The wallpaper program that won't go away

[Tom Barclay]

I installed a trial version of WallMaster Pro wallpaper management program.
When the trial expired, I decided it wasn't something that I really wanted,
and uninstalled it using the program's own uninstall. It has since become
the program from hell that won't go away. Upon reboot, my system still tries
to load WallMaster's wallpaper, which results in a blank screen since the
program no longer exists. I have tried manually deleting all remnants of the
program that I can find from my drive, searching all files containing
"wallmast" and "wallmaster" including hidden and system directories. I also
did a search of the registry using regedit and deleted all references to the
program. Doing all of the above removes the wallmaster menu entry from the
desktop Display Properties/Desktop menu. However, when I reboot the system,
the menu entry is back, the desktop defaults to the missing wallpaper, and
all of the registry entries have been restored. I tried looking in
msconfig's .INI files, but there's no reference to the program there. I'm
assuming XP stores the information causing this in some other place that I'm
missing. Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Kelly]

Hi Tom,

Remove the runkeys and the entry in msconfig. More information here:

Troubleshooting, Removing and/or Cleaning Add or Remove Programs
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_a.htm#addremove

/top10faqs.htm

 

[Tom Barclay]

Kelly, thanks for your help. I had already deleted entries in the places you
mentioned. I managed to get rid of the offending program this morning. I
booted into safe mode and did another search, which showed another couple of
files and registry entries. After deleting them, the problem went away. I
(and everyone else you've helped here) really appreciates the time and
effort you put into fixing our problems. Again, thanks.

Regards
Tom

 

[Kelly]

Most welcome, Tom and how interesting. Would you happen to remember the
keys?

/top10faqs.htm

 

[Tom Barclay]

Sorry, I wish now that I had paid more attention to which keys were deleted.
I remember that they referred only to "wallpaper" (and not to "WallMaster").
One of the files did refer to the program, and the other to "wallpaper". I
was getting a little frustrated at the time, so making a note of the
specifics didn't seem particularly important at the time. I was just
relieved to see the program finally gone from my system.

 

[Kelly]

I understand and appreciate your reply, Tom. Thank you. )

/top10faqs.htm