1 of 4 users has a locked desktop

[Alberto]

I have 4 users (inc myself as Admin) using XP Home SP2; I recently had to use
the OEM Restore disk because "Config" could not be found at boot; I restored
successfully back to the initial state of the computer, and a backup was made
by the process. Because I had to reinstall all the applications that were
lost on restore, I upgraded my antivirus to Norton 2008 (costs the same as a
renewal). I also have Spybot installed. Both have been run twice in the past
two days with no issues.

I was able to re-establish everyone's profile (email, itunes, desktop, etc.)
however one of the profiles did not allow the wallpaper to show. It also had
the toolbar locked. I tried to unlock the desktop, but it didn't work. I
logged back in as the Admin, and changed that account to an admin and the
problem went away. I changed it back to limited and it the problem came back.
I changed it back to admin and it went away, so I stayed logged in as that
user and changed the account to limited. It seemed to stay OK, but after I
logged out and back in, the problem persists. Interestingly, when I log out
of this user, the original wallpaper flashes on screen before logging out. It
seems to be "in back" of the blank wallpaper. The icons are present, but not
the wallpaper or the desired taskbar.

I was logged in as myself (Admin) when I re-established all 3 user accounts,
and only that one has had any problems. Could I have imported something
faulty when I copied files from the Backup that was created?

 

[Newbie Coder]

Alberto,

It's definately profile specific & is in this profile only. If you copied the NTuser.dat
file then the problem lies in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive of the registry.

START | RUN | Type 'regedit' & navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run

What's running on startup?

Check this key too:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop

to see if the key exisits & if it has the following entries:

NoChangingWallpaper
NoMovingBands

Are any of the above two DWORD'S set to 1 (one)? If so, change them to 0 (zero)

Also check:

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

NoActiveDesktop
ClassicShell

Is the above values set to 1 (one) too? Change that back to 0 (zero)

 

[Alberto]

Thanks for the reply.
I checked all 4 profiles: none of them have Active Desktop key, all have
Explorer.
My profile as admin is as follows:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoDriveTypeAutoRun"=dword:00000091
"NoBandCustomize"=dword:00000000
"NoMovingBands"=dword:00000000
"NoCloseDragDropBands"=dword:00000000
"NoSetTaskbar"=dword:00000000
"NoToolbarsOnTaskbar"=dword:00000000
"NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000
"NoActiveDesktop"=dword:00000000
"ClassicShell"=dword:00000000

None of the other profiles have this info, and only the one profile does not
work. I tried saving this key in a shared documents folder, then
double-clicking on it while logged into the problem profile but it wouldn't
put it into the Registry. I tried making a new key so I could manually enter
the info but it wouldn't let me.

The only tweaks I have tried are the ones you or a couple others have
outlined from Kelly's Korner.
Thanks agin for the help.

 

[Alberto]

I managed to export my registry key for "...Policies/Explorer" which allows
my desktop and taskbar to work fine, and then changed the problem profile
"Chris" to an Admin account. Then I logged in to "Chris" and double clicked
the exported key and it loaded it into the registry. I checked while logged
in as Chris and it was there.
Then I logged out of Chris, switched to my profile as Admin, changed his
account back to Limited, and went back to Chris. The problem retiurned and
the registry key had been changed.
How is it that the registry changes like that?

 

[William Bunch]

Here is I think a solution although you may not want to do it....Delete the
problem profile and start over....the other solution is to run the Windows
live scanner to fix the registry and start over.....if that doesn't work
revert back to option one. You can avoid these issues by locking in the
default profiles for all users and creating one set standard when they log
off and back on everything is reset to a pre-determined setting. While they
are in a session they can change things such as wall papers and stuff but on
shut down and when they log back in it would revert back to the defaults.

 

[Alberto]

I appreciate the suggestion. How do I run the Windows Live scanner, and can I
do it while logged in as "Chris" or do I do it from my Admin account/profile?

 

[Colin Barnhorst]

http://onecare.live.com/site/en-US/center/howsafe.htm