Very simple solution to IE 7 and Active Desktop problems on Windows XP

[eduuu]

I noticed several people complaining here and over the internet about the active desktop on XP when IE 7 gets installed, so I decided to research it and quickly came with a very simple solution. If you liked this please pine it, so everyone can see ;)

After installing IE 7 on a Windows XP machine, you will notice some small issues on the OS because IE 7 was designed specially to Windows Vista and above. One of these issues is the Active Desktop incompatibility. This happens because Active Desktop was replaced by the 'Gadgets' feature on Windows Vista, becoming obsolete since IE 7.

Sometimes the desktop wallpaper experiences some problem and Windows automatically display the safemode.htt page, that has a button called restore active desktop (or something like that). If you click the button a script error happens (object doesnt support the action) and the wallpaper remain in that page. This happens because the Activex Control responsible for this method being called by the page when the button is clicked has been updated and no longer works properly. I am talking about the Shell.UIHelper Activex. But, fortunately there is a very simple and easy solution for this. All you have to do is edit a registry value :

At :

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{64AB4BB7-111E-11d1-8F79-00C04FC2FBE1}\InProcServer32

edit the default string value data (value without a name) from C:\windows\system32\ieframe.dll to c:\windows\ie7\shdocvw.dll

Make sure the path is valid and the shdocvw.dll file really exists in the IE7 folder, which by default is HIDDEN. This is a folder having IE 6 and its files, in case you want to go back from IE 7 to IE 6. I am also guessing this folder is also created on Windows 2003 when you install IE 7. a Sample registry script to automate the task :

-Fix Active Desktop problems on XP with IE 7 installed.reg-

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{64AB4BB7-111E-11d1-8F79-00C04FC2FBE1}\InProcServer32]
@="c:\\WINDOWS\\IE7\\SHDOCVW.DLL"

-----------------------------------------------------------------------

-Turn it back to default value when IE 7 is installed.reg-

REGEDIT4
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\CLSID\{64AB4BB7-111E-11d1-8F79-00C04FC2FBE1}\InProcServer32]
@="c:\\WINDOWS\\system32\\ieframe.DLL"

--------------------------------------------------------------

Hope this helps :)

ps: Microsoft shouldnt have changed the shelluihelper activex inprocserver32 entry, it just annoyed a lot of people due to the incompatibility issue. Maybe a small patch should be delivered to users via automatic updates, after all this is sooo simple :)

[TheCaromGuy]

The above solution will help only for bypassing the error message. In my case it did not help me restore the desktop background.

Following steps I had followed to show desktop background.

1. Close any internet explorer window.
2. Open task manager.
3. Kill explorer.exe
4. Click File->NewTask, enter Explorer.exe, hit enter.
5. Voila, your desktop background is set.

PS:

• The problem is encountered after installation of IE7 / IE8
• This is a hack.
• Every time you face the "Active Desktop..." page on your desktop, you should repeat these steps.
• Rate this if you liked it

[eduuu]

Originally Posted by TheCaromGuy

The above solution will help only for bypassing the error message. In my case it did not help me restore the desktop background.

Following steps I had followed to show desktop background.

1. Close any internet explorer window.
2. Open task manager.
3. Kill explorer.exe
4. Click File->NewTask, enter Explorer.exe, hit enter.
5. Voila, your desktop background is set.

PS:

• The problem is encountered after installation of IE7 / IE8
• This is a hack.
• Every time you face the "Active Desktop..." page on your desktop, you should repeat these steps.
• Rate this if you liked it

If it was only to bypass a script error saying the object doesnt support the action I wouldnt post this.
I posted this because I have tested it on some machines with XP SP2/SP3 and it worked fine. Make sure you have the correct shdocvw.dll (the one that comes with IE 6) If you dont get it from a XP machine that still has IE6.
In my cases it restored desktop.

Also there´s a simpler solution (if my above solution doesnt work) in which you dont need to end IE or explorer processes. right click in the desktop, then select the 'properties' from the menu option. In the new window, select the 'desktop' tab and see the current wallpaper image is selected. Just hit the OK button to restore the desktop.

Hope it helps.