The space around the text under my icons is supposed to be transparent, but it's not. In another program that uses multi-layer graphics, objects are displayed on black squares; the black part is supposed to be transparent so I can see what's behind it. How do I fix this?

If you are talking about the text under your desktop icons, download Transparent version 4.2 from this link. I use this on Windows 95b, 98, NT4, and 2000 without any problems. As a bonus, you can make the icon text color anything you want. It even works in VGA and 256-color modes (which is something XP can't do, for some silly reason.) Check the readme file to see their recommendations, like placing a shortcut to this program in your Startup folder, so that you always have transparencies under your icon text.

Thanks, I'll try it.