Need some help. When I try to change my background picture for my desktop all of the options on the Desktop tab are locked/grey except for the Color dropdown box. Also, when I try to right click a internet picture to set it as the background the "set as background" option is also unavailable....

Any ideas??

Hello Bishop, welcome to PCHF.

Some web based desktop enhancment software will disable this tab. If your aware of any such software installed on your PC, you should go to Control Panel, followed by Add/Remove Programs, and remove it from your PC.

An alternative would be to use the registry. If your uncomfortable using the registry, then don't use it, it's a powerful tool that can quite easily mess up your system if the wrong key is deleted/modified. Always right click on any key, and export to a file you will remember before deleting. Here is what you need to do:

- Go to Start, Run and type in Regedit
- From the Registry Editor, navigate to the key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
- In the right hand pane look for an entry containing "Wallpaper.htm", right click and Delete it.
- Restart your PC.

Thanks for the help! I completed those steps and restarted the computer. I'm still not able to make changes to the desktop background although the current picture does now show on the desktop tab preview. Any other thoughts?

It maybe locked in your policies also, try this one: http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/regs...isplaytabs.reg

When prompted, accept the import into your registry (yes). Does this help?

It worked! What would have cause that problem?

Only three things I'm aware of.

Software designed to enhance your desktop (Desktop Managers), such as those used to change the desktop periodically, animate or give extra functionality to the desktop. Even something as simple as a desktop clock.

Secondly, Security Software, designed to lock down and restrict access to selected area's of the PC.

Thirdly, malware. If nothing has been installed on your PC recently, and you think your problems may have been caused by malware, check out PCHF Prework on my signature, which describes how to post a HiJackThis log of your PC. We'll get a member of security to check your logs to make sure your not infected.

Marked as Resolved