I am trying to display a background on my screen and nothing happens. When I select "set as background" nothing happens. When I go into control panel and display all I can change is the color. The rest of the box is all grayed out.
BTW, I have windows XP

Anyone know how to fix it???

 

So you have a photo or something that you want to utilize as a background on your machine?

I think that it has to be in a certain format before you can do it... .jpg or .bmp I know work.

 

Try this

Right click on the desktop anywhere

Select Properties

Select the desktop tab

Browse to the picture you want as your background and select it. This should put your picture in the list of desktop backgrounds and it should be the selected item. You should be able to hit apply and your background is set.

Hope that helps you.

 

Also, you may have "Active Desktop" enabled. Right click anywhere on your desktop and choose "Refresh." Sometimes the computers at work get all screwed up like that and need a quick refreshing.

 

I see all the "factory backgrounds" plus the one I choose, but the box is grayed out an not letting me click on it to select and choose.

 

That is the box that is all grayed out

 

HAHA, just spent an hour figuring this out on my buddy's laptop...literally just got done like 2 minutes ago. You need to go to:

Start-Run-
Regedit.exe and navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curre ntVersion\Policies\System
(and)
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Curr entVersion\Policies\System

Delete the values "Wallpaper" and if there, "Wallpaper Style" in the right side pane.

The entries may not be in both "current user" or "Local Machine" so check them both.

It's caused by deleting spyware that took the value in the registry over.

BTW, you may want to back up your registry first, just in case.

 

If I knew how to fix XP I'd be richer than Bill Gates.

(Cue laugh track)

The only known way to fix the Microsoft OS is to trash it and buy a Mac.