Re: Wallpaper can't be changed

On Tue, 25 Oct 2005 06:26:08 -0700, Kim wrote:

> 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

--
Sharon F
MS-MVP ~ Windows Shell/User
.