Thanks advice from any of you good people. I had uninstalled the Deskscapes and now returning to try it again after a few weeks, hoping maybe some magic might have taken place in the interval. But no. Still flashes for a tenth of a second and then disappears. I have restarted the computer, many times. Also tried in "safe" mode and "administrator" mode, and have disabled all virus scanners, etc. So sad.
