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Support: Defeating Netscape Wallpaper Resets

Applies to: Navigator 3.01
Operating Systems: Windows 95
Problem Symptoms: "I need a way to prevent users from changing the Windows wallpaper image from within Netscape."

Netscape 3.01 provides a new "feature" in the pop-up menu that appears when the user right-clicks on a web page with a background image or on any graphic on a web page. Labeled "Set as Wallpaper", it allows the user to use the specified image as his or her desktop wallpaper image.

While in many cases this is fine for home use, this "feature" can be quite a headache to the network or computer lab administrator, as users, either by accident or with intent, can easily change the desktop wallpaper. Not only can this raise copyright concerns, but it can also result in some undesirable images being set as wallpaper, notably in educational computer lab settings.

SOLUTIONS

32-BIT NETSCAPE NAVIGATOR

  • MS Windows 95 (running the 32-bit version of Netscape 3.01)

Please carefully read the warning that appears below prior to using this method.

Open Windows Explorer and locate the file called Netscape Wallpaper.bmp in C:\WINDOWS (or its equivalent). (If you do not have this file, find your current wallpaper image, rename it Netscape Wallpaper.bmp and move it to C:\Windows. Once you have a Netscape Wallpaper.bmp, right-click it and choose Properties, then check the box next to Read-Only. You can also make the file hidden if you want.

Note to Network and System Administrators: This will not prevent the user from changing the wallpaper in the Display Properties Control Panel or in Windows Explorer, only from within Netscape.

WARNING: The 32-bit method will produce a crash of Navigator every time the user attempts to set an image or background as the wallpaper. On Windows 95 this manifests itself 100% of the time in the form of an Invalid Page Fault in Kernel32.dll and often another Invalid Page Fault in Mfc40.dll. Even though it crashes in the kernel, which is a core Windows component, extensive testing proved that this crash does not destabilize the operating system. On Windows NT it appears as an Application Error in Netscape.exe. Due to the potential for lost work as a result of these crashes, it is our position that every user must be made aware that the Set as Wallpaper feature has been disabled, and that attempting to do so anyway will always result in a crash. It is our belief that the crashes on 32-bit platforms are a bug in Netscape, however we also feel that the crashes serve as an excellent deterrent against attempts at changing the wallpaper.

Reference:
http://www.sousystems.com/faq/navcom/

 

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