gazaly said:In Windows you can change desktop wallpaper, screen saver, themes and other appearance settings by right-click on Desktop and select “Properties”.
When you enter Windows XP desktop properties, it looks as following:
And Windows Vista desktop properties looks as following:
Sometimes you might want to disable all or a few options in Desktop Properties to restrict users or you might want to enable those options in case they are disabled by your system administrator or a virus infection.
Following tutorial will help you in enabling or disabling all or a particular option in Desktop Properties:
NOTE: This tutorial will work for almost all Windows versions.
Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ ExplorerIf “Explorer” key is not present, then create it. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoThemesTab and set its value to 1 to disable it.
Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ SystemIf “System” key is not present, then create it. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoDispBackgroundPage and set its value to 1 to disable it.
Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ SystemIf “System” key is not present, then create it. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoDispScrSavPage and set its value to 1 to disable it.
Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ SystemIf “System” key is not present, then create it. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoDispAppearancePage and set its value to 1 to disable it.
Open regedit and goto:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ SystemIf “System” key is not present, then create it. Now in right-side pane, create a new DWORD value NoDispSettingsPage and set its value to 1 to disable it.
NOTE: When you’ll disable all above mentioned tabs in Desktop Properties. You’ll get a similar Desktop Properties window as shown in following screenshots:
Windows XP Desktop Properties Window with all Restrictions Enabled:
Windows Vista Desktop Properties Window with all Restrictions Enabled:
BONUS TIP: In case you want to enable a restricted tab in Desktop Properties, just delete the required DWORD value as mentioned above or change its value to 0 instead of 1.