I can see desktop icons and images flickering through my OFP in-game display!

This seems to occur when icons blink on the Windows task bar or in the task tray. It also may occur when Windows Update and other programs pop up a notification window while you're playing OFP.

If your graphics card supports Hardware Transform and Lighting (HW T&L), run the OFP preferences program and select an appropriate HW T&L entry in the DISPLAY TYPE drop-down list.

If that's not applicable or doesn't help, try pressing ALT+TAB to go out and come back to OFP.

(With thanks to squadmate Uziyahu for pointing this issue out to me).