diff -Nur eel2-2.19.90/eel/eel-background.c eel2-2.19.90.new/eel/eel-background.c
--- eel2-2.19.90/eel/eel-background.c	2007-08-13 15:32:29.000000000 -0500
+++ eel2-2.19.90.new/eel/eel-background.c	2007-08-26 18:07:30.000000000 -0500
@@ -931,6 +931,10 @@
 	GtkWidget *widget;
 	GtkStyle *style;
 	gboolean changed;
+	gboolean is_composited;
+
+	is_composited = gdk_screen_is_composited (
+				gdk_drawable_get_screen (GDK_DRAWABLE(window)));
 
 	/* Try to parse the color spec.  If we fail, default to the style's color */
 
@@ -986,9 +990,10 @@
 		
 		gc = gdk_gc_new (pixmap);
 		eel_background_pre_draw (background,  entire_width, entire_height);
-		eel_background_draw (background, pixmap, gc,
-				     0, 0, 0, 0,
-				     pixmap_width, pixmap_height);
+		if (!(background->details->is_desktop && is_composited))
+			eel_background_draw (background, pixmap, gc,
+					     0, 0, 0, 0,
+					     pixmap_width, pixmap_height);
 		g_object_unref (gc);
 		background->details->background_pixmap = pixmap;
 		changed = TRUE;