[Tip] Disable Automatic Compression of Desktop Wallpaper in Windows 10
You might have noticed that if you set a desired JPEG image file as Desktop wallpaper in Windows 10, the Desktop wallpaper’s quality is automatically reduced a little bit compared to the original JPEG image file. Actually its a feature of Windows operating system which automatically compresses the JPEG image file before applying it as Desktop wallpaper. Its done to improve overall system performance as compressed image file is less in size and consumes less amount of RAM to display.
When you set an image file as Desktop background, Windows stores the image in form of a file called “TranscodedWallpaper” in “AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\” folder. This file is actually the compressed JPEG image file which you have set as Desktop background.
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This feature is definitely useful as it helps in improving system performance but some people who prefer quality over performance, may not like it. If you want to display Desktop wallpaper in original quality and don’t want to compromise with image quality, this tutorial will help you.
Today in this tutorial, we are going to share a small Registry tweak to disable this automatic compression of JPEG image files when you apply them as Desktop wallpaper in Windows 10.
So without wasting time lets start the tutorial:
1. Press “WIN+R” key combination to launch RUN dialog box then type regedit and press Enter. It’ll open Registry Editor.
2. Now go to following key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop
3. In right-side pane, create a new DWORD JPEGImportQuality and set its value to 100 in decimals or 64 in hexadecimals.
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Setting the DWORD value to 100 will completely disable compression feature. By default, Windows compresses the JPEG image file quality to 85%. You can also set the DWORD value to 90 or other desired number to improve the image quality and system performance.
That’s it. Restart your computer and now set any desired image file as Desktop background and Windows will no longer compress the image file and you’ll be able to enjoy the desired image on Desktop in full quality.
PS: If you are not familiar with Registry editing and want a ready-made Registry script to do the task automatically, download following ZIP file, extract it and run the extracted REG file. It’ll ask for confirmation, accept it:
The ZIP file also contains a restore registry script to restore the default compression settings.
Thanks to our reader “Venkatesh” for sharing this tip…
Are .png files not compressed or, if they are, can you give us a reg. tweak to allow them to be full quality.
Thanks
Thank you! Praise da lord. Microsoft been compressing JPEG wallpaper since W8. The only workaround I can find then was converting JPEG file to PNG (which is a lot bigger with same quality). Will this trick also work for lockscreen?
^^ This trick will work system-wide.
@Norbert Gostischa
PNG files are not compressed.
VG I opened regedit (HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop). I found image color and last updated but couldn’t found JPEGImport quality I checked the whole page. Can you tell me why it isn’t there.
^^ Its mentioned in the tutorial, you’ll need to create the DWORD manually. 😉
If we do not set any wallpaper and select colors then our RAM will be saved ?
and i will get more performance. Am i right ?
I’ve been looking and waiting for a wallpaper trick like this to pop up somewhere since the release of windows 7.
This trick works for windows 7 too by the way. For Jpgs & Pngs. I use a big screen and the slight pixelation i used to see on the wallpapers i commonly use are now gone. It totally looks better.
Many thanks and more power to you & your site.