Desktop Background Listbox problem.....

  • Thread starter Thread starter JimTheAverage
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JimTheAverage

When I right click on my XP Pro SP2 desktop and select Properties>Desktop
the Background listbox doesn't just list the files in
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. It lists those plus every bmp file in the My
Pictures folder and sub folders.

I searched the registry for "wallpaper" and found that
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion's WallpaperDir setting was in
fact set to %SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. So I dno't get where the other
files are coming from.

The problem here is that this is a new build and I haven't even started to
put in my THOUSANDS of images into My Pictures yet. When I do, if this
behavior persists, it will most likely freeze my Display properties dialog
and make picking out wallpaper form the thousands of images that I have
quite messy if not downright impossible.

Has anyone seen this behaviour in XP or know of a fix for it?

Thanks!

jim
 
Thanks Alan! Who knew about the change in behaviour at 100 images?

But, as for reducing cross-posting, that also reduces the number of people
that see the solution.

Cross-posting is NOT a bad thing. In fact, it saves system resources (one
messaage with pointers from othe NGs saves space and bandwidth).
Multi-posting is bad (as it consumes resources by sending the same message
to multiple groups on every mail server).

Thanks again.

(cross-posting resumed)
 
JimTheAverage said:
When I right click on my XP Pro SP2 desktop and select Properties>Desktop
the Background listbox doesn't just list the files in
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. It lists those plus every bmp file in the My
Pictures folder and sub folders.

I searched the registry for "wallpaper" and found that
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion's WallpaperDir setting was in
fact set to %SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. So I dno't get where the other
files are coming from.
Click to expand...

You can use Process Monitor and see
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/bb896645.aspx

Just be sure to use the filters, start the capture, click into the
Background listbox - stop the capture and view the paths.
 
When I right click on my XP Pro SP2 desktop and select Properties>Desktop
the Background listbox doesn't just list the files in
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper.  It lists those plus every bmp file in the My
Pictures folder and sub folders.

I searched the registry for "wallpaper" and found that
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion's WallpaperDir setting was in
fact set to %SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper.  So I dno't get where the other
files are coming from.

The problem here is that this is a new build and I haven't even started to
put in my THOUSANDS of images into My Pictures yet.  When I do, if this
behavior persists, it will most likely freeze my Display properties dialog
and make picking out wallpaper form the thousands of images that I have
quite messy if not downright impossible.

Has anyone seen this behaviour in XP or know of a fix for it?

Thanks!

jim
Click to expand...

The only way that I know of to stop this annoyance is first, never
select a picture from your default 'My Pictures' folder, and if you
already have, create another folder, say "Pictures", and move all your
photos there. The 'My Pictures' folder is set as a system folder,
really only to allow software writers to use it as a default storage
folder for images.
 
Claymore said:
The 'My Pictures' folder is set as a system folder,
really only to allow software writers to use it as a default storage
folder for images.
Click to expand...

The folder is required for the Windows Logo; To allow all programs a
place to store images.
 
The folder is required for the Windows Logo; To allow all programs a
place to store images.
Click to expand...

The solution was posted by Alan - but he freaked about cross-posting and
only replied to a single group. I postedit above, but will do so here for
anybody else that may be vexxed with this situation.

The solution it seems is to place more than 100 images in your My Pictures
folder. They can all be in the My Pictures folder or scattered among sub
folders of My Pictures....just so you have more than 100 pictures under the
My Pictures folder.

Then, at least on my system, the listbox correctly shows only those images
in the %SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper folder.

Thanks again Alan.

jim
 
JimTheAverage said:
When I right click on my XP Pro SP2 desktop and select Properties>Desktop
the Background listbox doesn't just list the files in
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. It lists those plus every bmp file in the My
Pictures folder and sub folders.

I searched the registry for "wallpaper" and found that
HKLM/Software/Microsoft/Windows/CurrentVersion's WallpaperDir setting was in
fact set to %SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper. So I dno't get where the other
files are coming from.

The problem here is that this is a new build and I haven't even started to
put in my THOUSANDS of images into My Pictures yet. When I do, if this
behavior persists, it will most likely freeze my Display properties dialog
and make picking out wallpaper form the thousands of images that I have
quite messy if not downright impossible.

Has anyone seen this behaviour in XP or know of a fix for it?

Thanks!

jim
Click to expand...

I have the same OS and I don't see that in my bmp list. So something is
awol. How many bmp files do you have ? I converted over to jpg long ago
and just convert a few jpgs to bmp if I like them enough to make them
the wallpaper.

good luck,

geothermal
 
JJ206 said:
I have the same OS and I don't see that in my bmp list. So something is
awol. How many bmp files do you have ? I converted over to jpg long ago
and just convert a few jpgs to bmp if I like them enough to make them the
wallpaper.

good luck,

geothermal
Click to expand...

I had less than 20 bmp images but I had them in the
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper and My Pictures - so they showed in the list
twice.

Evidentally XP is hard coded to work this way until you have >100 images in
My Pictures - at which point it only looks in your
%SystemRoot%/Web/Wallpaper directory for wallpapers to list.

Adding more images (>100) to my My Pictures folder stopped this behaviour.

jim
 
Windows XP SP2
Display Properties\Desktop pools images from My Pictures. Even when the
number of images > 100.

The solution on the internet is to stop using My Pictures folder, which is
obviously not the best solution.

Anyone know how to stop windows from pooling pictures out of that folder?
 
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