I had to repair Windows XP PC which got the annoying Active Desktop Recovery screen. I remember seeing this screen back in the days when I was still using Microsoft Windows 98. It was quite shocking for me to find out this stupid pointless Windows bug appears on NT based Windows as well…
As you can see on the screenshot there is a button Restore My Active Desktop but pressing this button doesn't change anything
People around the net recommend two ways to fix that one is through:
Control Panel -> Internet Options -> Advanced (Reset)
After this I tried the usual Computer Restart but unfortunately this not solved the problem.
Second suggested method was through a change in Windows registry from
C:\> regedit
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\\Software\Microsoft\\Internet Explorer\\Desktop\\SafeMode\\Components
Change the key value – DeskHtmlVersion REG_DWORD 0x00000110(272) to decimal zero.