W P Staff answered 7 years ago
I had an Active Desktop Recovery problem on my desktop for the longest time and I finally decided to look into it yesterday. My desktop had this white background and it said Active Desktop Recovery. Also, there was a button that said Restore my Active Desktop.
Active Desktop Recovery FIX#1
Open an explorer window (open My Computer for example)
Tools
Folder Options
View
Uncheck Hide protected operating system files
Now do a search for desktop.htt…it should be on your C: normally
Delete any desktop.htt files you find (there could be more than one depending on how many user profiles are on the machine) They should be located in Documents and Settings\User\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer
Close all windows you have open
Now reboot your PC..Windows will recreate desktop.htt for you and it should work!
oops…I almost forgot….go ahead a place a check back in Hide protected operating system files
Active Desktop Recovery FIX#2
Go to Run, type regedit and hit enter
Go here HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components
Select the value DeskHtmlVersion
Select the Decimal radial button
Change the value of 272 to 0
Most of the time it might take a few seconds for your background to appear and other times…you might need to restart your computer.
What causes the Active Desktop Recovery error?
Active Desktop Recovery – Viruses
Some people get the error when viruses corrupt the desktop files and explorer.exe.
Active Desktop Recovery – Spyware
Spyware can corrupt Windows files
Active Desktop Recovery – Malware
Malware can corrupt Windows files
Active Desktop Recovery – Registry
Registry problems can cause this as well. A good registry cleaner should be used often to clean the registry.
Active Desktop Recovery – Programs
I’ve seen the Active Desktop Recovery error on computer system overloaded by programs. I’m talking about those computer systems that are still running 1996 programs along side of 2011 programs. Sometimes it’s good just to start fresh and wipe out your computer.