Windows 10: Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background in Windows 10

How to: Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background in Windows 10

How to Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background in Windows 10


Your desktop background (also called wallpaper) can be a picture from your personal collection or included with Windows, a solid color, or a slideshow playing selected pictures randomly on all displays.

This tutorial will show you how to allow or prevent changing the desktop background for specific or all users in Windows 10.

You must be signed in as an administrator to allow or prevent changing the desktop background.

You will need to activate Windows before you can personalize your PC.



Contents

• Option One: To Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background in Local Group Policy Editor
• Option Two: To Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background using a REG file

EXAMPLE: Desktop Background Settings when Prevented









OPTION ONE [/i] To Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background in Local Group Policy Editor
The Local Group Policy Editor is only available in the Windows 10 Pro, Enterprise, and Education editions.

All editions can use Option Two below.


1 Open the all users except administrators Local Group Policy Editor for how you want this policy applied.

2 In the left pane of the Local Group Policy Editor, click/tap on to expand User Configuration, Administrative Templates, Control Panel, and Personalization. (See screenshot below)



3 In the right pane of Personalization, double click/tap on Prevent changing desktop background to edit it. (see screenshot above)

4 Do step 5 (allow) or step 6 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


5. To Allow Changing Desktop Background
A) Select (dot) either Not Configured or Disabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)

Not Configured is the default setting.


6. To Prevent Changing Desktop Background
A) Select (dot) Enabled, click/tap on OK, and go to step 7 below. (see screenshot below)




7 When finished, you can close the Local Group Policy Editor if you like.





OPTION TWO [/i] To Allow or Prevent Changing Desktop Background using a REG file
The downloadable .reg files below will add and modify the DWORD value in the registry keys below.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop

NoChangingWallPaper DWORD

(delete) = Allow
1 = Prevent


1 Do step 2 (allow) or step 3 (prevent) below for what you would like to do.


2. To Allow Changing Desktop Background for All Users
This is the default setting.

A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Allow_changing_desktop_background.reg

Download

3. To Prevent Changing Desktop Background for All Users
A) Click/tap on the Download button below to download the file below, and go to step 4 below.

Prevent_changing_desktop_background.reg

Download
4 Save the .reg file to your desktop.

5 Double click/tap on the downloaded .reg file to merge it.

6 When prompted, click/tap on Run, Yes (UAC), Yes, and OK to approve the merge.

7 You can now delete the downloaded .reg file if you like.

That's it,
Shawn


Related Tutorials

• How to Change your Desktop Background in Windows 10
• How to Reset Desktop Background Choose Your Picture History in Windows 10
• How to Specify Default Desktop Background in Windows 10
• How to Turn On or Off Desktop Background Image in Windows 10
• How to Add or Remove 'Set as desktop background' Context Menu in Windows 10

:)

 

Rotating photos on the screen

heck if Desktop slideshow is turned on

Well, the desktop slideshow feature will not work if it’s turned off. So it’s important to make sure that the feature is enabled under Settings.

To check the status of desktop slideshow feature:

Step 1: Right-click on the empty area of desktop, click Personalize, and then click Background.

Step 2: Under the Background section, make sure that Slideshow option is selected.

Allow slideshow when on battery

With default settings, Windows 10 doesn’t automatically change the desktop background picture when your PC is running on battery power to improve the backup time. In short, the desktop slideshow doesn’t work when the PC is using battery power.

However, you can configure Windows 10 to allow slideshow feature when on battery by following given below steps.

Step 1: Right-click on desktop, click Personalize, and then click Background.

Step 2: Turn on the option labelled Allow slideshow when on battery feature to force Windows 10 to automatically change the desktop background even if the PC is running on battery power.

Check the number of wallpapers in the selected folder

As you likely know, while enabling the desktop slideshow feature, Windows 10 asks you to select a folder containing pictures that you want to use for the slideshow feature.

If the slideshow is not working, make sure that the folder you selected has at least two pictures as Windows 10 can’t automatically change the desktop background if there is only one picture inside the selected folder.

 

How do I change the background colour on Windows 10?

I've just upgraded to Windows 10 and am having trouble on changing the background colour of my current desktop theme. It will allow me to change the entire theme in one go, however, I only wish to change the background colour and so was wondering if this
is possible and how?

 

This policy is sort of funny, it prevent users from changing wallpaper using Windows settings, but users can use any other third party software, which can change a wallpaper, like an image viewer.

 

User Configuration => Administrative Templates => Desktop => Desktop =>Desktop Wallpaper => Enabled => in the “Wallpaper Name” box, enter the full path to the image you want to use as the desktop background => set the “Wallpaper style” drop-down menu to how you want the image handled => ok

*Arrow Specify Default Desktop Background in Windows 10 Windows 10 Customization Tutorials