Provided By Certified Computer Experts, Inc.
main title
Bringing you quality tutorials to help you understand and fix your PC!

Unable to change desktop background?

If you recently have been infected with a virus you may now be unable to change your desktop background. Typically the virus will replace your background with a big ugly. 'You are infected!' background. Of course it'll ask you to buy their 'cure' that will solve all of your problems. This is bad and we want to back to our World of Warcraft background. Here's how to do it.

I recently received this question.

"Thanks for providing the smitRem tool, it was great at getting rid of the installed program and pop-up.  After running it though, my display still stays with the basic blue background.  If I try to change the wallpaper in display settings, I cannot select any of the patterns and the scrollbar does not move.  I think that the "desktop" tab of the display settings has been faked somehow.  The various files like 'aquarium, ascent' aren't actually .bmp's in the Windows directory.  This is the same problem that I noticed before I ran smitRem.  I have used webshots for wallpaper and while that runs fine, it does not change the wallpaper image either.  Is there something else that I still have to remove?"

You can see in the above screen shot this user is unable to change their background. Fortunately for us this is actually pretty easy to fix and can be done with a simple registry edit. I have both of the registry files available for download here so here they are.

Download 'Can't change background' fix

Comments
I just downloaded (Download 'Can't change background' fix) your fix for this problem. To ask a stupid question: After I unzip the files, what do i do next?

Thanks!
Posted By james on 10/27/08 2:53 PM
Once you unzip just double click on each file, that's it! Then restart.
Posted By Tom on 11/21/08 11:19 AM
THANK YOU!!!
Posted By bruce on 12/5/08 3:52 AM
Topics

Fresh Books Billing
Fresh Books Billing
Fresh Books Billing

  • Subscribe

  • Add to your Google Home Page or Google Reader Add to your My Yahoo!
    Add to your My MSN Add to your My AOL
    Add to your My Feedster Add to your NewsGator
    Add to your Bloglines Add to your News Burst
    Add to your Rojo Add to your Pluck

  • Search Blog
  • Subscribe
  • Enter your email address to subscribe.

Search Engine Optimization Experts
  • Recent Posts

  • Recently Asked Questions

    Check out some of the most recently asked questions in our Ask A Question section.

    Monitor not working
    Here we have a question about someone that cannot get their monitor to work. One day it worked...


  • Google's FriendConnect Today I added the Google FriendConnect application to the site. I think it'll be a fun way for visitors to interact and ask computer questions. I urge you to join and check it out, I'll also be going over how to create applications for Google's FriendConnect in the future. ...

  • Mass Geocoding

    I just wrote a cool tutorial on how to mass geocode addresses using Google's API and JavaScript. Take a look - it was a lot of work for me.

    Mass geocoding

    ...

  • Photoshop Tutorial - Replace a Color on a Car

    Today we'll talk about a quick easy Photoshop tutorial. This is a very simple tutorial that goes over how to change the color of a car. We'll be using the color replace tool and the paint brush tool. [More] ...


  • Recently Asked Questions - Part 2

    XPRT5.DLL / XPRT6.DLL
    Many people have had an issue with this file and America Online. I have understood that downloading the ACS software will fix this issue. If you are having this problem and it has no...


  • Ask A Question - Recent Questions

    Just wanted to share some recently asked questions in our 'Ask A Question' section. If you have a question of your own, feel free to ask it. If you are a techie you are welcome to help answer questions asked by others.


    • Cypher Strength 0 bit - Can't Access Secure Sites

      Today was a nightmare. I had a customer that was unable to access secure web sites. They were using Internet Explorer 7 and this happened after a very bad virus. I cleaned up the virus using HiJack This, Palin 'Hacker' Found

      This one just gave me a big laugh. I remember hearing in the news that Senator Palin's personal email was hacked. I remember chuckling and not really thinking too much of it. Big deal lots of people's accounts have been compromised. The same story that reported  she was hacked didn't mention anything embar...


    • Removing SpyWare Manually - Part1

      You may have tried everything, you may have downloaded every Anti Virus program you can think of - nothing works. For whatever the reason lets say you want to try and remove that virus/spyware manually. This tutorial will help you do that. It won't be easy and you may want to pull your hair out, the choice is y...


    • Unable to change desktop background?

      If you recently have been infected with a virus you may now be unable to change your desktop background. Typically the virus will replace your background with a big ugly. 'You are infected!' background. Of course it'll ask you to buy their 'cure' that will solve all of your problems. This is bad and we want to ...


    • Photoshop Tutorial - Using vanishing point

      This is a fun and fast little tutorial for using a neat Photoshop tool called vanishing point. Photoshop is a great tool and has a ton of great effects that you may not even be familiar with. Vanishing point is a way you can place an 2D image into a 2D document and have it perfectly match the perspective of the...


    • SEO: Choosing and placing keywords

      First things first with SEO, you really have to know what you are going after. OptiLaw handles law firm web site development and SEO for law practices. Lets say you are helping a law firm that practices personal injury cases and their office is located in M...


    • How to protect your computer

      If you own a computer there is a very good chance that your computer is infected with Virus or Spyware programs. They come in many shapes and forms and come at you from many different directions. There are also many tools to help you remove Virus infections once they happen, but the best bet is to avoid these p...


    • Windows automatic updates

      I've had this warning pop up on my laptop for about 4 days now. I hate it. I'm telling the w...


    • Internet Explorer 8 Released

      Finally Internet Explorer 8 has been released to the public. You can give a download  

Designed & Hosted By Certified Computer Experts, Inc. - Law Firm Web Site Design - OptiLaw
All information on FreeComputerAdvice.net is provided by Certified Computer Experts, Inc.