Display Properties > Desktop > Background displays hundreds of files!

[David Ellis]

Running SP2 on a new computer, I have for the first time in years used
one of the built-in "My ...." folders, putting about 250,000 image
files in hundreds of folders under My Pictures. All was well until
today when I attempted to choose a desktop background.

It appears that Desktop Background searches the My Pictures structure
and comes up with hundreds, if not thousands, of files from which to
choose some wallpaper. The dialog box appears to have gone out of
business for a few minutes during this accumulation of unwanted file
names.

How do I customize Desktop Background to refer to the c:\windows\
folder only?

If that's not possible, how do I specify the file extensions to which
it should pay attention (i.e., .bmp only)?

I'm comfortable with editing the registry.

--David

 

[Anando [MS-MVP]]

Hi David,

I would suggest you to move the image files from the My Pictures folder to an alternate location.
Windows looks for images under:

My Pictures
C:\windows\web\Wallpaper
C:\WINDOWS\Resources\Themes

If you move the image files to a location other than these, they would not show up in the display
properties dialog.



--

Anando
Microsoft MVP- Windows Shell/User
http://www.microsoft.com/mvp
http://www.mvps.org

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