Where does Windows store wallpaper info.

  • Thread starter Thread starter Paul
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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
 
Paul said:
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
Click to expand...

This is a registry setting in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper
 
george said:
This is a registry setting in
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper
Click to expand...

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 Jam said:
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
Click to expand...

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
 
Peter Jam said:
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
Click to expand...

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 said:
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
Click to expand...

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.
 
Peter Jam said:
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.
Click to expand...

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 said:
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
Click to expand...

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 said:
HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop. In the right pane change
to path to Wallpaper.
Click to expand...

Thanks kelly, I did have a string value there, just no path. I'll see
what happens.
peter
 
Peter Jam said:
Well my registry still has the value pointing to Bliss, but a reboot
removed the wallpaer from my desktop.

sigh :<
Click to expand...

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
 
george said:
Peter Jam said:
Well my registry still has the value pointing to Bliss, but a reboot
removed the wallpaer from my desktop.

sigh :<
Click to expand...

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
Click to expand...

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.
 
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