active desktop

  • Thread starter Thread starter Jeff
  • Start date Start date
J

Jeff

There used to be something called an "active" desktop which you could turn
on or off by right clicking on the desktop and selecting it. I have XP MCE
and can find no such choice. Has it been discontinued in XP MCE?

Jeff
 
It does not appear that way in XP.

When you right-click a blank area on the desktop on a computer that runs
Windows XP, the shortcut menu does not display the Active Desktop command.
In Windows XP, Active Desktop is always turned on and you normally cannot
disable it. Active Desktop can be disabled, but you have to use TweakUI or
Group Policy (only with XP Pro) or change some settings in the registry.

If Show Desktop icons, Lock web items on Desktop and Run Desktop Cleanup
Wizard appear when you right click the Desktop and point to Arrange Icons By
then Active Desktop is enabled.

Right click Desktop | Properties | Desktop tab | Customize Desktop button

If you have the Web tab in Display Properties then Active Desktop is
enabled.


--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Thank you. That explains it.

It seems Active desktop is therefore active in my XP MCE. I do have TweakUI
installed. It used to be advisable to turn off active Desktop for security
reasons. Is that still true or was I misinformed?

Jeff
 
It used to be advisable to turn off active Desktop
for security reasons. Is that still true or was I misinformed?
Click to expand...

I would think that if you have a decent AntiVirus and several antispyware
apps. And you keep all of these up to date and run frequent scans that you
probably will not get malware setting your Desktop wallpaper for you.

Show Desktop Icons will not display if you have unchecked:
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
in TweakUI.

If this is unchecked:
TweakUI
[+] Explorer
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
[[If this is unchecked then the ability to add Web Content to the desktop
will be disabled.]]

You will *not* see:

Right click Desktop | Properties | Desktop tab | Customize Desktop button |
Web tab

Or....
Right click Desktop | Arrange Icons By | Show Desktop Icons

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value Name: NoActiveDesktop
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 = Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
1 = Don't allow Web content to be added to the desktop

Also, *.jpg files will not be listed in...
Display Properties | Desktop tab | Background

I know about all of the above, because I accidently did this with TweakUI
shortly after I installed XP. I kept reading posts about...

1. Right-click the desktop.
2. Point to Arrange Icons By.
3. Click Show Desktop Icons.

And I could never see Show Desktop Icons.

Took me the longest time to figure out what in the world I had done. LOL

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
 
Thank you.

Jeff

Wesley said:
It used to be advisable to turn off active Desktop
for security reasons. Is that still true or was I misinformed?
Click to expand...

I would think that if you have a decent AntiVirus and several
antispyware apps. And you keep all of these up to date and run
frequent scans that you probably will not get malware setting your
Desktop wallpaper for you.

Show Desktop Icons will not display if you have unchecked:
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
in TweakUI.

If this is unchecked:
TweakUI
[+] Explorer
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
[[If this is unchecked then the ability to add Web Content to the
desktop will be disabled.]]

You will *not* see:

Right click Desktop | Properties | Desktop tab | Customize Desktop
button | Web tab

Or....
Right click Desktop | Arrange Icons By | Show Desktop Icons

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value Name: NoActiveDesktop
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 = Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
1 = Don't allow Web content to be added to the desktop

Also, *.jpg files will not be listed in...
Display Properties | Desktop tab | Background

I know about all of the above, because I accidently did this with
TweakUI shortly after I installed XP. I kept reading posts about...

1. Right-click the desktop.
2. Point to Arrange Icons By.
3. Click Show Desktop Icons.

And I could never see Show Desktop Icons.

Took me the longest time to figure out what in the world I had done.
LOL


In
Jeff said:
Thank you. That explains it.

It seems Active desktop is therefore active in my XP MCE. I do have
TweakUI installed. It used to be advisable to turn off active
Desktop for security reasons. Is that still true or was I
misinformed?

Jeff
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
You're welcome.

--
Hope this helps. Let us know.

Wes
MS-MVP Windows Shell/User

In
Jeff said:
Thank you.

Jeff

Wesley said:
It used to be advisable to turn off active Desktop
for security reasons. Is that still true or was I misinformed?
Click to expand...

I would think that if you have a decent AntiVirus and several
antispyware apps. And you keep all of these up to date and run
frequent scans that you probably will not get malware setting your
Desktop wallpaper for you.

Show Desktop Icons will not display if you have unchecked:
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
in TweakUI.

If this is unchecked:
TweakUI
[+] Explorer
Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
[[If this is unchecked then the ability to add Web Content to the
desktop will be disabled.]]

You will *not* see:

Right click Desktop | Properties | Desktop tab | Customize Desktop
button | Web tab

Or....
Right click Desktop | Arrange Icons By | Show Desktop Icons

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Value Name: NoActiveDesktop
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Value Data: 0 or 1
0 = Allow Web content to be added to the desktop
1 = Don't allow Web content to be added to the desktop

Also, *.jpg files will not be listed in...
Display Properties | Desktop tab | Background

I know about all of the above, because I accidently did this with
TweakUI shortly after I installed XP. I kept reading posts about...

1. Right-click the desktop.
2. Point to Arrange Icons By.
3. Click Show Desktop Icons.

And I could never see Show Desktop Icons.

Took me the longest time to figure out what in the world I had done.
LOL


In
Jeff said:
Thank you. That explains it.

It seems Active desktop is therefore active in my XP MCE. I do have
TweakUI installed. It used to be advisable to turn off active
Desktop for security reasons. Is that still true or was I
misinformed?

Jeff

Wesley Vogel wrote:
It does not appear that way in XP.

When you right-click a blank area on the desktop on a computer that
runs Windows XP, the shortcut menu does not display the Active
Desktop command. In Windows XP, Active Desktop is always turned on
and you normally cannot disable it. Active Desktop can be disabled,
but you have to use TweakUI or Group Policy (only with XP Pro) or
change some settings in the registry.

If Show Desktop icons, Lock web items on Desktop and Run Desktop
Cleanup Wizard appear when you right click the Desktop and point to
Arrange Icons By then Active Desktop is enabled.

Right click Desktop | Properties | Desktop tab | Customize Desktop
button

If you have the Web tab in Display Properties then Active Desktop is
enabled.



In Jeff <[email protected]> hunted and pecked:
There used to be something called an "active" desktop which you
could turn on or off by right clicking on the desktop and selecting
it. I have XP MCE and can find no such choice. Has it been
discontinued in XP MCE?

Jeff
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
Click to expand...
 
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