Turn Off Windows Active Desktop
November 2, 2007 · by KyleActive Desktop is a nice Windows feature that allows you to have web content on your desktop. Indeed a nice feature, but unfortunately not something that benefits computer stability. It requires that the web page that you configure as content for the active desktop is available. This means your internet connection needs to be active. There are also several known problems with Active Desktop that relate to the mshtml.dll file. Further, problems with anti spyware, and inconsistent behavior have been reported as a result of Active Desktop.
Of course the use of web content on your desktop not only affects your PC stability, but also your PC performance. Processing web content to be displayed on your desktop will take more processing time then a simple background image that resides on your local hard drive. The speed in which the web content is available is another factor to consider. So your internet speed actually impacts the performance of Windows XP this way.
If all this (or other factors) make you decide you want to turn off Windows Active Desktop, follow these steps:
- From the Windows Start menu, select Control Panel.
- In the Control Panel, select Appearance and Themes.
- Next, click Display.
- In the Display Properties windows, select the Desktop tab.
- Click the Customize Desktop button.
- In the Desktop Items window, select the Web tab.
- Make sure that all entries in the Web pages list are unchecked. Another option is to select the entries and delete them by clicking the Delete button.
- Click OK to close the Desktop Items window and then close the Display Properties window.
These steps should help you restore or ensure PC stability and probably help you speed up your computer a little more.
If you are comfortable in editing your computer registry, there is another way to disable the active desktop in Windows XP. Follow the steps below to force the Windows Explorer to use the Classic Shell, which in effect disables the active desktop functionality.
- From the Windows Start menu, select Run. In the Run box, type regedit and click OK.
- In the Registry Editor, locate the following key:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer - Create a new DWORD Value with the name ClassicShell, and assign a value of 1 to it.
- Close the Registry Editor. Select Exit from the File menu.
These registry tweaks will have the same effect, increasing your PC’s stability by disabling the active desktop in Windows XP and preventing a web site as desktop contents.
Comments
3 Responses to “Turn Off Windows Active Desktop”
Leave a Reply
thanks a lot. this help is a grt oferr to helpless people like me. thaks a lot again.
I followed your guide to ‘Turn Off Windows Active Desktop’, and it works, however, now I can’t set my default ‘Windows’ view to ‘Details’. Every time I open a new windows explorer window, it’s always in ‘List’ view, I have to change it manualy, then next time I navigate to the same folder, it’s changed back to ‘List’ view. I tried changing the view to ‘Details’, then opening ‘Folder Options’ and selecting ‘Apply to All’, but it doesn’t work any more. All my windows still open in ‘List’ view.
What do I need to edit in the registry to set my view to default to ‘Details every time?
@Paulo - The problem you are facing with the default view is not related to the Active Desktop.
When you use the “Apply to All Folders”, a registry key is created in:
“HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\ CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams”
Normally it would create a “Default” subkey there.
You could try deleting all subkeys there (after making a backup first).
Kyle