cannot pick a desktop background nor will it show

[shmuckduck]

so im not that intelligent when it comes to computers nor am i retarded. i right clicked on a picture and set it as my background image and nothing happened so i right clicked on my desktop its self and went to do it that way by browsing through my pictures and did it that way but it doesnt show a preview of the picture i selected nor does it let me change how it shows up on my screen whether it be streched title ect. i was just wondering why the hell i cant have a desktop background. o yeah and sometimes when i start up my computer my background will show up for a whole 2 secs and then go to black. i appreciate any and all help i can get

[yoni5002]

Originally Posted by shmuckduck

so im not that intelligent when it comes to computers nor am i retarded. i right clicked on a picture and set it as my background image and nothing happened so i right clicked on my desktop its self and went to do it that way by browsing through my pictures and did it that way but it doesnt show a preview of the picture i selected nor does it let me change how it shows up on my screen whether it be streched title ect. i was just wondering why the hell i cant have a desktop background. o yeah and sometimes when i start up my computer my background will show up for a whole 2 secs and then go to black. i appreciate any and all help i can get

First of all I recommend you to run a full spyware scan with at least 2 Antispyware soft.

Spybot Search and Destroy

And also Webroot Spy Sweeper

And finally update your Antivirus software and run a full scan. Or scan you PC for Viruses online HERE

Good luck

[shmuckduck]

not even the default pictures show a preview

[Miz]

In Display Properties>Desktop tab, click on the Customize Desktop button, go to the Web tab. Uncheck everything there, click OK and Apply. Then see if you can change the background picture.

If that works, mostly likely the change was made by spyware and you should use at least two spyware removal tools. In addition to the ones Yoni posted links to, there are Ewido, CCleaner and Ad-Aware. They're all freeware. Be sure to update each after installation and before running their scans.

[DJB MASTER]

I think this is caused by a virus or spyware attack. It took me ages to find out how to fix it but i eventually got it fixed.

When you right click on the desktop and go to display, are all the desktops greyed out and the scroll bar is greyed out?

If so download Desktop Clean.

http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/files/cleandesktop.exe

Just run it and it will fix you desktop errors for you. It worked for me. It should automatically run when you click it.
if it don't open goto c:\desktopclean and double click on cleandesktop.vbs.

Your icons, taskbar, startmenu and explorer will close and restart. i think it then asks you to press F5 to restart your desktop.

Have fun with it...

DJB MASTER

[shmuckduck]

thanks for the help guys it worked out fine. many thanks

[Zero Ice]

I am having this same problem. When I use Desktop Clean, I receive an error.

The window says...

"Loading your settings failed. (Access is denied. )

Can anyone help get the program to work?

Thanks

[devnullius]

First to the previous poster: are you using an administrator/power user account when you log on? Also, there are machine policies which prevent changing the background with exactly this kind of error remarks...

Then my story...

It all started with a DCOM event log I have on Windows 2003 x86 Small Bus.

I took the CLID it referenced and removed the keys from the registry completely. This removed the ugly event log, but after the reboot my background wouldn't show anymore!

If I enable Web view, I can see the background, but I also got al the html sheit on my desktop - it's a performance loss I don't want'.

So disabling web view? Background gone

So I tried the excellent tip from DJB Master (Desktop Clean. http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/files/cleandesktop.exe).

When explorer.exe is "killed" it shows the background. Whenever explorer.exe starts again, my background disappears.

Spyware free and virus free (Avast server & kaspersky online scanner with advanced settings).

Could it be because I removed the CLID's? Shouldn't be it, but who knows... Sadly enough I removed the original event logs, or I would give more info on what it exactly was referencing as an object.

For now; help

[tantoro]

I have dealt with a similar issue before where the "Browse" button in the desktop tab is grayed out. I believe this is caused by spyware and Spybot Search and Destroy, while a good tool, did not fix. There is a registry entry you will need to change and that fixed it in the past.

Open Regedit and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
(and)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies \System

Delete

the values "Wallpaper" and "WallPaperStyle" in the right-pane.

Close Regedit.exe



Steve

[devnullius]

thank you for the registry tip - I will keep it in my archive for the next stubbern machine that crosses my path...

I solved the problem (to my BIG surprise) by following one of those google adwords for "solve <PUT YOUR PROBLEM HERE> with free scan"-sheit. Just for the fun of it.

It brought me to the tool ErrorKiller v2.6 (errorkiller.com) which only fixes 31 problems in the free evaluation version.

Luckily for me, my desktop problem appeared to be one of the first problems detected, and so solved!

Gonna look for a warez version of this tool - I like it ;-)

Thanx and greetz!

Devvie Nuis

Conare nullius momenti videri fortasse missilibus careant
------
All spelling mistakes are my own and may only be distributed
under the GNU General Public License! - ((c) 1995-2001 by
Coredump; 2002-007 by DevNullius)


PS: TIP: THE best tool for removing spyware is Spyware Doctor - believe this old lady... All the rest sux ;-P

[devnullius]

... after all was well, I changed the desktop background colour and again, windows would not show my background images anymore :/

So I installed a patched ErrorKiller, but this time it solved nothing.

I installed a patched RegistryFix, but also, still no background.

Strange part is, the image is visible whenever my desktop isn't shown. So when I press Ctrl-Alt-Del (windows server), I will see the image. When I kill explorer.exe, I will see the image etc.

So I choose for the Display option "Customize Desktop" - Web. There I enable "Lock desktop items" (and no active webpages), and I have my background. It's a workaround which does not make me happy, but for now it has to do... It's not my pc anyways ;-)

Where it all fails... I dunno :| (I had Spyware doctor check all, also I even tried search&destroy. Nothing.)

Have fun!


(PS: the values "Wallpaper" and "WallPaperStyle" in the right-pane do not exist in my registry)

[hoipolloi]

Thankyou for the tip - this was the one that finally fixed the problem with the grayed out options under the desktop tab, after I spent more than a day trying out numerous things (from Googling)

Originally Posted by tantoro

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
(and)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\
Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies \System

Delete

the values "Wallpaper" and "WallPaperStyle" in the right-pane.

Steve

For anyone interested, I used the following to rid of viruses/spyware from my PC - Spybot Search & Destroy; Windows Defender (from MSFT); AdAware; Security Task Manager.

Also, as noted in the thread, I observed the wallpaper to show up whenever I killed the "explorer" process and at bootup time. Additionally, I do not use the ActiveDesktop feature - which has its own set of several possible registry fixes.

[devnullius]

Update for obsolete links...

So I tried the excellent tip from DJB Master (Desktop Clean. http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/files/cleandesktop.exe).

Is now:
http://www.thespykiller.co.uk/downloads

There you can download cleandesktop.exe.

I re-searched for the tool errorkiller (current version: 2.8.3222.605 - not much warez around, still, for this. Newest seems to be 2.6.1.7).

Eval version still found more registry problems than TuneUp Registry Repair 2009 and regcure.

Might be too aggressive, but for now I will see if my emule downloads will deliver some warez version of this scanner. It's fast, small and at seems complete...

Also, found following information to add to the discussion:
FROM: http://forums.techguy.org/windows-nt...llpaper-3.html

cutter70
Junior Member with 1 posts.

Join Date: Feb 2008
18-Feb-2008, 05:42 AM #45
Desktop backround
1. Run "Regedit".


2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\policies


3. If you see a folder (key) "ActiveDesktop" select it. If not, make a new key and label it "ActiveDesktop".


4. If you see "NoChangingWaIiPaper", double-click the DWORD value and set it to "0". Otherwise, you need to create a new DWORD value of "NoChangingWaIiPaper" and set it to "0".


5. Try changing your wallpaper. If this fix doesn't solve the problem, you may also need to make the above registry changes at location:
HKEY _CURRENT _USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies .

Peace, till repost ; )

devnullius '009

[Harrow]

Originally Posted by devnullius

4. If you see "NoChangingWaIiPaper", double-click the DWORD value and set it to "0". Otherwise, you need to create a new DWORD value of "NoChangingWaIiPaper" and set it to "0".
devnullius '009

You could also delete it. And it also appears in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER section too. :P

If you don't want to do anything, then try going to a picture, right click, and click set as desktop background.