I don't know if this helps but I had the following problem on windows 2000.

In Display Properties - appearance -scheme.
The scheme is now a new "Windows Standard".
With different colors for the various object on the screen.

I found that my objects had the wrong colors and did not follow the desktop scheme.
I just had to "resettodefault" on all the properties to do with color.

I.E:
backcolor
colorsource
disablebackcolor
disabledforecolor
forecolor
selectedbackcolor
selectedforecolor

ect...

If you switch to scheme "windows classic" on the win2000 PC and it looks OK.
Then this could be you problem.

HTH