Windows 7: Black desktop/wallpaper disappears

not sure what causes that but have seen the same symptom once or twice, you can reload the desktop wallpaper, or it seems to appear without any corrective action on the next boot. legit minor bug i think.

This only seems to happen if you are using images that have symbols and non letters in the name, according to another member with the same problem. I have had this happen but only when quitting a game, because I have slideshow on I just right click the desktop and click on next desktop background picture.

Nope. It fixed it at first but eventually it would stop on pictures even with simple letters and numbers in the name. It kept stopping on one that was like "Dave20.jpg" or something really simple like that.

Next desktop background picture doesn't always work for me. If it stopped, and I click that, nothing happens. Then I go back to the same menu, and "Next Desktop Background Picture" is gone from the menu, and my desktop is set to a solid black color.

Background changer issue

This is not only a windows 7 issue, the exact same thing happens to me on Vista, and now that you mentioned it, I had just played World of Warcraft before it happened.

Never happened here with Vista.

Happens to me all the time in Windows 7 and I'm not running any games or full-screen software. Minor annoyance really but no cause or fix in sight. Perhaps ATI will finally release a proper Windows 7 driver that does the trick. I haven't tried the Catalyst drivers available for Windows Vista, because I'm leery of using anything but native Windows 7 drivers right now.

I think perhaps there is an issue with the RealVNC software I'm running. One thing that always kills the desktop is connecting to another computer via RealVNC. The mirror driver is likely the culprit.

I switched out my vid card at work to an ATI X1300 Pro and installed the Vista 64 drivers and have experienced 0 problems. U shouldn't be scared of the drivers, you can always boot into safe mode and roll them back if there's a problem.

I think this is the same problem I have had.
Blank deskop upon startup and an empty tool bar. My guess is that Desktop Window Manager is not getting along with the graphics driver and something is failing to startup.
A quick fix for me is to open the Taskmanager. Locate dwm.exe .... and end process JUST ONCE.
If you stop it once it seems to reload itself and everyone seems happy, problem kinda fixed.
IF YOU END PROCESS 2x it seems to screw up windows 7 somethin awful. I'm still in counseling.. ? jk
Hopes this helps cuz I was sick of restarting windows 3x to fix the glitch

I had the same problem, desktop turning black, especially after closing games.
By coïncidence I found a solution: Refreshing the windows experience index!
go to: Control panel - System and security - System - Check the windows experience index - and then click refresh or re-run the assesment, depending on how often you've updated this page.
It might not be the fastest solution, but it beats rebooting every time, plus you can just minimalize and keep all your active programs.
Hope it works for you too.

I heard that if you don't activate your copy of windows you will get a black wallpaper

Yes if your copy of windows is not genuine it will switch to a solid black background on startup and every hour (iirc). That is completely seperate, that is how it is supposed to work and it is not a problem. That should not be confused with the other solid black background problems/bugs in this thread.