Monday, August 14, 2006

Desktop tab is missing under display properties

The Problem:-When you right-click an empty area of your desktop and press Properties, or use Control Panel / Display, the Destop tab is missing from the Display Properties dialog.

Resolution:-
Start > Run >regedit > OK

Now locate to the following location:-
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System
Look in the right pane for a value called NoDispBackgroundPage. If it exists it should be set to 0 (zero).

6 comments:

Unknown said...

and if i don't have this file at the right pane?

Whizz-Dumb said...

Then open up a command prompt (cmd.exe from "run") and enter the following;

REG ADD "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer" /V ClassicShell /T REG_DWORD /F /D 0

This should sort out your problem, especially as XP Home edition users do not have access to Group Policy Editor

POOFYDO said...

Hey guys. I've been having a similar problem with my desktop tab in my Display Properties. I followed the instruction given (secondary instructions). I now have my Desktop tab back, but I still can't change anything within it. Is there another step that I am missing? Thanks so much for your help, in advance!

Sincerely, Tonya

Unknown said...

Hey this worked wonders, thank you. My only question is what would cause this to have happened in the first place?

Mike said...

Thanks! A friend of mine surfed to an innocuous looking site from my computer that had some malware hidden on it (AntiVirus XP 2008) and it dorked up some of the display tabs and what not.

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