Windows XP background doesn't work.

[Sammiesoon]

Any of your input would be greatly appreciated, Here's anything that I know to help you help me.
Windows XP
not a "real" copy.

Homemade computer.  My brother built it for me a few years ago.  But I've moved away and I can't ask him for help anymore I'm sorry i can't tell you anything else.  I have 2 hard drives, I don't know how much RAM or anything like that I have.  And I don't know how to find out.  I'm sorry.
I have adwatch3.0 and ad-aware 6.0, run them constantly.  i also have zonealarm anti virus that I just got and have run that.

Okay.  I believe my computer is clean of viruses, as it should be since I've been running anti virus and spyware.  I've tried to do all that for the past month or two.  I'm not sure how it started at all, either.  I just know that why husband was on the computer doing something, and then when I get to it it has no background.  As in I had a picture for the background but it was just black, the desktop icons were there and everything.
So i right click the desktop, pull up properties and go to the desktop menu.
well when you look at it everything seems fine, and I can see the background list, but I can't scroll down.  As in it's not even a button to click.  Now i can change the desktop color to whatever I want, i just can't change the image, nor scroll down and look at the image background selection. 

Although I know the background image is there. Whenever I start the computer up or turn it off, it'll appear right at the first/last moment, and then disappear. Weird.

It hasn't been any kind of REAL problem, but it's a huge nuisance.  I looked all over the website, and asked a few computer savvy friends what they thought.  Noone could help me.  So i thought I could ask here, and maybe someone else who has the same problem can get help.

Thanks so much and I'm sorry I don't know much about my computer itself.  it's a bit of a mutt.  If there is a way i can look up more information I'd be happy to do so.

Thanks again!!

[Deerpark]

Do you have XP Professional or XP Home?
If you don't know, right click "My Computer" and select properties.
Click the "General" tab and the version is listed under "System:".

[Sammiesoon]

Thank you for replying and telling me how to find it!

Windows XP Professional
Version 2002
service pack 2

Intel Pentium III Processor
944 MHz, 512 MB of RAM

I hope that helped!!

[Deerpark]

Okay try this:
Select Start and "Run..."
Type gpedit.msc and press enter
In the left window panel find and click "User Configuration"
In the right window pane find the "Administrative Templates" folder and double click it.
Double click "Control Panel" and double click "Display".
Find the policy called "prevent changing wallpaper" and double click it
Set it to "Disabled" press ok and exit the Group Policy editor.

Hopefully this should allow you to change wallpaper again.

[Sammiesoon]

I tried it and it didn't work.
Thank you so much for trying though.  I didn't even know that existed on my computer.

[Deerpark]

Sammiesoon ignore deep, he is just being a troll.

EDIT: He apparently disappeared...

[Sammiesoon]

 
Weird.

Anyone have any ideas?

[Deerpark]

I found something that might work.
Go to this site:
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_abc.htm

Press W in the alphabet at the top of the page.
Find where it says "Allow Wallpaper/Background Changes"
Right click it and select "Save target as" or "save link as" (depending on your browser) and save it on your computer.
Run the file by double clicking it.

[unlovedwarrior]

get spybot search and destroy. an infection might have messed with you registery, and hopefully spybot will find the change

[Sammiesoon]

it doesn't do anything.

When i right click the desktop and go to properties and go the menu in which I'm supposed to be able to change my background it doesn't even work.  The scrollbar which lets me scroll through all the different options for background (i.e. none, azul, autumn and so forth), the scroll button doesn't even work.  I can't click on any of the options(i.e. none, azul, autumn), as in there is not option to do that.  it won't get highlighted it just looks like an image.
The only button that is at all usable is the change color function so i can make my desktop color go from black to pink if I wanted.

Also the image that i selected shows up each time windows closes or opens.  As in the first thing I see when windows opens is the desktop background picture that i chose then it disappears to the background color which i chose (black).  And whenever I turn off my computer the background color of blackdisappears and turns into the background image I chose. then it closes.  But all during it actually being on it doesn't work at all.  and the image I chose I just right clicked and set it as background.  I couldn't do it through the menu.

It sounds so weird and I've never heard of it happening before.  I'm thinking a virus messed with it, but I have run anti-virus and anything that was on the computer is gone now.
Any Ideas would be lovely...except rubbing a magnet over my hard drive.

[Sammiesoon]

I have 2 spyware removing software alreayd on my computer and zonealarm is antivirus AND spyware remover.  I also had the AVG trial on my computer before I got zonealarm. 

[unlovedwarrior]

once its done scanning (spybot) you can remove it, i just want to see what it finds

[Sammiesoon]

Okay it's scanning and i've heard alot of good things about it.  I think I'll keep it and uninstall the other 2 programs I have to free up some space.

[unlovedwarrior]

its up to you

[GX1_Man]

Windows XP not a "real" copy.

This is always a good spot to start for problems. What service pack is on there? Do you have any or all of the updates?