Desktop background disabled

Hello,

after I have removed some spyware on my Windows XP, it has been impossible to set colors of the "Background" in Display Properties|Desktop. Nothing is enabled in that tab. What can I do to revert the changes made to my user profile?

Thanks.

 

See if you have this registry key.

If it's there, look in the right pane for "NoChangingWallPaper ". If the data value for it is a one, change it to a zero. Alternatively, you can just delete the NoChangingWallPaper value completely. Be sure to back the key up first.

 

Thanks Zander for trying to help.
The key is there and there are zeros at each of the strings on the right so I don't need to change it probably. Correct?

Also, when I double-click on a file with the extension ".reg" it opens as if it was a text file. It is also strange, is it not?

 

But what if I wanted to add an information into the registry? Right-clicking on a .reg file shows up a menu with "Merge" at the very top on the list followed by "Edit" and "Print ".

 

To enter the reg file into the registry, select merge in the right click menu. The one that's in bold lettering in the menu is the default. Usually it's merge but edit's not a bad thing. It'll prevent little ones from accidently running a reg file and entering the data to the registry. To change the default to merge open any folder. Click tools>folder options>file types. Find reg in the list of extensions, click on it to highlight it and click the advanced button. Click on merge in the list of actions to highlight it and then click the set default button.

As for your wallpaper problem, try these registry keys.

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

Code:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Group Policy Objects\{94FA4296-DAE1-4912-87F3-864ECB6BE001}User\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

In both of them, look for 2 values. One named Wallpaper and the other named WallpaperStyle. If they're there, delete them both in both keys and then see if you can change the wallpaper.

From my experimenting, the one in the first key seems to be the only one that needs to be deleted for it to work but when using the group policy editor, both keys have these values created in them when enabling the policy and both of them are deleted when either setting the policy to disabled or not configured. So, if they are both there, delete them both, but I'd hang onto the backup reg files for a bit just in case.

 

Good, one problem gone anyway. As for the other one, go back into the file types dialouge, highlight reg and click advanced. In the list of actions, highlight merge, then click the edit button. In the box where it says action, it should say Mer&ge. In the box that says application used to perform action it should say regedit.exe "%1" (note the space between exe and "%1" ) . Then, put a checkmark in the box where it says Use DDE and where it says action put regedit, where it says topic put system. Click ok to get back out of it all. Now try a regfile and see if it works.

 

Yes, it works now. Thank you very much for your valuable help.

 

You're welcome. Glad to hear it's all sorted out.