Image imbedded in desktop display! Can't remove it.

Hello, all,

My desktop display keeps showing an imbedded image in the middle of the desktop. It appears on top of ANY wallpaper image I put into place. I have tried to remove the file of the image from my computer. It seems to disappear from my file list, but the image continues to show on the desktop display. Anyone else ever had this problem???

Thanks for your help.

 

Hi DRZZZ and welcome,

That sounds a lot like an invasion of some sort of malware. If you can rule out some prankster at your desk, I'd suggest using Ad-Aware and/or Spybot as well as running a full drive virus scan. You may just turn up a gremlin.

It might even show up in a HiJackThis log file so try that too. If you need help interpreting the results, post the log to the Security section here.

 

It may well be malware of some type but you may be able to remove it by right clicking on the desktop>properties>desktop tab. Click the customize desktop button then the web tab. If there's anything in the box where it says web pages, make sure it's not checked. Also, if the line that says lock desktop items is checked, uncheck it.

If it turns out that you are able to remove it this way, it would still be a good idea to do what surferdude suggested.

 

Use Safe Mode.
Try a right-click delete.

Look with Explorer in your Desktop folder.
The image can be a .jpg, .gif, .png, or even .js file.

 

Just a heads up for you guys here. I recieved and email from DRZZZZ yesterday saying that my suggestion did take care of the problem. I have yet to get back to him/her but I'll send an email here shortly and let him/her know to post back to the forum in the future so the rest will know. Perhaps DRZZZ will see this and respond.