March 18th, 2008

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“I cannot change the desktop background or wallpaper. When I select a new one in desktop properties nothing happens.” - Erin V.

Erin, I’ve been getting this question a lot recently. This is most likely due to a virus or malware. There are currently several bugs that like to make adjustments to local security settings that can result in this behavior.

You may experience any of the following symptoms:

• The background section of the Desktop Properties dialog may be grayed out or unusable.
• Right-clicking images and choosing Set as Desktop background has no effect.
• You are only able to change the desktop color. Any other changes have no effect.

This can typically be resolved by making a few registry changes that reverse the unwanted security restrictions. You can use the file below to make those changes more easily.

dwpfix.reg

Once you apply this registry fix, functionality should be restored. Be sure to follow this up with full ad-ware and virus scans to be sure whatever bug made the changes isn’t still present on your system.

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This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 18th, 2008 at 4:19 pm and is filed under Windows XP. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.