Unable To Right Click Desktop

[BigDB]

Recently I got this spyware on my computer. It changed my Jack Evans Desktop Background to this thing with two links reading "DANGER SPYWARE" and gave the screen a red trim. All my desktop icons, exept for the Recycle Bin and Internet explorer also disappeared. Now I'm unable to right click the desktop at all, and can only change the background to a solid color. I can also not right click any icons on the desktop or in folders. I ran Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper, and Avast Anti virus and the problem is still there. Any help is appreciated.

[nizzy1115]

Recently I got this spyware on my computer. It changed my Jack Evans Desktop Background to this thing with two links reading "DANGER SPYWARE" and gave the screen a red trim. All my desktop icons, exept for the Recycle Bin and Internet explorer also disappeared. Now I'm unable to right click the desktop at all, and can only change the background to a solid color. I can also not right click any icons on the desktop or in folders. I ran Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper, and Avast Anti virus and the problem is still there. Any help is appreciated.

If the machine is windows xp just try and preform a system restore to an earlier point when it ran good.
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore

[BigDB]

If the machine is windows xp just try and preform a system restore to an earlier point when it ran good.
Start -> All Programs -> Accessories -> System Tools -> System Restore

No dice, tried it and failed.

[nizzy1115]

No dice, tried it and failed.

ok i just searched something and here is a link with somebody having the same problem...it is a virus, specifically Backdoor.Haxdoor and Trojan Click...he said he got AVG anti virus and it got rid of the trojan click one...try and download it (its free)...here a link AVG ANTIVIRUS ...ill try and see if i can research somemore for you. hope this gets you somewhere. Please post back after you have tried this. :)

opps i forgot to add the link i found here it is linky thing

[nizzy1115]

ive found something that may help you ... it seems that many people have this problem but no one knows how to fix it! heres a link that 2 people had your problem and they got their computer running better but the background was still there...but its worth a shot to run the programs they mention here
hope this gives you some useful information. I hope im making sense to you right now too i am really tired.

[negativgain]

Ok, ready for this headache? I just MOSTLY finished dealing with this problem. I've gotten everything back to normal except my desktop icons are gone (except the basic 4) and my wallpaper is unchangable (BTW, if anyone knows how to fix that, PLEASE TELL ME!!!!). Now, here's the solutions I've found/discovered on my own:

1 - I found out exactly when the file came in, and searched my hard drives for any files modified at that time/date. I deleted every one of them. You can do this by doing a search for these: bargains.exe, wintools (folder), WSupA.exe. This thing produces a LOT of files, so find one of them, check the date modified, then search for files by date modified. anything with the same time stamp or a minute or so after should be deleted.

2 - I found instructions on how to use programs like Hijack This to remove any unwanted registry keys. I will post what I found at the bottom of this.

3 - Follow the directions in this MS link.
http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/Default.asp?url=/resources/documentation/Windows/2000/server/reskit/en-us/regentry/93790.asp
That should fix the right click issue.

Make sure you have run an updated virus scan on your entire system. When I finally got around to it, I had 28 files infected by 14 different viruses. All because I didn't update the scan. Run Ad-Aware and Hijack This and get rid of anything that shouldn't be there. The directions I found DID NOT have everything that Hijack This found. When you run it, look for any DNS entry that is numerical followed by lettering. (example: 177.0.0.0/someletters.htm). Check those and click fix.

Now, here are the directions I found:

Please print out or copy this page to Notepad in order to assist you when carrying out the following instructions.

Before you do anything else, please create a folder for HijackThis and put it in a permanent folder (like C:\HJT) instead of the Temp folder. This is required because HijackThis will create backups and we don't want them to be deleted.

Turn off System Restore by doing the following:

Click Start > Right Click My Computer > Properties. Click the System Restore tab and Check "Turn off System Restore" or "Turn off System Restore on all drives". Click Apply. When turning off System Restore, the existing restore points will be deleted. Click Yes to do this then Click OK.

Go to My Computer >Tools >Folder Options >View tab and make sure that Show hidden files and folders is enabled. Also make sure that the System Files and Folders are showing / visible. Uncheck the Hide protected operating system files option.

Download CWShredder and click on 'Fix' (it will automatically fix anything it finds for you). If it asks if you want to delete a certain random file, choose No and post that filename here.

If you have a fast internet connection (broadband), run an online scan at Trend Micro or RAV Antivirus.
Please select the autoclean option when using Trend Micro.

Reboot into Safe Mode (hit F8 key until menu shows up). Make sure to close any open browsers. Go into HijackThis->Config->Misc. Tools->Open process manager. Select the following and click Kill process for each one if they are still listed (they shouldn't be - but double check it):

C:\WINDOWS\vsnpstd3.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Services\{F43D4813-DAAF-4643-9385-9BC8D3FE0576}\SVCHOST.EXE

Open Hijack This and click on Scan. Check the following entries, if they are still there.(make sure you do not miss any)

R0 - HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://daosearch.com/
R0 - HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main,Start Page = http://daosearch.com
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [snpstd3] C:\WINDOWS\vsnpstd3.exe
O4 - HKLM\..\Run: [Service Host] C:\WINDOWS\System32\Services\{F43D4813-DAAF-4643-9385-9BC8D3FE0576}\SVCHOST.EXE
O9 - Extra button: WeatherBug - {AF6CABAB-61F9-4f12-A198-B7D41EF1CB52} - C:\Program Files\AWS\WeatherBug\Weather.exe (file missing) (HKCU)

Please remember to close all other windows, including browsers then click Fix checked.

Delete the following Files and Folders if they still exist.

C:\WINDOWS\vsnpstd3.exe
C:\WINDOWS\System32\Services\{F43D4813-DAAF-4643-9385-9BC8D3FE0576}\SVCHOST.EXE -- Make sure it is svchost.exe from this folder, not the one in system32 folder

Reboot into Normal Mode and run new HijackThis scan. If there were some entries that didn't show up in Safe Mode, you may check and fix those that appear now in normal mode (if you do that, make sure to run a new scan again). Save the log file and run KRC HijackThis Analyzer in the same folder to get the result.txt log.

I'm new to this site, and this is my first post, But I will keep checking up on this. Anyone have any more questions about it or know the answer to my problem, post it up.

[negativgain]

Ok, I found sort of an answer to the desktop problem. I still can't change it through the usual manner, but I found some direction on how to at least get the picture you want back. On the desktop tab in the display settings, click customize desktop. Then click the WEB tab. Click new, then click BROWSE. Find whatever picture you had as your wallpaper, then click OK. Make sure the new box has the check mark next to it, then click OK again. Click apply, and it should be on the screen. Chances are, it won't be centered. If you move the pointer to the top edge of the picture, a new bar will appear. Click the drop down arrow on the top left and select cover desktop. I'm still not sure how to fix it completely, but at least you wont have to look at a blank screen anymore.

[RollingHippy]

I know it's a little late to be replying to this post, but it was the first hit when I did a search for "unable to right-click desktop" in google, so I thought it would be nice for the answer to be included in ths post.

First of all, you are going to probably have to remove whaterver spyware/virus that caused this first, before trying to first the desktop issue. the free version of AVG will probably work fine (http://free.grisoft.com/). If the spyware/virus is not removed first, it will most likely just recreate this issue after you fix it.

In my case, I got infected with spyware by visiting a website and both AVG and Microsoft Anti-Spyware removed the spyware immediately after I was infected. However, my wallpaper had been replaced with a message explaining that I had been infected with spyware, I was unable to right-click my desktop (although I could right-click anything else) and when I went to the desktop control applet, the area to choose a different background was greyed out.

I found some information on policies that could be set for ActiveDesktop and Explorer that could cause this. These are located in the registry at the following location (click START-RUN and type REGEDIT to open the registry editor):
HKey_Current_User>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Policies>
Under Policies, there are 3 subfolders; ActiveDesktop, Explorer and System. In my case, the spyware that had infected me had added a registry key to the SYSTEM folder. This folder is typically empty to begin with, but I had a key called DESKTOP and the value was set to the location of the wallpaper that was being displayed (C:\Windows\Desktop.html). Once I deleted the DESKTOP key I was ale to right-click my desktop and change the background.

If you do not have the DESKTOP key or some other suspicious key in the System folder, I would recommend that you check the ActiveDesktop and Explorer folders for suspicious keys as well. For instance, there is a key under ActiveDesktop called "NoChangingWallpaper" that normally has a value of 0. If this is set to 1, just change it back to 0.

Typically I wouldn't recommend just deleting entries in the registry, but I can also assure you that anything can be deleted under any of the Policies folders of the registry and Windows will run perfectly fine. So if you see something that looks a little suspicious under any of the three folders, feel free to delete it. There is a similar Policies folder under HKey_Local_Machine, but it is less likely that you will find something there that would cause this issue.

[jaishankar]

Recently I got this spyware on my computer. It changed my Jack Evans Desktop Background to this thing with two links reading "DANGER SPYWARE" and gave the screen a red trim. All my desktop icons, exept for the Recycle Bin and Internet explorer also disappeared. Now I'm unable to right click the desktop at all, and can only change the background to a solid color. I can also not right click any icons on the desktop or in folders. I ran Adaware, Spybot, Spyware Doctor, Spy Sweeper, and Avast Anti virus and the problem is still there. Any help is appreciated.

Ok buddy try this link hope it will help u out
http://www.daniweb.com/techtalkforums/thread36273.html

[LazerViking]

I had a similar problem. I accidently unclicked Show Desktop Icons. So I thought aah no big deal I'll just right click and click it again. But I couldn't right click. So after a little while of looking around I finally solved it. Not sure if it will work for you but it did for me.
First go here
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm
scroll down to number 72 and click on it. After you open it, it will say desktop DISABLED. Open it again and it will say ENABLED. It should show a white background saying to restore desktop. When that happened I right clicked and could show the icons again. If that white background doesn't come up try disabling it again. Hope it helps.

[ohyeah]

I found a rather simple way to fix this issue after the virus has been removed. The reason that the desktop can not be clicked is because there is a active desktop item that spans the entire desktop. To get rid of this, go to your control panel, and go to display properties. Once there, go to the desktop tab and click on customize desktop. Now click the Web tab. If you see anything other than my home page, delete it. You should now see your desktop. STEP TWO: go to http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm and scroll down to #203 On the right of that you should see restore right click properties. save that in a text file, and then open the text file and save it as a new name like restore_right_click.reg make sure it saves as a registry file. Run that and click yes to merge with your registry. Once this finishes, you should now have you right click back again. Any more questions, feel free to email me at [e-mail] and i will do my best to answer your questions.

NOTE: I am doing this on windows XP home edition. Other operating systems may vary.

As for the virus removal, I HIGHLY recommend a program called Trojan Remover. It is not free, but it does do the job. This Issue is commonly associated with the virtumonde virus.