Windows 7: Home Premium CAN'T CHANGE WALLPAPER!

ok i'm really pissed off right now.

i got a new toshiba laptop from best buy 3 days ago... has 7 home premium on it. i was able to change my wallpaper and themes just fine until i tried to change my wallpaper tonight. now it won't change. last night windows downloaded and install updates. microsoft sucks.... just like with all other operating systems... they put out all these updates and just screw stuff up. after the update, all my sound settings where all messed up and i had to figure out which one got turned on and off to get them back the way the were before the fabulous update. microsoft really Fn sucks.

when i create a new user account, i can change themes and wallpaper in that just fine. but I DON'T WANT TO START ALL OVER IN ANOTHER USER ACCOUNT. i already have files and stuff transfered from another computer... etc etc. i just want this simple Fn task to work right.... LIKE IT WAS FOR TWO WHOLE DAYS BEFORE THIS STUPID FKKIN UPDATE. thats what you get for leaving auto download and install windows updates turned on.

i've tried the patch fix mentioned in the other thread... it doesn't work for me. i've searched for about 2 Fn hours now and tried several things suggested in this forum.

when i apply a new theme... the color of the windows will change according to the theme... but not the wallpaper.

i've tried changing the name of the picture i have set as the current wallpaper to see if maybe nothing would show. didn't work. i've played with the Aero settings wherever i could find them... no affect.

again.... changing my wallpaper was no problem for the first 2 days i had this new laptop... then after the update last night... today i can't change it.

god this is so annoying. i hate microsoft.

has anyone found a solution for this yet? i don't have windows 7 starter... i have home premium.

Huh. I didn't get any updates last night.
My settings for the updater are to automatically add important and recommended updates, and my wallpaper settings have never been affected, or my sounds.

I suspect you may have inadvertently changed something without realizing it.

Well first off, I suggest taking a moment to calm down. Its harder to fix a problem with that sort of attitude.

Now, does your laptop have a recovery partition on it? If so you could boot up into that and restore it back to factory settings (which would essentially wipe the data and make it the same way you got it). Should fix any problems, I haven't experienced this problem nor do I know anyone that has.

Never heard of user having wallpaper problems after installing updates from MS...Weird.

Here we go again. . .

It is not Microsoft's fault. Now here is the easy way to fix the problem.

Go into the start menu and navigate to "System Restore", and restore the laptop back to the day or hour before the update was installed. Usually Microsoft updates will set a restore point so you can correct any problems that may have occurred because of the update. This is usually caused by third party crap that has been put on the computer by the manufacture. Good Luck

BTW, Welcome to the Seven Forums.

LOL at the idea that you can't install software from other non-microsoft manufacturers without it affecting the OS. and LOL that someone would call non-microsoft software "crap". yeah manufactures put frivolous stuff on new machines... most of it you want to un-install. but the notion that non-malware software will mess up the OS is probably quite true... and another example of windows ineptness.

see attachment for updates installed on 1/29/2010.

i am 100% certain my sound settings were changed after the reboot from these updates. i can't be 100% sure these updates affected my wallpaper problem because i didn't try to change it until 1/30/2010.

it seems the only way to fix this annoying problem is to create a new user account and switch everything over to that account.

That's the first time I've ever seen "ActiveX Killbits". I guess I have some Googling to do.

OK my angry little friend, I've got something for you to try.

Delete this file:

C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg

I did this, went back to personalization and picked a wallpaper, and BANG! it worked.

It looks like this file is where windows stores the current background. If you change the background, this file changes. I think the permissions on that file got messed up, stopping Windows from reading/updating it.

It's amazing what you can achieve when you keep a level head

Keep a level head? This post is 5 weeks old...
Welcome to SF...

It could be useful for others who may have the same problem. anyways, its always better to check the last post date before replying.