Setting desktop background color

[Brian]

How can I get at the desktop background settings programatically? Are they stored as a registry entry?

[SMurf]

What sort of background?

If it's just the wallpaper you want to change, and Active Desktop is disabled, then:-

HKEY hKey;

RegOpenKeyEx(HKEY_CURRENT_USER, "Control Panel\\Desktop", 0, KEY_SET_VALUE, &hKey);
RegSetValueEx(hKey, "Wallpaper", 0, REG_SZ, "Image.bmp", 10);
RegCloseKey(hKey);
SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, NULL, SPIF_SENDCHANGE);

Otherwise I dunno how to change the Active Desktop settings.

[JaWiB]

Never tried this myself, but a search on MSDN turned this up.

[Br5an]

I'll give a brief example but I think this is going to be more informative and include more detail: Set Desktop Color In short:

    int aiElements[1] = {COLOR_BACKGROUND};
    DWORD aColors[1] = {RGB(0, 255, 0)}; //Green
    SetSysColors(1, aiElements, aColors);

Regards,
Brian

[Brian]

Wow, another Brian (bmf is a Brian too amongst others, this should be called brianprogramming.com). Thanks Brian.

[BMJ]

Wow, another Brian (bmf is a Brian too amongst others, this should be called brianprogramming.com). Thanks Brian.

Don't forget me!

[simpatico_qa]

Hello,
I need to change the desktop background programming.

The execution of the below .vbs doesn't do anything. What is wrong? Thank you

dim wshShell
dim sUserName

Set wshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
sUserName = wshShell.ExpandEnvironmentStrings("%USERNAME%")

Set oShell = CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
Set oFSO = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")

sWinDir = oFSO.GetSpecialFolder(0)
sWallPaper = "C:\Documents and Settings\Simpatico\My Documents\Woerter Speichern Files\lastvocab.png"

' update in registry
oShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper", sWallPaper

' let the system know about the change
oShell.Run "%windir%\System32\RUNDLL32.EXE user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters", 1, True

[simpatico_qa]

any help on this?

[Nyda]

If you only want to change the wallpaper then there is absolutely no need to go through the registry for it.

SystemParametersInfo(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, filename, SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE);

Just specify a filename instead of NULL as third parameter. Windows versions prior to Vista will only accept .BMP files, so you'll have to convert them first unless you programm only needs to run on vista/7.

[simpatico_qa]

I need a complete script example.

I've found this on microsoft's website, but nothing happens when I execute the script and log out.
(I've placed the file also in the system32 folder, let alone changing the path.

Const HKEY_CURRENT_USER = &H80000001

strComputer = "."

Set objReg = GetObject("winmgmts:\\" & strComputer & "\root\default:StdRegProv")

intLowNumber = 1
intHighNumber = 6

Randomize

intNumber = Int((intHighNumber - intLowNumber + 1) * Rnd + intLowNumber)

Select Case intNumber
    Case 1
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper1.bmp"
    Case 2
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper2.bmp"
    Case 3
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper3.bmp"
    Case 4
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper4.bmp"
    Case 5
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper5.bmp"
    Case 6
        strValue = "C:\WINDOWS\System32\Wallpaper6.bmp"
End Select

strKeyPath = "Control Panel\Desktop"
ValueName = "Wallpaper"

objReg.SetStringValue HKEY_USERS, strKeyPath, ValueName, strValue

[Alex31]

Windows versions prior to Vista will only accept .BMP files, so you'll have to convert them first unless you programm only needs to run on vista/7.

You can set JPG, GIF or any format for wallpaper on XP, but with COM