Re:Cant change my desktop background!

Hi, I am having a Dell laptop with Windows XP. After a long time today I thought to change the wallpaper of my desktop. Hence I selected a picture from my folder and right clicked to set it as desktop background. It fails. I am not able to set any picture as desktop background. I went to Desktop Properties and tried setting from there but still the same problem. I am able to change the color from these option but not able to set a background picture. Any idea what has went wrong and how can I fix this?

Many Thanks.

There could be several reasons which can prevent you from changing the desktop background. These could be a virus, certain spyware, or even a malformed registry. Hence you will need to download a good antivirus and anti spyware and run a deep scan of your system. Clean the PC and then run registry fixer program to fix if any corrupt registry key.

Apart from that also try out this manual way to fix the registry if it is set to not change the wallpaper:
1. Run "Regedit".

2. Navigate to: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\policies

3. If you see a folder (key) "ActiveDesktop" select it. If not, make a new key and label it "ActiveDesktop".

4. If you see "NoChangingWallPaper", double-click the DWORD value and set it to "0". Otherwise, you need to create a new DWORD value of "NoChangingWallPaper" and set it to "0".

5. Try changing your wallpaper. If this fix doesn't solve the problem, you may also need to make the above registry changes at location: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies .

Hey guys, same problem here. I was able to change my wallpaper properly earlier. I remember last i changed my wallpaper was about a month ago. It was there until i turned off my computer day before yesterday and yesterday morning when i booted the system i found a solid gray color background. I tried setting an image as wallpaper but it is not allowing me to do it anymore.

I also tried the above mentioned steps but it wont help. Any other solution please?

Hey guys, just try this out. Have a look in the local security policy:

Go to Start > Start > run > type 'mmc' > hit Enter.

File - add/remove snapin - add - group policy object editor - add - close - ok

Navigate to: User Configuration - Administrative Templates - Control Panel - Display and see what the setting for "Prevent changing wallpaper" is, it should
be "Not configured" if it is on "Enabled" change it and reboot, if it is already on "Not configured" then you may well have a registry issue.

Here are some troubleshooting you carry out to fix the wallpaper problems. Right click on Desktop select properties, click Desktop Tab, click Customize Desktop. Here on Web tab under Desktop Items make sure all boxes unchecked there. Now go to Appearance Tab and click Effects. Here check all settings are proper.

If still you are not able to change the wallpaper then type "regedit" in Start > RUN box and navigate to the following key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop=

In the right Pane/Window locate and Double click the value named "NoChangingWallpaper" Set it to (0)

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop=

In the right Pane/Window locate and Double click the value named "NoChangingWallpaper" > Set it to 0

If you need more help on this issue, you can also check the following MS KB describing Options to change wallpaper may be missing or unavailable on a Windows XP-based computer: http://support.microsoft.com/?kbid=921049