Wallpaper Problem

[bpi]

Yesterday, I tried to change the wallpaper to a JPEG file in My Pictures folder via the "browse" button in the Desktop tab of the Display Properties.

I selected the JPEG file and clicked the OK button. Nothing happened/changed in the preview window and the "Apply" button was still greyed out.

I use this method to change wallpaper many times before without any problem. Now, all of a sudden, it didn't work.

Any suggestion to trackle this problem is apprecaited.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[barny2006]

you may not have the permission to change display properties.

 

[bpi]

How could that be ? I have the permission all along and all of a sudden, I have no permission ? I could do it before the Labor Day holiday and now after the holiday, I couldn't ...

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[Diancecht]

Holiday days are used by many IT deparments to distribute updates, including new profiles or configurations ...

Cheers,
Dian

 

[bpi]

There was no updates, new profile or configuration going out during the Labor day weekend. Otherwise, we would have received the email from them. Our company policy does not allow updates/changes to all PC without notification to users.

Any other suggestion ?

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[Dillinger99]

Have you tried a different .jpeg?

 

[bpi]

I have tried about 10 jpeg files, same result.

Thanks,

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[bcastner]

Download and use this utility. You want to repair anything that it notes:

http://www.softpedia.com/progDownload/Wallpaper-Hijack-Remover-Download-28594.html

If no joy, see:
Try:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;921049&sd=rss&spid=3223

 

[bpi]

Thanks for the links, I will give it a try.

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[linney]

Display/Background
thread779-1230249

location of "set as background" file?
thread779-962011


This one mentions some GPO's you can look at.

Inactive desktop and contols.
thread779-1244056

 

[bpi]

I tried several methods mentioned in this thread but none work so far. However, I just found a work around:

1) open up the jpeg file using windows picture and fax viewer,
2) right mouse click the picture,
3) select "set as desktop background"
4) done.

Thanks everyone for their input.

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[heterodox]

Ching-Ho Cheng,

I had the same problem, and this was my solution: Check the following registry keys for "NoActiveDesktop" values that are set to 1. If set to 1, change to 0.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\Explorer

I found that no reboot (nor even a logoff) was needed for the change to take effect, but that may have been due to a trick I employeed to help obviate such a need (the "trick" being using NirSoft's NirCmd utility, with the sysrefresh parameter). So, if you do find these value(s) set to 1, change them to 0 and reboot.

HTH!

 

[bpi]

HTH!

Thanks for the tip. I will give it a try.

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[bpi]

HTH!

I just looked at the register, the value of NoActiveDesktop is set to "0" under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\...\Explorer. However, there is no such key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\...\Explorer.

Ching-Ho Cheng

 

[bcastner]

I just looked at the register, the value of NoActiveDesktop is set to "0" under the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\...\Explorer. However, there is no such key under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\...\Explorer."

Makes no difference.
The HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ alone is sufficient to enable Active Desktop.

The Active Desktop registry setting is exposed in the GUI:

Turn on Active Desktop to allow JPG files to be used as Wallpaper

Note: Turning off (disabling) Active Desktop prevents you from using some of the desktop wallpaper files that are supplied by Microsoft. Specifically, any JPEG (.jpg) wallpaper files are not displayed when Active Desktop is not turned on. You are limited to bitmap (.bmp) wallpapers only.

To turn on Active Desktop, follow these steps:

1. Right-click the desktop. A shortcut menu appears.
2. Select the Active Desktop menu item.
3. Click to checkmark enable the Show Web Content menu item.

The question is whether your Wallpaper is a web page? If not, the setting has no bearing on the issue.

Windows XP cannnot directly use JPEG (or JPG) wallpapers. In order to use them it converts the wallpaper automaticly to a BMP wallpaper, and stores the wallpaper

There was an issue with this process pre-Service Pack 1:

http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=313596

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Users Helping Users

 

[heterodox]

When I had the problem described by bpi, I was simply trying to use JPG files as wallpaper, not web pages. And none of my WinXP (various flavor) systems have an "Active Desktop" menu item, as mentioned above. But the NoActiveDesktop values very much had bearing on whether or not I could use JPG files as wallpaper.

I'd just make sure that both keys mentioned in my post above have a NoActiveDesktop value, REG_DWORD, and that each is set to 0.

At least this will eliminate yet another possibility for the cause of the problem. Sorry if it doesn't help.

 

[bcastner]

If you do not see the items appear in your context menu:

Open the Control Panel.
Open Display Properties.
Click the Desktop tab.
Click the Customize Desktop button.
Click the Web tab in the Desktop Items window.
If you wish to enable the Active Desktop, check "My Current Home Page". Add your current home page into your desktop or click New to add another web page and/or other Active Desktop features. To update the content, click the Synchronize button.

If you wish to disable Active Desktop, make sure all checkboxes in this window are un-checked.



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Users Helping Users