I have a Windows XP (Home) machine with a very weird problem. I cannot set the background image properly. That is, I can go to Desktop, Background image, select a different one, but the background has still the same solid colour. Now if I kill explorer.exe
, I can see the background image correctly, but starting explorer.exe
gives me the solid colour background back again.
If I go to Desktop, Customise Desktop, Web, there is a checkbox at the bottom called "Fix desktop icons" or something like this (not sure how it's called in the English version.) If I enable this checkbox, I can see the background, but the desktop icons are drawn with solid-colour backgrounds (even though I have the "draw icon labels transparently" option set.) If I disable the checkbox, I have no desktop background. Active Desktop is disabled.
Any idea how to fix this and what might be the reason for this behaviour in the first place?
Best Answer
In the same dialog box that you mentioned about the "fix desktop icons" button, ensure that active desktop isn't enabled by unchecking everything in the list.
Next, go into the Registry Editor and check that there is not a key called 'NoChangingWallpaper' in either of the following locations. If there is, delete it and restart.
Run
regedit
OK
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop
andHKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop
Try resetting the Windows theme:
Properties
Themes
tabWindows XP
from the list of themesApply
Failing that, try an sfc /scannow to check for any corrupt system files they may be preventing the desktop wallpaper from automatically refreshing.
Run
sfc /scannow
OK
If this does not work, try a system restore.