Changing the wallpaper

You all know how to change wallpaper on your desktop, but I am going to show you a great little trick that you can do to change your wallpaper even faster and also one that will allow you to easily change it on multiple computers without having to go to Display Properties all the time.

The trick? Just create a registry file that you can import into the registry that will overwrite your current wallpaper information. Doing so is actually very easy; just follow these steps to create your very own file:

1. Open up Notepad (located in Start Menu in the Accessories folder).

2. Type in the following code:
Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
Wallpaper C:\\windows\\MyWallpaper.bmp
WallpaperStyle1

3. You will want to replace the C:\\windows\\... with the path and filename to the
bitmap that you want to use. Note that in the path, wherever there is a \, you have to put two of them in the registry file you are creating because the registry editor requires all paths to be in that format. You can change the wallpaperstyle property that will allow you to control how the bitmap image is displayed on your computer. Setting the value equal to 0 will center the image on the screen. Setting the value to 1 will display the image as if it was tiled or repeated across the entire screen. Setting the wallpaperstyle value to 2 will stretch the image to fit the entire screen.

4. When you have the text in Notepad looking like the code in Step 2 but with your
changes included, you are ready to save the file. Go to the File menu bar item and select Save As, then select Save As Type. In the File Name box, type wallpaper.reg. Keep in mind: You need to have the .reg at the end of the filename so your computer knows to import the file into your registry using the Registry Editor.

5. Once you save the file, just go to the location where you saved it, and double-click the file. A screen will come up asking you if you want to import the file into the registry; click Yes. Then, you will be presented with a confirmation screen informing you if the update was successful.

You will have to log out and log back in if you want to see your changes take effect.

On the attached companion CD-ROM, you will find a copy of the registry to change the desktop wallpaper in the Chapter 4 folder.