How to Prevent Users from Changing Desktop Wallpaper in Windows?



If you run a company, you might want to set your company logo or any particular wallpaper on all of your users' desktops. On the other hand, if you use a single system you might still want to have your desired wallpaper on Desktop and it really annoys when someone changes the wallpaper.

So if you are tired from people changing the wallpaper and want to prevent users from changing it everyday, then this tutorial will help you.

In this tutorial, you'll learn a way to set your desired wallpaper on Desktop and no one will be able to change it neither from Desktop Properties nor by right-clicking on an image and select "Set as Desktop Background".

So here we start our tutorial:

1. Type regedit in RUN dialog box or Startmenu Search box and press Enter. It'll open registry Editor.

2. Now go to following key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

3. Under "Policies" key, create a new key "System". It might already exist in some systems.

4. Now select "System" key and in right-side pane, create a new STRING value Wallpaper and set its value to the exact path of your desired wallpaper. You can use .JPG and .BMP files in this method.

e.g. if your wallpaper exists in "E:\Wallpapers\Wall1.JPG", then set the same path as value of "Wallpaper".

5. You can also set the wallpaper style e.g. Centered, Tiled or Stretched. Create a new STRING value WallpaperStyle and set its value to as following:

  • 0 (Centered)
  • 1 (Tiled)
  • 2 (Stretched)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v374/vishaal_here/Prevent_Change_of_Wallpaper.jpg

6. That's it. Now restart or log off your system and no one will be able to change the wallpaper.

PS: If you also want to disable the "Desktop" tab in Desktop Properties, then you can visit following tutorial:

How to Enable / Disable Changing Themes, Wallpapers, Screen Savers and Other Desktop Settings?

And if you want to prevent Registry Editor so that no one can delete those new STRING values, then visit following tutorial:

All Kinds of Restrictions for Windows 2000, XP, 2003 and Vista



This article was posted in Troubleshooting, Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP.

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16 Comments

  • can we do a batch and send to all user and install a defult wall paper , prevent them from change it ?

  • VG

    ^^ You can export the registry key and run in other machines.

  • thank you for ur support this really helped me out
    thanks every body in this sharings
    be cooool and continior to work hard.
    god blessssssssssssssssssssssssssss uuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu allllllllllllllllllllllllll.

  • Thanks for the help. I still have the problem with learners changing the background using MS Paint. Please help!!!

  • I did and it works well but when i enter as a limited user i can change the wallpaper so when i want to create any policies i cannot do it as a limited user. How can i do it ? pls help

  • VG

    ^^ Use following key location for Step 2:

    HKEY_USERS\.default\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

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