wallpaper disappears after login, reappears when shutting down

[Guest]

All of a sudden a few weeks ago, the wallpaper image I've been using began
disappearing as soon as I log in, leaving just the solid background color.
When I shut down, the wallpaper image comes back for a short time.

I found that to get it to show again during my session after I've logged in,
I can go to the display settings and choose "None" as a wallpaper setting,
hit Apply, then re-select my wallpaper image and hit OK. So that's what I've
been doing every time I boot, and it's begun to get on my nerves.

I've searched the web and various forums, tried all kinds of registry edits
(incl. setting the path & filename of every single "Wallpaper" key in my
registry to point to my desired image file, which is a .bmp the same
resolution as my screen). I've also seen some mention of group & user
policies, but none that have been specific enough to get me to a setting that
obviously controls the wallpaper for a specific user or group. I do have
admin privileges on this XP machine, and am part of a large (tens of XP
machines) network.

At this point I don't give a hang whether the underlying problem is fixed,
so long as I get my @$&* wallpaper. Anyone know of either an actual fix,
or on the other hand, a script I can throw into my Start menu's Startup
folder that will do my set-to-"None"-then-set-it-back-to-the-image operation
automatically?

Profuse thanks for any help!

 

[Phillip Singletary]

try right click on the desktop and choose properties. on the desktop tab,
choose customize. click on the web tab and uncheck anything that is there
and delete it. click ok and restart.

Peace \-/
|

 

[Guest]

Thanks for that new info--I had run across lots of mentions of unchecking
everything on that Web tab, but none of going a step further to delete the
entry/ies.

Nothing was ever checked there on my machine, but there is a "My Current
Home Page" entry; it's the only entry. Unfortunately, when I select (not
check, just select) it, the Delete button remains greyed out & the delete key
has no effect.

 

[Guest]

bump . . .

Thanks for that new info--I had run across lots of mentions of unchecking
everything on that Web tab, but none of going a step further to delete the
entry/ies.

Nothing was ever checked there on my machine, but there is a "My Current
Home Page" entry; it's the only entry. Unfortunately, when I select (not
check, just select) it, the Delete button remains greyed out & the delete key
has no effect.

 

[Guest]

I managed to get the job done with a 4-line batch file, which I'm going to
throw into my Startup folder so that the era of manually changing my
wallpaper settings every morning will end.

The command
RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
was instrumental, 'cause after finding out at
http://commandwindows.com/reg.htm
how to change registry entries by command line (using the /f switch in the
batch file to get past the are-you-sure overwrite prompt), I suspected and
then confirmed I could change what my wallpaper was designated as all day
long but wouldn't see the results unless I did some kind of refresh to effect
the change.

So here's how the batch file goes, for anyone else this might help:

reg add "hkcu\control panel\desktop" /v wallpaper /t REG_SZ /d "" /f

RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters

reg add "hkcu\control panel\desktop" /v wallpaper /t REG_SZ /d "C:\[INSERT
PATH TO IMAGE FILE HERE]\Mars Rover wallpaper 1280x1024.bmp" /f

RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters

--Ray