Yeah, thanks Wither, but the XP fix isn't apparently associated to the Vista fix, as the keys are different (or they don't look similar to have like-kind structure to follow the XP fix on the Vista registry, unfortunately).
As for my 'anger quotient' over this whole thing, I think it was 90-percent driven by all the system admins asking, begging online for "how do you lock it down so you can't have users changing their desktop wallpaper?"
I mean, come on, if you have a group policy, then it is pretty simple to merely put a company wallpaper on the server, and have it 'set this' as the computer's wallpaper upon login, with users locked out of setting it. It was simple with 2000, simple with XP, I don't see why Vista caused them to go 'Secret Squirrel' on this lockout against sysops suddenly; yet everyone wants to know how to lock the school kiddies out with no concern to check and see if this lockout also damages the registry if applied to a non-domained network computer where the admin owns the system. That several have asked this same question, that I did, tells me it is being randomly used against computer owners, and that no one has responded how to 'stop it' or 'undo it, should it happen' tells me that most are probably not using their context menu frequently. I actually found it because that the system ALSO remapped my 'default handler program' for viewing JPGs, BMPs and GIFs to 'not selected', and furthermore, once you select your default handler program to view the selected images, it does NOT remember it, even when you are running in admin mode. MAJOR SYSTEM CORRUPTION.
Again, I did the virus scan, had only implemented MS updates, had only been on mainstream websites (google, yahoo, cnn, etc. - no 'low flow trash sites' or questionable material, about the lowest down the totem pole would be either Amazon or Netflix...nothing too 'questionable' to concern yourself with script kiddies' activities or anything).
Oh, well, I'll rebuild probably tomorrow - and test all menus then. If I have any 'unexpected' behavior, I'll report it back here for everyone. I think I'll also hold-off on that 'Silverlight' update this time, I don't care for 'Live' anyhow, so I'll just do the Silverlight stand-alone update if they still offer it. (gotta have the Netflix...god I wish they'd use SWF instead of Silverlight).
Thanks again, for everyone's help. If you happen to know how to reach Microsoft on this, it looks like its worthy to let them know this is a serious flaw that could be exploited by script-virus writers that can't be reset easily otherwise.
Take care.
P.S. - Anyone following this thread that might think the easiest thing to do would be to upgrade to at least Win 7 (which I also personally like at LEAST as much as XP) is because I have a lot of old engineering software that was last purchased or acquired when 32-bit systems were pretty-much 'the thing', and having already tested them on Win7 systems and finding they don't work, am forced to keep this one, single computer in my household on the Vista 32-bit system. I guess I could go down to XP Pro, but I can't find a whole install disk - only the 'upgrade' disk in my satchel of disks, so it is either keep the Vista on this one computer (which also runs a LOT of my home 'systems' - like lights, security, entertainment, etc.) or upgrade to Win7 and pay a LOT of money to upgrade a lot of other software, while actually losing some that is no longer updated or released. I really did think HARD about upgrading, before deciding to just do a wipe and reinstall.
I had posted a potential fix here last night and today I find it is gone. I can't find the exact page again. this one is for XP but you could do a comparison with your registry to see if there's a potential problem due to registry entries-
Options to change wallpaper may be missing or unavailable on a Windows XP-based computer
