Member Avatar for JayCustom

Hey everybody...I'm really stumped on this one. My mother-in law is running an older Compaq with XP Home-SP2///////1.00Ghz AMD ATHLON PROCESSOR and 35GB HD including a NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 MODEL64/MODEL64 PRO vid card. The problem is a wallpaper cannot be applied or changed in any way.Also they browse button is greyed out and I cannot select any of the Microsoft supplied pics,or her own in the properties menu.Cannot apply in rightclick on an image in pics folder neither. Things I have tried.....
1. checked the c:/windows/web/wallpapers folder..images are there

2. made sure the options are unchecked for web page as wallpaper under the web tab in the display menu

3. tried a band-aid fix by installing a wallpaper changing utility

4. made sure the most current drivers were installed for the NVIDIA card

5. Norton and AdAware scans

in that order...still no luck!
Am I missing something? I really doubt it has to do with drivers but had to try it.
It is really annoying, seeing as I have tried all the options I heard of to no avail.
After reading a few posts/replies on this site, I realized that there seems to be some very
educated and practical answers from people who know exactly what they're doing.
I come to you as a last resort because I enjoy the challenge of doing/fixing PC related things myself before asking for help, but like I said before "THIS ONE HAS GOT ME STUMPED!"
Any help will be greatly appreciated....and thank all in advance.

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Dani AI

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Nice catch by and the nudge from — a leftover registry value is a very common post-infection cause when the Desktop Background controls are disabled or the Browse button is greyed out. For XP Home the easiest, safest route is to inspect and clean the registry keys that policies and some malware leave behind, then refresh Explorer.

Quick checklist (back up first): create a System Restore point and export any key you change in Regedit (File -> Export). Then look for these common entries and values:

  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop -> Wallpaper (REG_SZ) — contains the current wallpaper path.
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop -> NoChangingWallpaper (DWORD) — 1 prevents changing wallpaper.
  • HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System -> NoDispBackgroundPage (DWORD) — 1 hides/locks the Background tab.

Also check the same Policies subkeys under HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE for machine-wide settings. If you find NoChangingWallpaper or NoDispBackgroundPage set to 1, export the key, then delete the value or set it to 0. After editing, either log off/on or restart Explorer (use Task Manager to End Process explorer.exe then New Task -> explorer.exe) so the Display Properties UI updates.

If the wallpaper file exists but still won’t apply, verify NTFS permissions on the image and the C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper folder. If the problem returns after cleaning, run a full malware/rootkit scan (updated AV + Malwarebytes or similar) — some pests re-create policy entries.

About the missing Calculator: on XP it lives at C:\Windows\System32\calc.exe. Try Start -> Run -> calc to launch. If the EXE is gone or corrupted, check your antivirus quarantine and run sfc /scannow from an elevated command prompt with the XP CD to restore system files. Recreate a shortcut if only the Start Menu link was removed.

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Member Avatar for bobbyraw

are u any good with the registry?????

Member Avatar for JayCustom

Yeah thanx Bobbyraw....I found that a virus she previously removed left behind a registry entry named WALLPAPER...made a backup and deleted it...viola! Didn't even have to reboot!
Sounds like you would've pointed me in the right direction...thanks.

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