Right click My Computer, select Properties, click Advanced, click Performance Settings, make sure there is a check next to "Use drop shadows for icon labels on the desktop".
thank you very much, sorted my problem, i was looking in all thru the display options on my desktop... LOL.
anyway I think its time I marked this as solved, my PC has certainly become faster and generally more responsive, especially since that index service was disabled, thought that was suposed to help improve speed...