Mystery Message on my Desktop - Help Please!

This message has appeared on my desktop. What to do please? I didn't do anything abnormal. Thanks.

Active Desktop Recovery Microsoft Windows has experienced an unexpected error. As a precaution, your Active Desktop has been turned off. To restore the Active Desktop, use the following troubleshooting tips:
Did your browser stop working, or did you restart your computer without shutting it down first? If so, click:
Did you recently change your background to a web page? If so: 1. Right-click the desktop and then click Properties.
2. On the Desktop tab, under Background, click the background you want.
Did you recently add a new item to your Active Desktop? If so: 1. Right-click the desktop and then click Properties.
2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop.
3. On the Web tab, under Web pages, clear the check box for the item that was added last.
Do you want to turn off your Active Desktop? If so: 1. Right-click the desktop and select Properties.
2. On the Desktop tab, click Customize Desktop.
3. On the Web tab, under Web pages, click to clear all the check boxes.

I've never found "Active Desktop" to be of much use anyway, so I suggest you leave it turned off. What you are seeing may possibly have happened when you tried to change your wallpaper, or possibly if you visited a webpage with some dodgy code in it, or it could just be "one of those things" that happens periodically with Windows.

As I said, leave Active Desktop switched off, and it will be less bother.

If this message keeps on occurring, you may have to use one of the fixes suggested here:

theofficecubicle.com/active-desktop-recovery/

Editing the registry is not for novices though, so I would suggest getting a techy to do it for you.

Thanks, Grant. The first one didn't work - got an error message. Went to the 2nd one & put a fresh pic (couldn't find the old one) up as my wallpaper. All appears to be ok. Fingers crossed.

Thanks again.

I've always treated that as the poor cousin of the blue screen of death, and ignored it. (Im NOT a techy)