Where does Windows store wallpaper info.

[Paul]

I was wondering where Windows stores the configuration
file that determines which wallpaper to load. I know the
wallpapers are stored in C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper but
which file determines which one to load.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Paul

 

[george]

I was wondering where Windows stores the configuration
file that determines which wallpaper to load. I know the
wallpapers are stored in C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper but
which file determines which one to load.
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated.

Thank you

Paul

This is a registry setting in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper

 

[Paul]

Thank you so much, this was exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks again.

 

[Ramesh [MVP]]

Paul,

In addition:
See this thread: http://forum.aumha.org/viewtopic.php?t=8027

--
Ramesh, MS-MVP XP Shell/UI
http://www.mvps.org/sramesh2k


Thank you so much, this was exactly what I was looking for.
Thanks again.

 

[Peter Jam]

This is a registry setting in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper

George:
If a computer doesn't have this setting (No wallpaper entry in desktop,
just windowmetrics) would that cause it to lose the setting on every
re-boot as mine does?
peter

 

[george]

George:
If a computer doesn't have this setting (No wallpaper entry in desktop,
just windowmetrics) would that cause it to lose the setting on every
re-boot as mine does?
peter

Peter,

Agreed, it wasn't clear in my answer, but Wallpaper is not a key (on the
left, like underneath WindowMetrics), but a ValueName (on the right), being
part of the key called Desktop.
It's there all right.
So your situation is something else. (Dunno what at this point)

george

 

[george]

George:
If a computer doesn't have this setting (No wallpaper entry in desktop,
just windowmetrics) would that cause it to lose the setting on every
re-boot as mine does?
peter

Here we go again, first attempt was dumped from the server almost
immediately.
Wallpaper is not a key (on the left) but rather a Valuename (on the right).

george

 

[Peter Jam]

Here we go again, first attempt was dumped from the server almost
immediately.
Wallpaper is not a key (on the left) but rather a Valuename (on the
right).

george

George I have a WallpaperStyle with a value of 2, on the Right under
Desktop, no just plain Wallpaper?? I also have: Originalwallpaper,
PrevTileWallpaper and PrevWallpaper.

 

[george]

George I have a WallpaperStyle with a value of 2, on the Right under
Desktop, no just plain Wallpaper?? I also have: Originalwallpaper,
PrevTileWallpaper and PrevWallpaper.

well, on my (more or less pristine) xp pro system I don't see
PrevTileWallpaper nor PrevWallpaper.
You wouldn't happen to have (had, at some point) some 'wallpaper changer'
program installed? (wouldn't know otherwise where those come from.
Anyhow, you could define the Wallpaper entry yourself by rightclicking in
the right regedit pane New, Stringvalue, name it Wallpaper and provide a
value pointing to some wallpaper bmp or jpg, eg.
c:\windows\web\wallpaper\bliss.bmp

hth

george

 

[Peter Jam]

well, on my (more or less pristine) xp pro system I don't see
PrevTileWallpaper nor PrevWallpaper.
You wouldn't happen to have (had, at some point) some 'wallpaper
changer' program installed? (wouldn't know otherwise where those come
from. Anyhow, you could define the Wallpaper entry yourself by
rightclicking in the right regedit pane New, Stringvalue, name it
Wallpaper and provide a value pointing to some wallpaper bmp or jpg,
eg. c:\windows\web\wallpaper\bliss.bmp

hth

george

George-this is Really strange:
I did what you suggested, twice. I made bliss the wallpaper and added
it to the registry. I changed the color of the background to match
wallpaper. Rebooted, no wallpaper. So, I went back into the registry,
my string was gone, so I re-entered it and made bliss wallpaper again.
Rebooted today, same thing. No registry no wallpaper, desktop color
remains though!

Frustrated

 

[Kelly]

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane change to path
to Wallpaper.

 

[Peter Jam]

HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane change
to path to Wallpaper.

Thanks kelly, I did have a string value there, just no path. I'll see
what happens.
peter

 

[Kelly]

Most welcome and good luck!

 

[Peter Jam]

Most welcome and good luck!

Well my registry still has the value pointing to Bliss, but a reboot
removed the wallpaer from my desktop.

sigh :<

 

[george]

Well my registry still has the value pointing to Bliss, but a reboot
removed the wallpaer from my desktop.

sigh :<

sounds like your settings are not being saved upon exit.
check out:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\Program
Manager\Restrictions]
and make sure the setting "NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

This *could* be the linguiring result of some previous 'customization' where
you've defined Not To Save settings, maybe using some 'tweakui'-type utility
or so.

hth

george

 

[Peter Jam]

Well my registry still has the value pointing to Bliss, but a reboot
removed the wallpaer from my desktop.

sigh :<

sounds like your settings are not being saved upon exit.
check out:
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows
NT\CurrentVersion\Program Manager\Restrictions]
and make sure the setting "NoSaveSettings"=dword:00000000

This could be the linguiring result of some previous 'customization'
where you've defined Not To Save settings, maybe using some
'tweakui'-type utility or so.

hth

george

Thanks for all you help George. Perhaps I should download Tweaui and
see what I can do with that. Or perhaps it has something to do with
nvidia desktop, which i don't use.
Very frustrating anyway.