Active Desktop Recovery on Windows XP

loss4words · Oct 24, 2010

Hi guys,

I have a lot of Windows XP computers that have been giving end users this issue at work and I was wondering if anyone ran into this. It seems that most computers on the network lose the wallpaper and instead the "Active Desktop Recovery" page kicks in for everyone. When user clicks "Restore My Active Desktop" button nothing happens and users just receive the following Internet Explorer Script Error box:

Line: 65
Char: 1
Error: object doesn't support this action
Code: 0
Url: file:\\\C:/Documents and Settings/username/Application Data/Microsoft/Internet Explorer/Desktop.htt

I was wondering if there's a workaround for this, and if there's anything I could to prevent this from happening.

Thanks a lot.

Demon10000 · Oct 24, 2010

Honestly, Active Desktop is a sweet place for some spyware or a virus to hide. Ideally, you should disable it.

To troubleshoot, look at like 65 of that file and see what it's trying to do. Post it if you don't understand it.

loss4words · Oct 24, 2010

Hi Demon10000. Thank you very much for advice.

This seems to be line 65 of desktop.htt file. It doesn't mean much to me but I hope you can see somethng that I don't

<input ID=ID5 type="submit" onClick="suih.ResetSafeMode();" value="Restore my Active Desktop">

Here's the full desktop.htt file:

<html>
<head><BASE HREF="C:\WINDOWS\Web\SafeMode.htt">
<title>Untitled Document</title>
<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">

<script language="JavaScript">

function Load() {
// Add any load specific code here
Resize();
window.onresize = Resize;

}

function Resize() {
if (document.dir == "rtl") {
Layer1.style.pixelLeft = document.body.clientWidth - 0.9 * document.body.clientWidth;
Layer2.style.pixelLeft = document.body.clientWidth - 0.95 * document.body.clientWidth;;
} else {
Layer1.style.pixelLeft = 20;
Layer2.style.pixelLeft = 5;
}
}

</script>

</head>

<style>
body { background : white }
</style>

<body bgcolor="#FFFFFF" onload=Load()>

<table width="100%" border="0">
<tr>
<td width="95%">
<h5> </h5>
</td>
<td><img src="exclam.gif" width="238" height="211"></td>
</tr>
</table>
 
<table width="100%" border="0" height="78%">
<tr>
<td width="30%" rowspan="10"> </td>
<td ID=ID1 colspan="3">Active Desktop
Recovery</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38"> </td>
<td ID=ID2 valign="top">Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error. As a precaution, your
Active Desktop has been turned off. To restore the Active Desktop,
use the following troubleshooting tips: </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38"><img src="bullet.gif" width="10" height="10"></td>
<td ID=ID3>Did your browser stop working, or did
you restart your computer without shutting it down first? If so, click:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38"> </td>
<td ID=ID4 align="left" valign="top">
<input ID=ID5 type="submit" onClick="suih.ResetSafeMode();" value="Restore my Active Desktop">
 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38"><img src="bullet.gif" width="10" height="10"></td>
<td ID=ID6 align="left" valign="top">Did you recently
change your background to a web page? If so:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38" height="20"> </td>
<td ID=ID7 align="left" height="20" valign="top">1.
Right-click the desktop and then click Properties. 
2. On the Desktop tab, under Background, click the background you want. 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38"><img src="bullet.gif" width="10" height="10"></td>
<td ID=ID8 align="left" valign="top">Did you recently
add a new item to your Active Desktop? If so:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38" height="20"> </td>
<td ID=ID9 align="left" height="20" valign="top">1.
Right-click the desktop and then click Properties. 
2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop. 
3. On the Web tab, under Web pages, clear the check box for the item that was added last. 
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38" valign="top" height="2"><img src="bullet.gif" width="10" height="10" vspace="2"></td>
<td ID=ID10 align="left">Do you want to turn off your
Active Desktop? If so: </td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="38" rowspan="7"> </td>
<td ID=ID11 align="left" valign="top">1.
Right-click the desktop and select Properties. 
2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop. 
3. On the Web tab, under Web pages, click to clear all the check boxes.</td>
</tr>
</table>


<OBJECT
classid="clsid:72267F6A-A6F9-11D0-BC94-00C04FB67863"
id=ActiveDesktopMover
STYLE="position:absolute; containerositioned; LEFT: 0;TOP: 0; WIDTH: 0; HEIGHT: 0;zIndex: 5"
>
<param name="Interval" value=500>
<param name="SizerID" value="ActiveDesktopMover">
<param name="Enabled" value="True">
<param name="TargetName" value="DeskMovr">
<param name="WindowOnly" value="False">
</OBJECT>

<OBJECT
classid="clsid:72267F6A-A6F9-11D0-BC94-00C04FB67863"
id=ActiveDesktopMoverW
STYLE="position:absolute; containerositioned; LEFT: 0;TOP: 0; WIDTH: 0; HEIGHT: 0;zIndex 19"
>
<param name="Interval" value=500>
<param name="SizerID" value="ActiveDesktopMoverW">
<param name="Enabled" value="True">
<param name="TargetName" value="DeskMovrW">
<param name="WindowOnly" value="True">
</OBJECT>

</body>
<object id="suih" width=0 height=0 classid="clsid:64AB4BB7-111E-11d1-8F79-00C04FC2FBE1">
</object>
</html>

Red Squirrel · Oct 24, 2010

Active desktop has been broken since windows 98. you'd think they would decide to fix it, but guess they can't be bothered. I'd just disable it.

Active Desktop Recovery on Windows XP

loss4words

Weaksauce

Demon10000

Supreme [H]ardness

loss4words

Weaksauce

Red Squirrel

[H]F Junkie