Solaris Common Desktop Environment: User's Transition Guide

Color Flashing

If you are using a workstation that does not use a 24-bit graphics card, running certain applications may result in a phenomenon know as color flashing, where the application appears with incorrect colors while the rest of the desktop appears normal; when given the focus it displays with correct colors but the rest of the desktop does not. This is due to fundamental limitations in the X Windows system.

If you experienced color flashing in OpenWindows, you will probably experience it in CDE. You may be able to avoid color flashing by using the Number of Colors to Use setting, which is available from the Color dialog box in Style Manager.