Active Desktop: web items don't appear

[Roel Schroeven]

Hi,

I'm trying to enable Active Desktop and add some web items. Enabling
Active Desktop is easy enough; when I enable it, the labels of my
desktop icons appear with a colored background instead of transparent.

But whatever web items I add and check, none of them are visible on the
desktop. I searched the MS knowledge base, but to no avail.

Any idea? Most Google results with similar problems report that 'Lock
items on desktop' and similar menu items are gone, but that's not the
case here. Everything looks normal, except the web items themselves.

 

[Wesley Vogel]

[[You must be connected to the Internet to add active Web content to your
desktop.]]

The Active Desktop Wallpaper May Not Be Displayed When You Use Gpedit.msc
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297846

Desktop icons and icon labels may not display background transparency or the
drop shadow effect in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305117

 

[Roel Schroeven]

[[You must be connected to the Internet to add active Web content to your
desktop.]]

I'm almost always connected, so that's no problem.

The Active Desktop Wallpaper May Not Be Displayed When You Use Gpedit.msc
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297846

I set it to 'Enabled' using gpedit, but then (1) the web items still
don't appear and (2) Active Desktop is always active, even when no web
items are checked. That doesn't seem to be the solution, so I set it
back to 'Not configured'. I can see it would be a problem if you set it
to 'Disabled', of course.

Desktop icons and icon labels may not display background transparency or the
drop shadow effect in Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305117

That just describes that background transparency and drop shadow effect
are disabled when active desktop is active. In my case, both are
disabled if I check one or more web items; that's why I presume that
active desktop is active, even though no web items show on the desktop.

Thanks for helping anyway!

 

[Wesley Vogel]

I can't find much on this.

Advanced Windows XP User Features
Active Desktop: A View of the Internet
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=29744&seqNum=7

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.
Wes

In

[[You must be connected to the Internet to add active Web content to
your desktop.]]

I'm almost always connected, so that's no problem.

The Active Desktop Wallpaper May Not Be Displayed When You Use
Gpedit.msc
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;297846

I set it to 'Enabled' using gpedit, but then (1) the web items still
don't appear and (2) Active Desktop is always active, even when no web
items are checked. That doesn't seem to be the solution, so I set it
back to 'Not configured'. I can see it would be a problem if you set
it to 'Disabled', of course.

Desktop icons and icon labels may not display background
transparency or the drop shadow effect in Windows Server 2003 and
Windows XP
http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;305117

That just describes that background transparency and drop shadow
effect are disabled when active desktop is active. In my case, both
are disabled if I check one or more web items; that's why I presume
that active desktop is active, even though no web items show on the
desktop.

Thanks for helping anyway!

 

[Roel Schroeven]

I can't find much on this.

Me neither, unfortunately.

Advanced Windows XP User Features
Active Desktop: A View of the Internet
http://www.informit.com/articles/article.asp?p=29744&seqNum=7

I found that one already too... it learned me how to do it, but doesn't
tell me why it doesn't work.