Active Desktop makes my wallpaper disappear??

[Tigerblade]

today I tried to set a webpage as my desktop background... its a very simple page I wrote myself, just a few links to programs on my computer, nothing complicated at all. however, when I clicked "apply", my wallpaper disappeared, the desktop turned to just the background color, and no webpage appeared.

i tried playing around with some settings, and it turns out that both the wallpaper and the webpage display in one of two conditions:
1. "Show desktop icons" is disabled (from the desktop context menu), or
2. I display some of the system icons (like "My Computer") through the display properties dialog

i dont remember this happening last time I used an Active Desktop... but its possible I simply forgot or had different settings at the time. is this a "feature" and is supposed to happen, or is something possibly messed up? i'm running XP Home SP2. thing is I run a very minimalistic system, I hate icons on the desktop, etc, but I like having icons enabled so I can see easily when a program tries to install something there. ideas?

[LLXerxes]

you tried setting up a webpage as you desktop? Is this a new XP feature?
You can take a picture of the webpage and use that, but I don't think using a webpage will work.

[DrBroccoli]

I just tried it out with google.com and it worked fine... heres what I did

1. right click desktop and hit properties
2. click desktop tab
3. click the customize desktop button under the wallpaper choices
4. then hit the web tab on that new window
5. then click new and enter in the webpage URL
6. hit ok and if the website need authentication hit customize and do that
7. hit syncronize on the window where you hit "new"
8. hit ok
9. hit apply and ok
10. then you can resize and do stuff to the newly added (hopefully added) page on your desktop hope it works!

BTW after you ok after you enter in the URL it should try to automatically syncronize but ignore that and manually syncronize by hitting syncronize

<*EDIT*> here is a screenshot of it finished:

[Tigerblade]

yeah i've done an AD before, and had no problems, but i think i still had at least one icon sitting on the desktop at the time. this time around, i have no icons at all. the desktop is set up to allow icons to show, but i dont have any (by choice). i think for some reason that's causing the webpage to not display.

ok, got some screenshots now. (i use a relatively high resolution, so be ready for that)
before- this is the before shot. this is how my desktop normally looks
after - this is how it looks after i set active desktop on. notice my background is gone.
after, but with icons disabled- this is with active desktop on, and the option to hide icons is turned on (meaning no icons will ever be displayed)

i want to show icons so i know if some program installs them.... but i want my AD to show... is that possible?

edit... moved the pictures, had to fix links

[DrBroccoli]

My icons were still there after I had an AD on... the only difference was a change in picture quality of the icons...

<*EDIT*> after doing some google search I did find the many problems cause by AD is the file mshtml.dll, it this file is corrupted or not there you can download one here: http://www.dll-files.com/dllindex/dl...s.shtml?mshtml or possibly yet after you add the AD item and go to your desktop you can press F5 to refresh your desktop, its always a possiblity!

<*EDIT2*> the .dll file was found in the folders:
C:\I386
C:\windows\system32

[Tigerblade]

hrm... well, i downloaded that dll and put it in the appropriate folders, but no change. i guess i'll just leave the icons disabled, i'll just remember to check my desktop folder occasionally to make sure there's no rogue icons lurking around...

thanks anyway, though.

[DrBroccoli]

I tried... I look alittle bit see what I can find... sometimes it best to take break from something then come back to it.

[DrBroccoli]

I did find a page today that allowed you to edit the regisrty to tell what AD can do and not do... one selection is to make NOT change wallpaper. anyway here it is:

Open your registry and find the key below.

Create a new DWORD value based on the options below, and set the new value to equal "1" to enable the restriction or "0" to disable the restriction.

Note: These restrictions can be used either on a user by user basis by adding them to HKEY_CURRENT_USER or on a computer wide basis by adding them to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.


NoChangingWallpaper - Disable the ability to change wallpapers.
NoComponents - Disable components.
NoAddingComponents - Disable the ability to add components.
NoDeletingComponents - Disable the ability to delete components.
NoEditingComponents - Disable the ability to edit components.
NoCloseDragDropBands
NoMovingBands

Key:[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]
Data Type: REG_DWORD
Data0 = disable restriction, 1 = enable restriction)

[Spike]

Hmm...Tiger, if you still want to see the contents of your desktop (icons and such) but not have them show, you can hide the icons on your desktop, then right-click > Toolbars > desktop, then slide it all the way over so all it says is "Desktop >>" If you click the arrows, a little browsable menu of your desktop pops up, and in your case, you can see, if any, new incos that have been put there.

THEN you'll have your wallapper AND your Google, but you can chck the contents of your desktop, too.

[Tigerblade]

true... i'll just stick to having them hidden and checking the desktop folder occasionally when i open windows explorer.

thanks for your help, all