Interesting Windows XP Note

[ssl]

Do you have a lot of icons on your desktop?

I bet you have at least one, the Recycle Bin.

There is a reason behind having it as the default on all installations:

You need to have at least one icon showing to have both a wallpaper and icons. Otherwise, you will have a blank black screen (with the taskbar and any open application windows), and no wallpaper.

Need to fix it?

If you do not have icons on your desktop, but want a wallpaper, here is how you go about it:

1) Delete all icons you do not need on your desktop. Many application icons can be moved to the quick launch bar, or a custom bar of your choice. Here, I have the blank screen, showing no icons on the desktop, but with a customized quick launch bar (location, auto-hidden, not "Quick Launch"):



Well, I only deleted the Recycle Bin from my desktop (I previously copied a link to it into the custom launch bar) and removed it. To do so requires a registry edit, and I would recommend you have someone you trust to do it. But, I have a wallpaper set:



Notice the grayed out "Apply" button; this means it is currently set to display the highlighted picture as my desktop's wallpaper. However, as you can see, in the actual desktop, there is a bunch of darkness.

So, how to fix this, I pondered. I went searching online; messed with some other options, and after about 2 minutes, I just realized I had no icons on the desktop. So I turned them off, by unchecking the "Show Desktop Icons" option, under the "Arrange Icons By" context menu:



And I was surprised at the result:



Now, you will notice the left and bottom edges of the screen are not "sharp," because that is where the bars are hiding. You can hide them by right-clicking the bar, to get it's context menu. Select "Auto-Hide" for all other bars besides the "Start" bar. For the "Start" bar, you will need to select "Properties", then select "Auto-hide the taskbar".

 

[ssl]

For an explanation, for those who might be interested:

It would seem, from my outside view, that the function was coded with the requirement for at least one icon, hence why you see at least the Recycle Bin on any Windows XP installation, if the only one.

I bet the return value for that function is a boolean (True or False) result. Since the function expects at least one icon, and does not find any, it does not set the function return value equal to true. Such as:

[FONT=Courier New]boolean:showDesktopIcons(string[]:iconPaths)
    boolean:res
    integer:i
    for(i;1;iconPaths.upper())
        blitBits(getResource(wICON,iconPaths[i])))
        res=res||true
    return(res)[/FONT]

Or something similar; the language the above pseudo-function is "coded in" is something I am working on right now, but the language itself is not the item of interest. Basically, a boolean's default value is False, which means if you do not assign it a value, it will automatically be False.

The issue, or where I think this interesting note applies, is not in that routine, but in the display updating routine, in which all objects which have something to show on the screen (such as the taksbar, any open applications, and just the desktop itself). When the desktop object is "queried" for an update to display to the user, the showDesktopIcons() function is called, and if there is an issue, the function returns False, and the desktop's object probably passes all the newest information as a result to the query. However, when the false False result is obtained in the showDesktopIcons, the showWallpaper() function is impacted, which probably indicates that it is requested after the showDesktopIcons() function. This seems to be an interesting way to do this screen update, but it works in a fashion, from starting from what is behind, and ending up with what is the newest piece of data.

Just thought some of you might find it interesting.

 

[NicAuf]

I just right-click and un-click "show desktop icons". No icons and I can change my wallpaper.

Me thinks I be confused?

 

[ssl]

Do you normally have icons on your desktop?

I did, until recently, when I decided to store all my data on an external drive. Most of the icons on my desktop were simple text files, which I rarely looked at after writing them. So, I put them to the drive, and cleaned up the program icons as well, moving some to my launch bar to the left. Now, all I had left was the "My Computer" and "Recycle Bin" icons; getting rid of the "My Computer" icon was easy, the "Recycle Bin" not as easy.

When I did get rid of the "Recycle Bin" icon, I was surprised to not see my desktop wallpaper, and went about hunting it down. If someone else takes a similar approach to organization, and finds themselves with this predicament, then they can rectify the situation by taking the outlined steps.

The second post was a possible explanation as to why the situation may occur.

 

[NicAuf]

I have the following icons on my desktop:

My computer
Recycle bin
Firefox
Itunes
Skype
Folder where I put all the clutter

 

[ssl]

NicAuf, the point was if you had a wallpaper first and icons, then removed only the icons, you would assume that the wallpaper would still be there.

However, in XP, that is not the case. You have to explicitly turn off icons that are not even there. Therefore, the code, while not explicitly flawed, has an inherent flaw in that the order of execution is as it should be.

This tidbit has nothing to do with those who have icons on their desktops and use them regularly.

 

[BarOfSoap]

Um i just right click desktop and uncheck show desktop, I can still have a wallpaper.

 

[ssl]

Um i just right click desktop and uncheck show desktop, I can still have a wallpaper.

Heh, if you did that, you would not *have* a desktop to show a wallpaper on.

 

[Static]

This is seriously retarded.

Just uncheck the show desktop items option, or get TweakUi (which is free) from Microsoft download site.
Each can remove all the icons and still leave the rest of the desktop fine.

 

[ssl]

Just never mind.

It does not matter anymore; I cannot even set a wallpaper anymore. I do not have the option to turn on icons either. And truthfully, I like it like this.

Too bad the Arrange Icons and View menus did not disappear too.

 

[Static]

Sounds like something is wrong with your OS.
Try opening Task Manager, click new task and type "sfc /scannow" without the quotes.
Make sure to have your Windows CD on hand as it might ask for it.

 

[ssl]

Sounds like something is wrong with your OS.
Try opening Task Manager, click new task and type "sfc /scannow" without the quotes.
Make sure to have your Windows CD on hand as it might ask for it.

"Try opening Task Manager..."

Um.. that should read:

Right-click the Start bar, click on Task Manager; notice that Process Explorer opens instead;

File -> Run... Ctrl+R -> Type "sfc /scannow" without quotes. Press Enter, or click the OK button.

====== OR =========

Hold down the Windows key and press R, release both.

Type "sfc /scannow" without quotes. Press Enter, or click the OK button.

==================

The operating system appears to be fine; the shell, however, might have a problem.

:cool

 

[ssl]

Not to mention, I do not currently have an optical drive connected to this laptop.

 

[ssl]

But of course, you did not ask this information, if you wished to diagnose the issue, you jumped for a particular possibility; walking in the dark is not the best way to troubleshoot something.

Also, something might be wrong, but it is not something I consider to be something to warrant such troubleshooting; it was more for informational purposes only.

Secondly, TweakUI is not for the average computer user. I actually prefer a blank desktop, no wallpaper, no icons. Less work the computer has to do, in the long run.

 

[Static]

I cannot even set a wallpaper anymore. I do not have the option to turn on icons either.

Seriously, have you not heard of the 'Edit' button?

And by this quote it appears to me to be something corrupted with your OS.

I too, also like a blank desktop.. but you're just going the hard way about it.

 

[ssl]

The ladies like the hard way....

Jokes aside, like I said earlier, I am not worried about it.

But thanks for the suggestions anyways.