Every now and then it seems Active Desktop gets turned on randomly by Windows XP when I am switching Wallpapers. The normal method given to turn off Active Desktop is:
1. Right Click on your Desktop, click properties
2. Go to the Desktop Tab and click Customize Desktop
3. Go to the Web Tab and uncheck all boxes or delete all pages listed.
4. Click OK and OK to close everything
However, in my case when this happens everything is already unchecked and Active Desktop should already be off. There seems to be no regular way to make it really turn off. The main reason I need Active Desktop off is so I can use WinTidy 2.0 ‘s small icons and organization features for icons on the desktop. WinTidy is a great, FREE tool for Windows XP–I suggest you try it out. You can download it for free from PC Magazine’s website here
The solution I found is simple, but requires editing the Registry:
1. Go to the Start Menu and Click Run
2. Type “regedit” (without the quotes) and hit enter
3. Find the 2 Keys below or create them if they don’t exist (to create them, right click then click New > Key )
4. Create a new DWORD value (right click > New > DWORD Value ) with the name: NoActiveDesktop
5. edit the value of this to 1
(1 means that NoActiveDesktop is True. 0 would mean it was false and that would allow Active Desktop to be on)
6. close the registry editor and restart your computer.
Key #1:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
Key #2:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer
This method should work for the following:
Windows XP Home
Windows XP Pro
Windows XP Media Center Edition (MCE)
Service Pack 1, Service Pack 2, Service Pack 3
Active Desktop is a nice Windows feature that allows you to have web content on your desktop. Indeed a nice feature, but unfortunately not something that benefits computer stability. It requires that the web page that you configure as content for the active desktop is available. This means your internet connection needs to be active. There are also several known problems with Active Desktop that relate to the mshtml.dll file. Further, problems with anti spyware, and inconsistent behavior have been reported as a result of Active Desktop.
Of course the use of web content on your desktop not only affects your PC stability, but also your PC performance. Processing web content to be displayed on your desktop will take more processing time then a simple background image that resides on your local hard drive. The speed in which the web content is available is another factor to consider. So your internet speed actually impacts the performance of Windows XP this way.
If all this (or other factors) make you decide you want to turn off Windows Active Desktop, follow these steps:
- From the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel, select Appearance and Themes.
- Next, click Display.
- In the Display Properties windows, select the Desktop tab.
- Click the Customize Desktop button.
- In the Desktop Items window, select the Web tab.
- Make sure that all entries in the Web pages list are unchecked. Another option is to select the entries and delete them by clicking the Delete button.
- Click OK to close the Desktop Items window and then close the Display Properties window.
These steps should help you restore or ensure PC stability and probably help you speed up your computer a little more.
If you are comfortable in editing your computer registry, there is another way to disable the active desktop in Windows XP. Follow the steps below to force the Windows Explorer to use the Classic Shell, which in effect disables the active desktop functionality.
- From the Windows Start menu, select Run. In the Run box, type regedit and click OK.
- In the Registry Editor, locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - Create a new DWORD Value with the name ClassicShell, and assign a value of 1 to it.
- Close the Registry Editor. Select Exit from the File menu.
These registry tweaks will have the same effect, increasing your PC’s stability by disabling the active desktop in Windows XP and preventing a web site as desktop contents.
Update for Windows 10
The Active Desktop functionality has been removed from Windows versions after Windows XP. If you would like to use an active desktop in Windows 10, to show dynamic content, you have two options.
- Use an app to enable active content – this really only allows you to use videos as desktop background.
- Use a third party app to show the content of a webpage on your desktop.
Often when you restart your Windows XP computer, your desktop looks weird and shows an Active Desktop Recovery error. One of the reasons for this error is that your Internet Explorer browser stopped working in the middle or you had to restart your computer because some application crashed. You can click on the Restore my Active Desktop button in the Active Desktop Recovery page shown on your desktop to restore your desktop. But if this error is occurring too often, then you may want to disable the Active Desktop Recovery completely. Here is how you can disable Active Desktop Recovery :
Method 1 :
- Click on the Start Menu in the bottom-left corner and choose Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel, choose Appearance and Themes and then click on the Desktop as shown.
- In the Desktop Properties window that shows up, select the Desktop tab and then click on the Customize Desktop button as shown.
- In the Desktop Items window, select the Web tab. Under the Web pages category, un-check all the selected checkboxes and click on the OK button as shown.
- This would disable the Active Desktop Recovery in your Windows XP computer and save you from this annoying error in the future.
Method 2 :
- Press the key combination Windows logo key + R to open the Run dialog. Type in regedit.exe in the Run dialog and press Enter. This would open the Windows Registry Editor.
- In the Registry Editor, navigate to the following key :
HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer. If this key does not exist, then create it. - While this key is selected in the Registry Editor, right-click on the right-side panel and choose New → DWORD value and type NoActiveDesktop as the value name. By default, this value is set to 0 and this is what it should be to disable Active Desktop Recovery.
- Restart Windows for the changes to take effect.
Steven
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#1
so that I can have transparent icon labels!!! I have
tried all the other ways suggested and they don’t work.
-
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#2
1. Open Control Panel
2. Double-click System
3. Select the Advanced tab, and click the Settings button under the
Performance header.
4. Make sure that on the Visual Effects tab, the option Use drop shadows for
icon labels on the desktop is selected.
If this doesn’t help, right-click the desktop, point to Arrange Icons By and
make sure that Lock Web Items on Desktop is un-checked.
—
Ramesh — Microsoft MVP
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k
Microsoft Most Valuable Professional Program
http://mvp.support.microsoft.com
~ Please reply to newsgroup ~
so that I can have transparent icon labels!!! I have
tried all the other ways suggested and they don’t work.
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imam77 |
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Member Статус: Не в сети |
Как отключить Active Desktop? |
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Партнер |
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imam77 |
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Member Статус: Не в сети |
Но у меня нету параметра NoActiveDesktop Последний раз редактировалось imam77 17.08.2005 21:34, всего редактировалось 1 раз. |
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shurik1174 |
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WTF???* Статус: Не в сети |
какой windows? твикером каким-нибудь воспользуйся в конце-концов? |
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NagasH |
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Member Статус: Не в сети |
imam77 у тебя XP? |
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imam77 |
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Member Статус: Не в сети |
WindowsXPPro SP2. Есть твикеры NeoUtils и TweakXPPro4 , оказываеться в NeoUtils есть сейчас попробую. Не получилос или надо перезагрузиться. Добавлено спустя 14 минут, 22 секунды: |
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Кто сейчас на конференции |
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