there are plenty more by third party software)
Red dot - Stopped
Green dot - Started
Circled red down arrow - Disconnected
Circled grey down arrow - Offline
Yellow triangle with exclamation - Warning
Red X - Error
Red exclamation mark - Needs attention
The following overlays apply mostly to shortcuts and not always to their
associated file:
(Folders will show them even if not a shortcut.)
White background, black arrow - Typical shortcut
Green dot with small yellow arrows - Offline file setup for synchronization
Two tiny blue arrows circling - Win2000 Offline file overlay
Grey X - Offline file placeholder, not cached
UAC Shield - File requires elevation to run
One little face - Shared file, specific
Two little faces - Shared file, everyone
Are there more? Most likely.
"Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:FCC40CE4-DC1F-4345-88A4-206DC8D079D5@microsoft.com...
> I have tried your suggestion Mark. It did not work-sorry. Thanks anyway.
Ayla
>
> "Mark" wrote:
>
> > Use desktop properties and increase the size of the icons.
> > You will probably find that these are not dots, but small Microsoft
emblems
> > indicating the file is running in compatibility mode. (Or something
akin.)
> >
> >
> > "Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > news:E25EF470-A0F6-4D0D-A87B-E11F21A66124@microsoft.com...
> > > My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I
> > installed
> > > Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red
and
> > > blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my
desktop.
> > > Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how
can
> > I
> > > get rid of them?
> > > Please help.
> > > Thanks,
> > > Ayla
> >
> >
> >
Those are on some folders, files, some program shortcuts, not all. For
example, Outlook 2007 has red dot, all the others are blue. My Document does
not have, but when I open My Documents, all the files and folders in it have.
I had taken the picture of my desktop. I hope there is a way to send the
picture to you.
Thanks, Ayla
"Mark" wrote:
> If it's an "icon overlay", you may have a program creating it. I couldn't
> find it "standard" as part of Windows.
> Are the "dots" on all icons, just shortcuts, just folders?
> Did they remain when you made them larger?
>
> These overlays are typically invoked by the programs running them and
> usually appear only in the tray:
> Microsoft versions (there are plenty more by third party software)
> Red dot - Stopped
> Green dot - Started
> Circled red down arrow - Disconnected
> Circled grey down arrow - Offline
> Yellow triangle with exclamation - Warning
> Red X - Error
> Red exclamation mark - Needs attention
>
> The following overlays apply mostly to shortcuts and not always to their
> associated file:
> (Folders will show them even if not a shortcut.)
>
> White background, black arrow - Typical shortcut
> Green dot with small yellow arrows - Offline file setup for synchronization
> Two tiny blue arrows circling - Win2000 Offline file overlay
> Grey X - Offline file placeholder, not cached
> UAC Shield - File requires elevation to run
> One little face - Shared file, specific
> Two little faces - Shared file, everyone
>
> Are there more? Most likely.
>
>
>
> "Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:FCC40CE4-DC1F-4345-88A4-206DC8D079D5@microsoft.com...
> > I have tried your suggestion Mark. It did not work-sorry. Thanks anyway.
> Ayla
> >
> > "Mark" wrote:
> >
> > > Use desktop properties and increase the size of the icons.
> > > You will probably find that these are not dots, but small Microsoft
> emblems
> > > indicating the file is running in compatibility mode. (Or something
> akin.)
> > >
> > >
> > > "Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> > > news:E25EF470-A0F6-4D0D-A87B-E11F21A66124@microsoft.com...
> > > > My Sony Vaio laptop came with Vista Home Premium already loaded. I
> > > installed
> > > > Office 2007, and uninstalled Home and Student version. Since then, red
> and
> > > > blue dots appeared on the left bottom corner on the icons on my
> desktop.
> > > > Microsoft and Sony did not solve the problem. Why it happened and how
> can
> > > I
> > > > get rid of them?
> > > > Please help.
> > > > Thanks,
> > > > Ayla
> > >
> > >
> > >
>
>
>
"Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
news:28D2EC19-B062-4CEF-B897-F1494368ED5E@microsoft.com...
> Mark,
>
> Those are on some folders, files, some program shortcuts, not all. For
> example, Outlook 2007 has red dot, all the others are blue. My Document
> does
> not have, but when I open My Documents, all the files and folders in it
> have.
> I had taken the picture of my desktop. I hope there is a way to send the
> picture to you.
If you access the newsgroup through a real newsreader, like Vista's
replacement for Outlook Express, then you can attach things to a post and
others can get those attachments. To minimize the size of a screen capture,
edit it with MSPaint and select only a small area around the icon, copy it
and paste it into a new MSPaint window. Save it as .png, then add .txt to
the file name before attaching it to your post. .png is a non-lossy
compressed format that is very efficient for typical stuff in a window.
Adding the .txt extension makes it less likely to be rejected by virus
scanners.
Paul,
Thank you for your help. I edited my desktop picture, and saved as txt.png.
as you recommended. Now, how can I attach to my post? Thanks, Ayla
"Paul Randall" wrote:
>
> "Ayla" <Ayla@discussions.microsoft.com> wrote in message
> news:28D2EC19-B062-4CEF-B897-F1494368ED5E@microsoft.com...
> > Mark,
> >
> > Those are on some folders, files, some program shortcuts, not all. For
> > example, Outlook 2007 has red dot, all the others are blue. My Document
> > does
> > not have, but when I open My Documents, all the files and folders in it
> > have.
> > I had taken the picture of my desktop. I hope there is a way to send the
> > picture to you.
>
> If you access the newsgroup through a real newsreader, like Vista's
> replacement for Outlook Express, then you can attach things to a post and
> others can get those attachments. To minimize the size of a screen capture,
> edit it with MSPaint and select only a small area around the icon, copy it
> and paste it into a new MSPaint window. Save it as .png, then add .txt to
> the file name before attaching it to your post. .png is a non-lossy
> compressed format that is very efficient for typical stuff in a window.
> Adding the .txt extension makes it less likely to be rejected by virus
> scanners.
>
> -Paul Randall
>
>
>
red and blue dots on the icons on my desktop 
Linear Mode
