[lhartz]

When restarting my PC my monitor wouldn't always start up again. I finally got fed up, took it in to a shop, video card was defective. I had it replaced with a Celestica Radeon 9200. They called me from the shop, said the computer was ready, but that the display was all messed up. I didn't think it'd be that big of a deal to fix, so I took it home. The resolution options are available as a tray icon so that was no problem. But, when I go into display properties, I have no tabs - no desktop, screensaver, bappearance, or settings - all I have is themes. Is this because my old video card messed up Windows (XP Pro)? Everything else seems to be running properly. No viruses, adware or spyware. Is there a registry edit to get these tabs back?

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Go to Start and run regedit

Navigate to the keys listed here and look in the right pane for any restrictions. Just right click and delete them or set them to 0

User Key: [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
System]
System Key: [HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\
System]
Name: NoDispSettingsPage
Type: REG_DWORD (DWORD Value)
Value: (0 = disabled, 1 = enabled)

>> look for other restrictions in the same area, under Policies or Policies\Active Desktop

 

[lhartz]

Sorry it took so long for me to reply to your post. Unfortunately I was in a car accident and I had to get everything sorted out. Anyway, I checked in the registry and I don't even have the entries that you've listed. I have Policies but nothing underneath it. I added them and then modify to what you've suggested and it still didn't give me my properties back. Any other suggestions?

 

[Rollin' Rog]

Well that's a bit of a surprise, did you look under both the HKCU and HKLM keys? I'm not sure what other area of the registry could be used to restrict this. Are you logged on with Administrative Priveleges?

One thing that occurs to me, although I don't think it would result in the removal of the tabs themselves, is that in installing the Display drivers, ATI's "Control Panel" software was not installed. Their drivers generally come with a two part installation. One for the drivers themselves, the other for their own display properties settings. This will be listed in Add/Remove programs as ATI Control Panel. Each driver version has a corresponding "Control Panel" which must be updated along with the driver. This provides a system tray interface to all the default configuration options and more.

Sorry to hear about your accident...

By the way, I am using Winguides to check these options, they have a downloadable, free guide that is very usefull.

http://www.winguides.com/registry/category.php/430/

http://www.winguides.com/guides.php?guide=software

 

[i hate ram]

if you're having such a problem with this, you should take it back to the shop and tell them to fix the problem that they caused, and if they dont, then get ur money back

 

[Elvandil]

Go to Start > Run, and type:
gpedit.msc
OK.

Find:
Local Computer Policy--> User Configuration--> Administrative Templates--> Control Panel--> Display.

All the items in the right pane should be listed as "Not Configured" in the "State" column. Double-click any that are not and change them to being unconfigured.

Many of these will at least overlap Rollin' Rog's registry references, but some are in different locations.

And his point about the ATI Control Panel is a strong possibility since it modifies the contents of the Display Properties applet. You might try installing the latest Catalyst driver bundle for that card.

For broadband, there is one file that needs to be installed that contains the driver, Control Panel, and WDM Capture driver all in one package:
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-catalyst-8-00-040322a-014266c.exe

For dial-up, you can download and install them in separate packages if you prefer (install them in the order listed):
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/wxp-w2k-8-00-040322a-014266c.exe
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/control-panel-8-00-040322a-014266c.exe
http://www2.ati.com/drivers/tv-capture-wdm-6-14-10-6238.exe