desktop image & active desktop

[Jon Manley]

Dear all

OK, here goes................
I have recently bought a 2nd hand laptop which hasn't had XP wiped and clean
installed. Basically, its the same as the previous owner had it apart from a
number of programs being removed via add/remove programs + he has removed
his personal data.

Vendor has left a very nice image of a scantily clad girly on the machine
which only comes up just after start-up and just before shut down. Now, I
understand that the desktop wallpaper I have selected is simply pasting over
his image but I would really like to rid myself of the original girly image
as its really starting to bug me. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to the
name of the image and doing a search for all images comes up with several
thousand results.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this image or where it might be
located?

thx in advance

PS: I've gone through all the active desktop shenanigins and have come up
against a brick wall (proverbially speaking)

 

[Hilary Karp]

I would suggest you wipe the drive clean and install XP fresh. Who
knows what other nasties are hidden on that system. Child porn? Not
worth it.

 

[Les Herrman]

Dear all

OK, here goes................
I have recently bought a 2nd hand laptop which hasn't had XP wiped and clean
installed. Basically, its the same as the previous owner had it apart from a
number of programs being removed via add/remove programs + he has removed
his personal data.

Vendor has left a very nice image of a scantily clad girly on the machine
which only comes up just after start-up and just before shut down. Now, I
understand that the desktop wallpaper I have selected is simply pasting over
his image but I would really like to rid myself of the original girly image
as its really starting to bug me. Unfortunately, I have no idea as to the
name of the image and doing a search for all images comes up with several
thousand results.

Can anyone tell me how to get rid of this image or where it might be
located?

thx in advance

PS: I've gone through all the active desktop shenanigins and have come up
against a brick wall (proverbially speaking)

Sounds more like he used a custom welcome screen on the laptop.

Do you see the standard Windows Welcome screen (blue background with
Welcome on it) before you get to the desktop? If not then he has used
a custom welcome screen.

As long as he did not remove a certain file from the system32/dllcache
folder this should be easy to fix.

Open Explorer and go to the Windows\System32\Dllcache folder
Copy the file logonui.exe from this folder to the System32 folder.

Say Yes when Windows asks you if you want to replace the existing
file.

Reboot your system and see if his "special" welcome screen is gone.

 

[Ken Blake, MVP]

In

I would suggest you wipe the drive clean and install XP fresh. Who
knows what other nasties are hidden on that system. Child porn? Not
worth it.

I second that recommendation. I am seldom in favor of
reformatting and reinstalling, but a used computer is an
exception.

 

[Plato]

I second that recommendation. I am seldom in favor of
reformatting and reinstalling, but a used computer is an
exception.

Used PC?

1. zero fill
2. partition and format
3. install OS

2 and 3 of course can be done after booting with the xp cd.