need help with stinkin' black wallpaper problem

[Todd]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

Many thanks,
-T



Windows 7 Black Background issue:


Fix #1:

How to Enable/Remove Background Images to have Only Solid Colors in
Windows 7

From:
http://www.sevenforums.com/graphic-cards/24863-black-desktop-background.html
From:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/67200-remove-background-images-where-available.html

--> Control Panel
--> Ease of access
--> Ease of access center
--> Make the computer easy to see
--> at the end of the page, in the section labeled "Make
things on the screen easier to see"

To Be able to Use Images for your Desktop Background

A) Uncheck the Remove background images (where available) box, and
click on OK.
NOTE: This is the default settting.

To Only Be able to Use Solid Colors for your Desktop Background

A) Check the Remove background images (where available) box, and
click on OK

Note: sometimes, marking/unmarking, applying, unmarking/marking,
applying will correct a corruption

Fix #2:
From:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-premium/8d350714-8b71-4d29-b8fe-0f67707ce36e

--> Open a file manager:
--> Browse to %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\
--> rename TranscodedWallpaper.jpg (not to an image file)
--> insure contents of "slideshow.ini" are empty. Only the
header "[Slideshow]", without the quotes,
should be present. Note that after altering
"slideshow.ini", a reboot is required.


Fix #3:
From:
http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/...-that-is/e250ea2c-3dbb-4879-8770-ba42d533a04c

1. <win><r> regedit

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Policies


2. Then right click on Policies > New > KEY > name it as “ActiveDesktop”.

3. Next in Right Hand Side, right click > New > DWORD > name it as
“NoChangingWallPaper”.

The DWORD value 1 will restrict change in desktop wallpaper. To allow
change give it value as 0.




Fix #4:
From: http://forum.eeeuser.com/viewtopic.php?pid=731202


1. <win><r> regedit

2. Go to "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\" folder and click on it

3. On the right hand side find there are a bunch of entries. Find the
key named "wallpaper" and double click on it and put the path of the
picture you want as your new wallpaper (example path is
"C:\Users\Bob\Pictures\new_wallpaper.jpg" )

4. Right-click on the "Desktop" folder in regedit that you found in
step 2 and click Permissions.

5. Click "Advanced"

6. Go to "Owner" tab, highlight your name in the box that says 'Change
owner to' ( There are only two choices the other is Administrator )…
once your user name is highlighted click "OK"

7. Click on "Advanced" again

8. Uncheck the button that reads "Include inheritable permissions from
the object's parent" … click "Remove" when prompted

9. Click "Add"

10. Type "Everyone" and click "OK"

11. Check Allow "Read Control" and click "OK"

12. Click "OK" again

13. Highlight "Everyone" and check to Allow "Read" and click "OK"

14. Restart [reboot] or Relog into windows and Tadaaaaa!

If you ever want to change the background again after this, you don't
need to redo all these steps, just rename the new wallpaper to have the
same name as the one you're using at that time and move the file to the
same folder, replacing when prompted. Then redo step 14.

 

[BobbyM]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

Why not take the easy way out & set up another user account? Then if he
has any, transfer his documents & favorites to the new account. Then
delete the old account and opt to delete the files for that account as well.

 

[VanguardLH]

Hi Guys,

<snip - want us to do his work for free that he charges his customer>

I feel for your customer. If they knew how to access Usenet, they
wouldn't have to waste money paying an "expert" that has to come here to
save face.

 

[Todd]

Why not take the easy way out & set up another user account? Then if he
has any, transfer his documents & favorites to the new account. Then
delete the old account and opt to delete the files for that account as
well.

Tried that, no joy. :'( Sorry I did not include that in my
original letter. I had forgotten.

Thank you for the help!

-T

 

[Todd]

<snip - want us to do his work for free that he charges his customer>

I feel for your customer. If they knew how to access Usenet, they
wouldn't have to waste money paying an "expert" that has to come here to
save face.

Hi VanguardLH,

If you had reads my original post, you would have found I have done
a considerable amount of research. I do not mind asking my colleagues
for help. Or sharing my knowledge either. And my customers don't
pay for my research unless they commission it. I was the guy who
sat in the front of the class and endless peppered the professor if I
did not understand. I got the "A" and the guys in the back that
"groaned" whenever I asked a question, got the "C". The professors
would always check with me before continuing. It was like having
a private tutor. There is no loosing face by asking for help.

Remember, in this field, "arrogance" and "condescension" is like wearing
a neon sign above your head flashing "I am an ignorant poser". Those
who really know what they are doing are the exact opposite of what you
displayed. They are gentle souls who love to share their knowledge
about the technology.

Be more careful how you choose your words next time.

-T

 

[BobbyM]

Tried that, no joy. :'( Sorry I did not include that in my
original letter. I had forgotten.

If that didn't work, then you must have corrupt system files. Did you
run an sfc /scannow or windows repair?

 

[Paul]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

Many thanks,
-T

Windows 7 Black Background issue:

Fix #1:
Fix #2:
Fix #3:
Fix #4:

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Have-a-Taste-of-Pirated-Windows-7-105334.shtml

“If you do not activate the software within the grace period you will receive
persistent notifications, including a message from the system tray every
60 minutes that reminds you to "Activate Windows Now", a persistent desktop
notification that Windows is non-genuine, a non-genuine message that appears
when the Control Panel is launched, and the desktop will be set to a
plain black background,” Kochis added. “While you can change the plain black
background to any background you choose, if changed the background will reset
to a plain black background every 60 minutes. This experience will continue
until the Windows 7 Beta is activated. Also, you will not be able to receive
optional updates from Windows Update unless the copy of Windows is properly
activated.”

Is it possible there is a problem with activation ?

I only dug up that reference, to show that there are other ways to make the background black.

Microsoft has a forum, where they discuss activation issues. Apparently,
they use tools like mgadiag to check authenticity.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/category/genuine

mgadiag is usually presented as a link on one of their web pages.
I don't know if there is available information on exactly what
mgadiag does, what its side effects might be, etc. There is an
example of the link, at the bottom of this page.

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/942962

An example of what the staff at Microsoft do with the info.

http://social.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/genuinewindows7/thread/34298ab7-3998-49a5-8a4c-83d031854ad5

Paul

 

[Todd]

http://news.softpedia.com/news/Have-a-Taste-of-Pirated-Windows-7-105334.shtml


“If you do not activate the software within the grace period you will
receive
persistent notifications, including a message from the system tray every
60 minutes that reminds you to "Activate Windows Now", a persistent desktop
notification that Windows is non-genuine, a non-genuine message that
appears
when the Control Panel is launched, and the desktop will be set to a
plain black background,” Kochis added. “While you can change the plain
black
background to any background you choose, if changed the background will
reset
to a plain black background every 60 minutes. This experience will continue
until the Windows 7 Beta is activated. Also, you will not be able to
receive
optional updates from Windows Update unless the copy of Windows is properly
activated.”

Is it possible there is a problem with activation ?

Don't think so. This is a several year old ASUS desktop. He
bought it new. I do not see any such pop ups. It has worked
fine up to now. No sign of it being pirate. (I hate pirate
software: it is steeling someone else's livelihood. I refuse to
work on it.)

Thank you for the help!
-T

 

[Jeff Layman]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

Many thanks,
-T

I doubt it it will help, but when I first got Win7HPx64 I was playing
around with themes and tried out one of the "High Contrast" ones out of
interest. ISTR that it had a black background, but more to the point it
was difficult to get rid of and return to my (simple, Classic XP-sttyle)
screen. Although it was supposed to work, I could not get the screen to
toggle out of High Contrast back to Classic XP. In the end I basically
had to set up the Classic screen from scratch.again.

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

When I see black wallpaper it's because it's gone into reduced
functionality mode because it hasn't been activated. New motherboard
or CPU upgrade happen? Some hardware get changed? This machine is on
SP1 already?

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]]

Hi Guys,

I have a customer with 64 bit W7 home something or other, Premium
I think. He got himself into something! The last thing I have not
conquered is his stinkin' black wall paper. I am only able to
change it to another solid color, but the next logon changes
it back to black.

Anyone come across this and what did you do to fix it?

I have been keeping a running list of what I did to fix
the problem, along with references as to where I got the
fix action. So far, all four fixes have not resulted
in joy.

Any tips?

It could also be malware. I have seen it change desktops and
wallpaper.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

 

[Todd]

I doubt it it will help, but when I first got Win7HPx64 I was playing
around with themes and tried out one of the "High Contrast" ones out of
interest. ISTR that it had a black background, but more to the point it
was difficult to get rid of and return to my (simple, Classic XP-sttyle)
screen. Although it was supposed to work, I could not get the screen to
toggle out of High Contrast back to Classic XP. In the end I basically
had to set up the Classic screen from scratch.again.

Hi Jeff,

Every tip helps. Thank you!

-T

 

[Nil]

And some folks get annoyed with me for calling Windows 7 unstable

Because is isn't.

and Microsoft M$. Hmmmm.

Because it's juvenile.

 

[Todd]

When I see black wallpaper it's because it's gone into reduced
functionality mode because it hasn't been activated. New motherboard
or CPU upgrade happen? Some hardware get changed? This machine is on
SP1 already?

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

It could also be malware. I have seen it change desktops and
wallpaper.

- Thee Chicago Wolf [MVP]

Hi Wolf,

The customer is the dearest old duffer you will
ever find. I really want to get him fix up. This
has become personal.

I think you are on to something. When I first got to the
customer, he was in a real mess. No Internet, huge letters,
pop ups of crap to buy.

All of his services had been turned off. He was permanently
booting into safe mode. (m$config, err, sorry, msconfig was
weirdly set to "normal"). I had to manually reset all his
services from the W7 super tweak chart, fix his safe mode
boot (one of you guys helped me with that -- thank you!),
and pulled a nasty Ad Ware infection off his machine. Had
to fix a ton of other minor stuff too. It was fun getting
his networking going again.

The last thing I could not conquer was the black wallpaper.
So, I think you have hit it. Something is still in reduced
functionality.

Tech evangelists: please stop reading at this point. If you
don't, don't bitch, you were warned! It is what is best
for the customer, not you.

I have been thinking that Windows may not be the best fit
for this customer. He spends a considerable amount of his
time surfing current event sites -- the ones most likely to
have zero day infections on them. No browser and/or Anti
Virus can defend against this. (And, he called me this morning
with what sounds like another virus.) If I were to wipe
and reinstall, he probably would be reinfected in a few
weeks or so.

So, I am thinking the better part of wisdom would be Linux or
Apple. And I really don't like pretentious Apple: it is so
restrictive, proprietary, and way over priced. And, I just
do not like eye candy (OS as Amusement Park). Their tech
support is really good though. I will have to give that
to them.

His wife has a card game she plays. It keeps score and if
I can not migrate her scores, the tech evangelists above
will be the least of my problems. I may have to keep
him on Windows just over that. (Linux may be technically
superior to Windows, but Windows has ~99% of the application
base as opposed to ~1% for Linux and Apple. So, most of the
time Windows is the only option.)

I wonder what is still turned off?

Update: another call. He said he can get backgrounds
but they go away when he reboots.

Thank you for your help!

-T

 

[Todd]

Because is isn't.
http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+7+unstable


Because it's juvenile.

It is common usage. Only apologists for M$ get offended by
it. "juvenile" is getting annoyed over it. There is nothing
wrong with it.

Think about it for a minute. When the rest of the world uses
"M$" is there any double what is meant? You know instantly who I
and talking about. "Ms" can be confusing as a title for a female
that does not want her marriage status stated:

Ms -- a married or unmarried woman
Mrs -- a married woman
Miss -- an unmarried woman

Nil, a personal note to you. When you decide to defend M$'s honor
instead of participating in the free and open flow information,
you make it so no one can trust what you say. An example
would be your statement that W7 is not unstable.

Also, those that get annoyed by "M$" flag themselves as not
being willing to exchange information openly and honestly.
Meaning: avoid what they say.

Now "Micro[explicative deleted]", that is uncivil.

-T

-T

 

[Nil]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=windows+7+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=toasters+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nuclear+power+plants+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=your+mom+unstable

Hope you are now more enlightened.

It is common usage. Only apologists for M$ get offended by
it. "juvenile" is getting annoyed over it. There is nothing
wrong with it.

It's juvenile and offputting.

Be an adult about it and you may get more good responses. Keep it up
and you alienate many people who might otherwise help you. Your choice.

Nil, a personal note to you. When you decide to defend M$'s honor
instead of participating in the free and open flow information,
you make it so no one can trust what you say.

Horseshit. There is nothing "honest" about using such an outmoded,
meaningless term. It's just being childish.

 

[Todd]

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=linux+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=toasters+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=nuclear+power+plants+unstable

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=your+mom+unstable

Hope you are now more enlightened.


It's juvenile and offputting.

Be an adult about it and you may get more good responses. Keep it up
and you alienate many people who might otherwise help you. Your choice.


Horseshit. There is nothing "honest" about using such an outmoded,
meaningless term. It's just being childish.

And I should trust a single word out of your mouth?

By any chance, do you work for M$ marketing? If not, you should
should consider it.

 

[Char Jackson]

It is common usage.

Maybe at your house, but you should have noticed by now that it's not
in common usage here. I consider it childish, and coupled with your
complete nonsense about instability and the fact that you openly use
the people in this newsgroup to help keep your business going, I can't
see that you have any redeeming qualities.

 

[Todd]

Maybe at your house, but you should have noticed by now that it's not
in common usage here. I consider it childish, and coupled with your
complete nonsense about instability and the fact that you openly use
the people in this newsgroup to help keep your business going, I can't
see that you have any redeeming qualities.

Sorry Char, I don't believe a word out of your mouth either.
I work with W7 almost daily. I am well aware of its stability
problems. You should work for M$ marketing too.

And, M$ is not at bad word. Sorry. Won't stop. Works
too well.

-T

 

[Gene E. Bloch]

It is common usage. Only apologists for M$ get offended by
it. "juvenile" is getting annoyed over it. There is nothing
wrong with it.

Think about it for a minute. When the rest of the world uses
"M$" is there any double what is meant? You know instantly who I
and talking about. "Ms" can be confusing as a title for a female
that does not want her marriage status stated:

Ms -- a married or unmarried woman
Mrs -- a married woman
Miss -- an unmarried woman

Nil, a personal note to you. When you decide to defend M$'s honor
instead of participating in the free and open flow information,
you make it so no one can trust what you say. An example
would be your statement that W7 is not unstable.

Also, those that get annoyed by "M$" flag themselves as not
being willing to exchange information openly and honestly.
Meaning: avoid what they say.

Now "Micro[explicative deleted]", that is uncivil.

-T

-T

Well, now, I have witnesses who have heard me swear at Microsoft and
numerous aspects of Windows. I have posted criticisms here of some
things that MS has done that make things much harder for users -
especially, but not only - naive users and non-techie users.

But still, I tend to press 'n'[1] when I see your "M$". I just think it
impugns your qualifications and attitude; it seems to show a closed
mind, for one thing, and the fact that you can't type MS kind of
confirms that, in my opinion...

But it's not only you that triggers that reaction - I treat most
offenders (such bias on my part!) equally in that respect.

Just sayin'

[1] 'n' means "go to next unread post" in this newsreader.