Q. The Desktop tab is missing from the Display Properties in Windows XP?

When you right-click an empty area of your desktop and press Properties, or use Control Panel / Display, the Destop tab is missing from the Display Properties dialog.

This behavior will occur if the Turn on Classic Shell Group Policy setting is configured at User Configuration / Administrative Templates / Windows Components / Windows Explorer and the value of the ClassicShell Value Name, a REG_DWORD data type, is NOT set to 0 at HKEY_CURRENT_USERSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer.

To resolve this issue:

1. Open a CMD.EXE Window.

2. Type the following command and press Enter:

REG ADD "HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftWindowsCurrentVersionPoliciesExplorer" /V ClassicShell /T REG_DWORD  /F /D 0