Add “Change Wallpaper”, “Change Theme” and Other Useful Shortcuts in Windows Vista and Later Desktop Context Menu

Do you want following Desktop context menu in your Windows?

Shortcuts_in_Vista_Desktop_Context_.jpg

Isn’t it cool? You can access all your desired options by simply right-click on Desktop. It would be very easy and useful. You can access almost all Desktop Properties options directly from the Desktop itself.

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It can be possible in Windows Vista and later.

We would be using 2 tricks in this tutorial which we posted about long time back in following tutorials:

Add Your Favorite Application Shortcut in Desktop Context Menu in Windows

Create Shortcuts to Themes, Desktop Background, Screen Saver, Display Settings and More

Windows Vista and later have a built-in feature which we revealed long time back. We can put our desired application shortcut in Desktop context menu which was not possible in Windows XP and other older versions.

So in this tutorial, we’ll use the same trick to add shortcut in Desktop context menu and will use the shortcut commands to open various tabs present in Desktop Properties window like Theme, Wallpaper, Screen Saver, etc.

So here we start our tutorial:

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1. Type regedit in RUN or Start Menu Search box and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\Background\shell

3. Now we’ll need to create a new key under “Shell” key. Right-click on “Shell” key and select “New -> Key“. Give the new key any desired name e.g. “Change Theme” (without quotes).

4. Now we’ll need to create another new key. Right-click on the new key which we created in the last step e.g. Change Theme and select “New -> Key“. Give the new key name of command.

5. Now select “command” key and in right-side pane, you’ll see “Default” String value. Double-click on it and set its value to as following:

control desk.cpl,,@themes

Add_New_Desktop_Options_using_reged.jpg

6. That’s it. Now you’ll have a new option “Change Theme” in Desktop context menu.

7. You can use the same steps 3-5 to add other options. Simply give the desired option label in Step 3 and set the required command in Step 5. Following are the required codes which you’ll need to provide as “command” in step 5:

Change Wallpaper: control desk.cpl,,@desktop

Change Screen Saver: control desk.cpl,,1

Appearance: control desk.cpl,,2

Desktop Icons Settings: control desk.cpl,,0

DPI Scaling: dpiscaling

Window Colorization: explorer shell:::{26EE0668-A00A-44D7-9371-BEB064C98683}\1\::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921}\pageColorization

8. That’s it.

9. To remove any option, simply delete its key.

PS: If you want ready-made registry scripts to add the shortcuts automatically in Desktop context menu, then download following ZIP file, extract it and you’ll get several .REG files for adding each shortcut. Just double-click on the desired .REG file, it’ll ask for confirmation, accept it and you have done:

Download Registry Script

Don’t forget to visit PART-II

Published in: Windows 7, Windows Vista

About the author: Vishal Gupta (also known as VG) has been awarded with Microsoft MVP (Most Valuable Professional) award. He holds Masters degree in Computer Applications (MCA). He has written several tech articles for popular newspapers and magazines and has also appeared in tech shows on various TV channels.

Comments

NOTE: Older comments have been removed to reduce database overhead.

  1. Ok, I added the Change Wallpaper selection to the Desktop Context Menu & added the command: control desk.cpl,,@desktop but this opens: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Personalization\Desktop Background. Is there a different command so the wallpaper will just change right away?

  2. I don’t think so. It’s probably better to write a C# Application and make a shortcut. I’ll see what I can do.

  3. That’d be great, good luck. You’d think at least 1 head at Microsoft would have the smarts to make this so, lol.

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