How can I stop the tree view expand/collapse icons from fading when losing focus in Eclipse?

Question

I'm using Eclipse Helios and have noticed that the treeview in the package explorer now auto-hides the expand/collapse tree icons when I move my focus away from it. I personally find this behavior a bit distracting and was wondering if anyone knows how to disable it?

Answer 1

Introduced in Vista (by design say this thread), the sub-directory indicators now vanish when the tree is out of focus.
And the superusers had only one global setting to prevent that.

• Right click Computer > Properties
• Advanced System Settings
• Under Performance click Settings
• Un-check Fade or Slide Menus into View
• Apply

But that didn't prevent the fade effect in my Eclipse session (maybe a reboot is necessary?)

Since SWT Tree is base on the native OS widget (TreeView), it will inherit its native graphic evolutions.
See for instance "How to change SWT Tree plus/minus icons".

Answer 2

You can also try to disable visual themes for eclipse:

• right click on eclipse.exe and preferences
• Compatibility mode and check Disable visual themes

thats it

Answer 3

Will be "fixed" with Eclipse 3.8 (although it's an OS issue). https://bugs.eclipse.org/bugs/show_bug.cgi?id=342282

Answer 4

My Eclipse started showing this behaviour when I moved to Windows 7.