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  • September 5, 2003 at 9:14 am #2317460

    losing my active desktop

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    by getreal · about 18 years, 8 months ago

    Since about 4 MSIE6 upgrades ago, when either an explorer folder or internet explorer crashes I lose my active desktop. The normal black color turns white, my picture disappears and right clicking results in no menu. The only way to get my desktop back is to roll the registry back to a day when it was working. If it started normally earlier in the same day, that saves a lot of problems, but there isn’t always a same day backup available. What windows system files are responsible for the desktop and why do folder crashes destroy it?

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    • September 5, 2003 at 10:41 am #3379003

      Reply To: losing my active desktop

      by jschein · about 18 years, 8 months ago

      In reply to losing my active desktop

      The active desktop uses resources from explorer / internet explorer. If one of those services fail in any way, you will lose your active desktop.

      Now, do you really need an active desktop? 90% of people do not even know what that is. Disable it and find yourself a normal black background or picture to use as your wallpaper.

      Good luck

    • September 5, 2003 at 1:44 pm #3380032

      Reply To: losing my active desktop

      by thechas · about 18 years, 8 months ago

      In reply to losing my active desktop

      The fix for your problem, like many Windows 98 problems, is to install an updated video driver.

      If you have an older video card that does not have new drivers available, you need to roll back to IE 5.5 and DirectX 8.1

      If you have an ATI Rage series, a 3dfx, or other older video card, there are not drivers available that properly support IE 6 or DirectX 9.

      The Desktop settings are stored in the System Registry. From memory, the system files for the registry are user.dat, system.dat and system first.

      When either Internet Explorer, or Explorer crashes, Windows defaults to a more stable configuration.
      Active desktop displays your wallpaper as a web page.

      You also might want to run System File Checker (SFC) from the run box, and see if you have any corrupt or missing system files.

      Chas

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