Active Desktop Recovery

If you ever happened to encounter the "Active Desktop Recovery" screen on your desktop, which itself is annoying. To make matters worse clicking on "Restore Active Desktop Recovery" won't make any difference. As the issue started to pop up regularly, I thought of documenting the solution.

Before reading on, make sure you have registry access permissions, as most of the steps involves some registry tweaks here and there. So lets move on the solution. 


The following solution worked for me, which I believe should definitely work for you too. 


Step 1:
Delete "Desktop.htt"


1. Key in "." (period without quotes) to the "Start->Run" window.
2. The "Documents and Settings" folder of user login should open up.
3. From there navigate to "\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"
4. Delete "Desktop.htt". If you couldn't find the file, make sure "Show hidden files" is turned on.
5. Refresh the desktop. If the error still persists, move on to Step 2.


Step 2: (Before proceeding, make a backup of the registry keys you are about to alter.)
Modify "SafeMode" registry key.
1. Open Registry.
2. Navigate to "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\Components"
3. Change the DeskHTMLVersion key from 272 to 0 and reboot. The original desktop should now be back.
4. If the error still persists, move on to Step 3.


Step 3: (Before proceeding, make a backup of the registry keys you are about to alter.)

1. Open Registry.

2. Navigate to "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\SafeMode\General"

3. Delete the value in "Wallpaper" key, which will be "%SystemRoot%\Web\SafeMode.htt".

2. Navigate to "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General"

3. Delete the value in "BackupWallpaper" key. 

4. If the error still persists, move on to Step 4.

Step 4:

1. I am out of options, please post your issue with Stackoverflow, Experts-Exchange or Windows forums or with Bytes.

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