Removing Windows Wallpaper on 2000 and XP machines?

[Guest]

Hi All,

Is this doable using Group Policy? I thought about a logon script or
something similar, but I'm not sure exactly how we'd do it. Removing the
Wallpaper tab won't work due to that rather annoying "set as wallpaper" link
they have on the context menus for images in Internet Explorer.

 

[Denis Wong @ Hong Kong]

Hi Chris,

This looks to be the only way to specify wallpaper in GP.

User Config\Administrative Templates\Desktop\Active Desktop\Active Desktop
Wallpaper

"Specifies the desktop background (wallpaper) displayed on all users'
desktops. This setting lets you specify the wallpaper on users' desktops
and prevents users from changing the image or its presentation. The
wallpaper you specify can be stored in a bitmap (*.bmp), JPEG (*.jpg), or
HTML (*.htm, *.html) file. To use this setting, type the fully qualified
path and name of the file that stores the wallpaper image. You can type a
local path, such as C:\Windows\web\wallpaper\home.jpg or a UNC path, such as
\\Server\Share\Corp.jpg. If the specified file is not available when the
user logs on, no wallpaper is displayed. Users cannot specify alternative
wallpaper. You can also use this setting to specify that the wallpaper image
be centered, tiled, or stretched. Users cannot change this specification.
If you disable this setting or do not configure it, no wallpaper is
displayed. However, users can select the wallpaper of their choice. Also,
see the Allow only bitmapped wallpaper in the same location, and the Prevent
changing wallpaper setting in User Configuration\Administrative
Templates\Control Panel. Note: You need to enable the Active Desktop to use
this setting. Note: This setting does not apply to Terminal Server
sessions."

br,
Denis

 

[Guest]

Yeah I had a play around with that - I was wondering whether "" would produce
the desired result. I assumed that all that bit of the group policy did was
stick the path you provided in a reg key somewhere, so a blank might force
nothing. I'll give it a whirl

 

[Guest]

If anyone else is trying to do this, if you use the Group Policy object
mentioned below, and set the path to a non-existent image file it sets no
wallpaper and refuses to allow any change even with 'Set as background' in
internet explorer

 

[Victory]

This works, but if the users have the privilege to change the registry, they
can easily override this thing, as this setting is stored in Registry of
individual users machines at the following key.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System

They can just change the path to their desired wallpaper image file and its
done.

Regards,

Victory

 

[pscyime]

Hi

thats good to know

BTW if you are stopping users changing their desktop background one would hope you would stop them running regedit too!!!

I work in a technical call centre and i think we must be the most pesky users for an admin to control due to having a bit(but not a lot in some cases!!) more tech know how than the average Joe. wehn its quiet people do tend to play and see what they can see

I do have respect for a network team that manages to keep about 500+ techies in order,mind you we use Novell as the directory service, seems to have some nice features too and works OK with XP

Si