An Annoyance I have had for years but never really found a solution

[MaXiM]

Hi

 

I have a mixed XP /Windows 7 environment on a 2003 domain.

 

I have enabled active desktop wallpaper and pointed it to a picture in a share.

 

For some reason if I use jpg files I just get an annoying black screen and the user has to refresh the screen for the image to appear.

 

If I use a BMP then this problem goes away... But I would rather use JPEGS if at all possible.

 

I set the res to 1400 x 900 and the image to stretch if anyone has a bigger screen.

 

as i said with BMP's it works a treat.. just not with jpegs..

 

Anybody found a solution to this before?

[Steve21]

By any chance do you have "Turn on Classic Shell" enabled? Could you try disabling it, and testing on a test pc.

 

I know this causes issues sometime, because active desktop is only needed for JPEGs (BMPs dont use it even if you set it to a BMP), and classic shell causes problems with active desktop sometimes.

 

Worth a try if you got test machine laying about.

 

Steve

[Arthur]

Anybody found a solution to this before?

Use BMPs or upgrade all of your XP PCs to Windows 7 (which natively supports JPGs as wallpaper).

[MaXiM]

No I don't have classic shell, I don't like the Windows 95 theme.

[MaXiM]

It's interesting what you say about Active Desktop not even being used. I will try that out, thanks.

[Mullaney18]

I think this hotfix should be right up your street:

KB 977944

~Chris

[Arthur]

I would rather use JPEGs if at all possible.

Using JPEGs with XP is completely pointless IMO since Windows converts the image to a BMP whether you like it or not (even with Active Desktop enabled).

 

[b]Windows Explorer / Picture and Fax Viewer - Right-click image » Set As Desktop Background [/b]
%UserProfile%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\[color="red"]Wallpaper1.bmp[/color]

 

Windows 7 on the other hand doesn't convert it into BMP format because it can use JPGs as wallpaper.

 

[b]Windows Explorer - Right-click image » Set As Desktop Background[/b]
%UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\[color="red"]TranscodedWallpaper.jpg[/color]

 

Other programs still convert the image into a BMP regardless of OS though.

 

[b]Internet Explorer - Right-click image » Set As Background[/b]
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\[color="red"]Internet Explorer Wallpaper.bmp[/color]

 

[b]Firefox - Right-click image » Set As Desktop Background[/b]
%UserProfile%\Application Data\Mozilla\Firefox\[color="red"]Desktop Background.bmp[/color]

Edited April 12, 2011 by Arthur

[MaXiM]

Ok thanks for that!