Desktop icon -- transparent text boxes?

I usually think I'm reasonably facile with my laptops, but today I'm a bit
confused. My home Inspiron E1700 displays icon names in white letters on the
desktop-- with no boxes behind the text-- so that the background shows
through the letters. I've just had my business laptop (Latitude D520)
reimaged to correct a growing number of erratic behaviors. Updated bios,
fresh XP SP3 image, all updates in place. On my desktop all the icon labels
have boxes around them. I have compared the display settings between the two
machine and I can't find a reason for the differences. I'm trying to get my
business laptop labels to be transparent, as the home labels are. Prior to
the reimage, they were. Might there be some driver differences? A standard
agency image with all updates was used to install latest versions of our
regular business programs, not the Dell supplied OEM disks, which are now
rather out of date. Might there be a driver or something that is missing
that prevents the transparent labels?

Thanks. I'm adding additional individual preferences and a few specialized
software items to the fresh image to finish my reconfiguration and I'm hoping
I can resolve this relatively minor item as well.

This has nothing to do with Media Center...

I forget the exact location, and I can't check because I now have the wrong
version of Windows, but somewhere in your desktop properties you can tell
Windows to allow active content, or some such phrase.

While off topic for Windows Media Center.

This applies to Windows XP Professional and Windows XP Media Center.
The setting for the transparent icons and text on the desktop are located in
a strange place.
Control Panel > System.
Click on Advanced Tab.
At Performance, click the Settings Button.
Visual Effects Tab.
Scroll in the list box to find "Use drop Shadows for icon labels on the
desktop" Check it. Apply. Then OK.

You should now have the transparent text on the desktop icons.

There are several choices that you can tick, you may try them and see what
effect they have.

Your background is in Display properties. Right Click the Desktop, Desktop
tab and choose your background.

[RMangum]

You need to disable your Active desk top... believe me I tried everything else and this is the only thing that worked. :)

Microsoft Windows XP users

Open the Control Panel.
Open the Display icon.
Click the Desktop tab.
Click the Customize Desktop button.
Click the Web tab in the Desktop Items window.
If you wish to enable the Active Desktop, check My Current Home Page. Add your current home page into your desktop or click New to add another web page and/or other Active Desktop features. To update the content, click the Synchronize button.

If you wish to disable Active Desktop, make sure all checkboxes in this window are un-checked.

Microsoft Windows 98, Windows ME, Windows 2000 users:

Open the Control Panel.
Open the Display icon.
Click the Web tab in the Display Properties window.
If you wish to enable the Active Desktop, check the checkbox for "Show Web content on my Active Desktop" and select the home page you wish to use as the active desktop.

If you wish to disable Active Desktop, make sure that "Show Web content on my Active Desktop" is unchecked.