Wallpaper can't be changed

[Guest]

I have a client who had several viruses and some spyware on her system. I
have disinfected the viruses and removed the spyware. One of the viruses was
similar to Smitfraud, in that it replaced her wallpaper with a "spyware"
message. However, it didn't infect the wininet.dll file. The problem she is
having now is that she can't change the wallpaper. She was able to change the
background color from black to white, but when she chooses a wallpaper theme
and clicks apply, nothing happens. The browse button on that page is ghosted,
so she can't browse to the picture that she has saved on her hard drive. When
she restarts the system, the picture that used to be her wallpaper briefly
flashes before the system restarts, so I know it's still there. It's almost
like the wallpaper "function" is corrupted. I have seen this a couple of
other times on other people's systems, but can't figure out how to solve the
issue. Any ideas are appreciated.

 

[Sharon F]

I have a client who had several viruses and some spyware on her system. I
have disinfected the viruses and removed the spyware. One of the viruses was
similar to Smitfraud, in that it replaced her wallpaper with a "spyware"
message. However, it didn't infect the wininet.dll file. The problem she is
having now is that she can't change the wallpaper. She was able to change the
background color from black to white, but when she chooses a wallpaper theme
and clicks apply, nothing happens. The browse button on that page is ghosted,
so she can't browse to the picture that she has saved on her hard drive. When
she restarts the system, the picture that used to be her wallpaper briefly
flashes before the system restarts, so I know it's still there. It's almost
like the wallpaper "function" is corrupted. I have seen this a couple of
other times on other people's systems, but can't figure out how to solve the
issue. Any ideas are appreciated.

Some of these things add a web item. The web item will behave as a
"wallpaper overlay." Remove the web item and the normal desktop/wallpaper
is revealed. Try Display> Properties> Desktop> Customize Desktop> Web.
Uncheck web items and/or delete them.

Or the spyware may have changed a policy that is blocking the change of
wallpaper (not as common but could happen). See "Wallpaper - Desktop -
Disable" on this page for directions on how to remove that restriction:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_w.htm

 

[David_bazinet]

I Sharon

Do you speak in french... because i speak in english but
just a little bit! I would say that i have the same problem of you but
me...I am able to change the background color from black to white or
anything other color... and i dont be able to clic on other thing.. i
have winows XP familial and my computer is p4 1.8 thanks for your help!
Dave

 

[David_bazinet]

I Sharon

Do you speak in french... because i speak in english but
just a little bit! I would say that i have the same problem of you but
me...I am able to change the background color from black to white or
anything other color... and i dont be able to clic on other thing.. i
have winows XP familial and my computer is p4 1.8 thanks for your help!
Dave

 

[Sharon F]

I Sharon

Do you speak in french... because i speak in english but
just a little bit! I would say that i have the same problem of you but
me...I am able to change the background color from black to white or
anything other color... and i dont be able to clic on other thing.. i
have winows XP familial and my computer is p4 1.8 thanks for your help!
Dave

Hi, Dave. Sorry to say but I do not speak French. Here is a link to the web
based newsgroups in your language:
http://www.microsoft.com/france/windows/xp/home/communaute/newsgroup/default.asp

 

[Guest]

Sharon,

Thanks for the reply. I had already gotten rid of the web item, but that
hadn't solved the problem. In the end, the client was having a lot of
different issues, so she asked me to format and reinstall everything. That
obviously solved the wallpaper issue. I did go to the web site you suggested
and will keep a copy of that on hand in case this occurs again. Thanks again.

Kim

 

[Guest]

I can't read the resilts of this thread and haave the same problem, can
someone please advise?

 

[Guest]

I came by this posting when trying to fix a similar problem and thought it
would be worth putting my experiences down...

As well as Background, Browse and Position being greyed out, the Web tab was
also missing in the Customize Desktop dialogue.

My machine had never been connected to the Internet, so it wasn't virus
related. I also checked the local and domain group policies and they were OK.
In the end it turned out to be functionality of Remote Desktop... I was
connecting to the 'faulty' PC using Remote Desktop. When I went to to the PC
and logged on directly, Background, Browse and Position were no longer greyed
out, and the Web tab was now present in the Customize Desktop dialogue.

I hope this may help others.

Regards,

Gary Cooper