windows wallpaper not displaying

Hello all,

well as the message title indicates my wallpaper has "disappeared". This has been a minor annoyance that I have been procrastinating on but would really like to fix it. I have tried to manually scan through and fix it by altering display settings and the like but to no avail. I believe it may be linked to a spywat/spam/hijack issue but have no real "factual" info to back that up. I am currently running Windows Xp, just finished installing all the latest security updates and all and no change. I am able to change the wallpaper using the normal "right-click" display properties but after clicking ok/apply the background remains whatever color has been selected in the wallpaper tab with no wallpaper displaying on top of it. I know the wallpaper is there becasue when ever I boot my system or shut it down I get a brief view of the wallpaper before the system shuts down. It is just not displaying while I am using the system.

Please any help to rectify this problem would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance.