Active Desktop - when booted always has restore active desktop

[xexth]

Hi - I'm running a laptop with ME and when the computer goes through the startup you can briefly see the wallpaper that should be running on the desktop. When the computer finishes booting up the wallpaper is replaced with the gray screen that says "click here to restore active desktop". System restore didn't work on this computer so I did a safe recovery and installed windows over the existing version - replacing the system files - no luck - same problem. Have tried running 4 or 5 antispyware programs and run a couple of antivirus programs but they come up clean. Also ran a registry clean (glarysoft) and did a cleanup on the HDD. Still no luck. Am looking for some suggestions to fix this vexing problem. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[wolluf]

Have you tried turning off active desktop?

 

[xexth]

Thanks for your reply Wolluf - Yes - I have turned off the active desktop - rebooted - and then turned it back on - same result. Should have mentioned this in the initial post - sorry for that. Think the problem can only be repaired with a registry edit.

 

[wolluf]

Is backing up, wiping drive, installing clean windows, reinstalling apps & data an option? Just thinking, though that's a pain, you might spend much longer trying to troubleshoot. When I've seen this before, turning off active desktop has stopped it happening. If its not on yours, sounds like windows isn't saving its settings when you reboot.

If you want to carry on troubleshooting:-

1. When did this start/any changes made to machine around same time.

2. Why does system restore not work - has it had the patch applied (in fact, is the system up to date with all critical MS patches?)

3. How about starting in safe mode - turning active desktop off there and see if any different.

4. Have you installed tweakui powertoy? Its got option to save windows explorer settings (not sure if this is relevant - but worth running and making sure its checked. Also has various active desktop settings. They may also be reset on reboot - but again, worth trying.