Source of Desktop wallpapers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Big_Al
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Big_Al

After a bit of research I've found that C:\windows\web\wallpapers should
be the location for wallpaper selection when you try to edit your
desktop. Per the registry entry for 'wallpaperdir'. But for the life
of me, I also get 'my pictures' images showing up in the selection.

I store my pictures in 'my pictures'. Who would guess! And I really
don't want them as wallpapers.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to force Windows to pick from
just the specified folder only?
 
Big_Al wrote (in
After a bit of research I've found that C:\windows\web\wallpapers should
be the location for wallpaper selection when you try to edit your
desktop. Per the registry entry for 'wallpaperdir'. But for the life
of me, I also get 'my pictures' images showing up in the selection.

I store my pictures in 'my pictures'. Who would guess! And I really
don't want them as wallpapers.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to force Windows to pick from
just the specified folder only?
Click to expand...

No, unfortunately what happens is that every time that you open the Display
Properties dialog, Windows scans each and every folder in My Documents and lists
any—and all—picture files it finds in those (only the first level).

In other words, it lists any picture files it finds in:

My Documents\Pictures
My Documents\Text
My Documents\Music
My Documents\Game Saves
etc.

But not
My Documents\Pictures\Cats
My Documents\Pictures\Planets
etc.

Yes I know, it’s dumb, really dumb.

I recently wrote an article on this with more, technical info, but I can’t find
it.


HTH
 
Hi Big_Al,

Sorry, no solution -- just support. I've got over 46,000 pics in nearly
3,500 folders in My Pictures so when I click on Desktop in Display
Properties, it takes a LLOONNGG time for Windows to populate the drop-down
list. So long that the first time that happened, I thought the Display
Properties app had frozen. I had time to look in this forum and MS KB before
it came back. It would, indeed, be nice to be able to exclude My Pictures
from that list.
 
KumbiaKid said:
Hi Big_Al,

Sorry, no solution -- just support. I've got over 46,000 pics in nearly
3,500 folders in My Pictures so when I click on Desktop in Display
Properties, it takes a LLOONNGG time for Windows to populate the drop-down
list. So long that the first time that happened, I thought the Display
Properties app had frozen. I had time to look in this forum and MS KB before
it came back. It would, indeed, be nice to be able to exclude My Pictures
from that list.
Click to expand...
I just surrendered to the MS and move my photos to a new "Photos"
folder. This way they don't show up. Odd that they do that.
Love to fix it too. You would think they would realize that this is a
digital age and people have more than 20 pictures.

At least I'm better than you and only have 10,000 photos, but in another
folder... Ha ha.
 
 
The pictures that show up under Display Properties, Desktop are located in
these folders:

C:\Documents and Settings\user name\My Documents\My Pictures
C:\WINDOWS\Web\Wallpaper
C:\Windows\Resources\Themes

Another checkpoint:

Also, go to: Start/Run then type in:
"%userprofile%\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer"

To hide and/or remove/relocate:

Under My Computer scroll down to Shared Documents/Shared Pictures. If
Shared Pictures is listed, remove it.

TweakUI for XP: Unchecking "Lock Web Content" under Explorer to be added
to desktop disables the pictures from being listed.
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/pro/downloads/powertoys.asp

Workarounds:

Create another folder (under your user profile), remove the pictures from My
Pictures that you don't want listed under Backgrounds and in the My Pictures
folder, create a shortcut to the new folder. Or create subfolders within My
Pictures.

Add Folders to the "Save As" Dialog (Places Bar) Line 117
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Disable Default Save As to My Pictures (Line 263)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

Add Folder to Start Menu to replace/re-route My Pictures (Line 2)
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/xp_tweaks.htm

To use the Regedit: Save the REG File to your hard disk. Double click it
and answer yes to the import prompt. REG files can be viewed in Notepad by
right clicking on the file and selecting Edit.



--

All the Best,
Kelly (MS-MVP/DTS&XP)

Taskbar Repair Tool Plus!
http://www.kellys-korner-xp.com/taskbarplus!.htm

SupportSpace
www.supportspace.com/pages?aiu=kellyskorner
 
Big_Al said:
After a bit of research I've found that C:\windows\web\wallpapers should
be the location for wallpaper selection when you try to edit your
desktop. Per the registry entry for 'wallpaperdir'. But for the life
of me, I also get 'my pictures' images showing up in the selection.

I store my pictures in 'my pictures'. Who would guess! And I really
don't want them as wallpapers.

Am I missing something? Is there a way to force Windows to pick from
just the specified folder only?
Click to expand...

Interesting twist. I found reference in a google search that having
100+ photos in "My Pictures" folder will stop it from showing as
wallpaper. Well that isn't exactly right as I had about 125 or so, but
I boosted it to 500+ and now the C:\windows\web\wallpaper is the only
folder that shows for desktop selection. Bingo, the way I want it.
 
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