Endless Paradigm

as some of you may know i am currently at my cousin's house in western france atm. my cousins have succesfully managed to fudge up this computer to the extant that the wallpaper cannot be changed in one of the accounts. now, my cousins parents are getting a bit fed up with it by now (when you see it you'll see why).

they've asked me to see if i can change it (i seem to become everyone's go-to-for-help-with-computers-person. oh well...). so far all the conventional methods have yielded no success. all the desktop properties options are greyed out, the wallpaper being displayed isn't the file at 'C:\documents and settings\username\local settings\application data\microsoft\wallpaper1.bmp' so i can't simply replace that file. I've also tried manually changing the wallpaper through regedit but all with no success.

i know its probably a virus or something of that ilk but i need a quick fix naow if possible. a slice of cake is at stake here!

EDIT: sorry, forgot to uplad the pic. here it is!:

just get SUPERantispyware and kill it off...

if its xp Pro edition

run » gpedit.msc

local computer policy
  -user configuration
    -administrative templates
      -desktop
        -active desktop
          -Active Desktop Wallpaper

set it to "not configured"

or yeah ... maybe a virus/spyware

try running combofix in safe mode to fix it?

i never thought i'd be the one to start giving you advice rob.........

    if it's xp pro try going into gpedit and checking if the wallpaper is enabled where boogs said to go..... if so disable it and you should be able to use properties again (had the same problem on my laptop when wee were experimenting)........(seriously... i didn't read boogs's post.........)

Check if Active Desktop is enabled, and try disabling that.  Also, does killing explorer.exe get rid of the wallpaper?

it's too late now, sorry guys. i left my cousins yesterday ad am almost home now. (leeching wifi again at a service station).

the computer is xp home so i can't use gpedit

superantyispyware only came up with tracking cookies (got rid of them anyway for good measure)

killing explorer.exe doesn't get rid of the wallpaper. i forgot to note in the first post that the wallpaper is visible for a fraction of a second before the logon screen. also i don't remember active desktop being on.


I'll send a link to this page to my cousins when i get home if that's ok with you guys. so no swearing now.

i think i downloaded a tool leik gpedit for home once..

ill upload when i find it