# Why does my Active Desktop crash again and again?



## newkidtopc (Jul 24, 2002)

Hello,

I currently have a wallpaper which requires Active Desktop.But from the time that I have enabled Active Desktop it has repeatedly crashed.

Can somebody please explain me why such repeated crashes?

Thanks in advance


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

It has always been a buggy feature that few people use anymore. I would really suggest using a wallpaper that does not require Active Desktop.

The feature seems prone to conflicts with other programs running -- from mouseware drivers to monitoring programs of various kinds -- troubleshooting it is generally not worth the hassle.

Also Active Desktop will crash ANY time you get an Explorer or IE kernel32 error, so you have to troubleshoot those specifically as well.


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## pappy1271 (Mar 17, 2004)

Plus it uses vital memory and resources just to place a picture on the desktop. Neat feature when it first came out. But too much hassle for just a picture.


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## newkidtopc (Jul 24, 2002)

Its just that some of the most beautiful wallpapers that I have require Active Desktop.
BTW, what type of wallpapers that dont require Active Desktop?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

Any standard jpg or bmp wallpaper can be used. Heck you can create your own out of any picture you want. Just resize it to your desktop resolution using a program like Irfanview and have Irfanview set it as the wallpaper.

http://www.irfanview.com/


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## brushmaster1 (Jun 15, 2002)

I personally like active desktop and have never had any problems with it. The reason I use it is because I can have NOTHING but my desktop wallpaper showing... all my icons are on my quick launch bar. I realize that active desktop does use some resources, but with it active, Window Blinds loaded, along with my AV and firewall, and Webshots, I still have 86% free resources (Win 98SE with 384MB RAM).


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

But you don't need Active Desktop to do that. It is possible to remove all icons from a standard Windows desktop (TweakUI can be handy for some of these)


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## newkidtopc (Jul 24, 2002)

Hello Rollin' Rog,
I guess the pics that I would like to have as desktop are of jpg format?Still they require Active Desktop.
Just as another question,if I convert these jpg's to bmp's will it lower the quality?


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## Rollin' Rog (Dec 9, 2000)

No, but the desktop may load a bit more slowly, particularly if you are using a color depth above 16 bit true color; I don't think .bmps can use Active Desktop, but I might be mistaken.

And I really don't understand why these require Active Desktop unless they are "dynamic" images which change, or are associated with some web based adware.


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