Windows 10: Change Desktop Background in Windows 10

I think it's odd that they removed the older background picker that 8 and 7 had, it is a much better system IMO also if your gonna do the new one then let us pick a folder to browse though and show more than 5 photos form that folder I mean come on really MS. They also should rename the personalization item in the control panel to just themes if it is just themes.

 

Hi there perhaps somebody may help me.
I have been using my set of backgrounds since windows 7, when I bought my last computer it came with Windows 8.1 I wanted to make a clean install and after the install I was happily greeted with all my theme customization in place(I love the syncing part). Now I have updated to Windows 10 and after did a clean install, but today I wanted to add another picture to my background slide show and bumps!!! where should I place it??
I took my old background folder and add set it to slideshow adding the picture I wanted, easy does it!!
But I'd really like to get to the source of the backgrounds in sync so I just drop there any other picture I might want to add in the future.
Any clue?

Best Regards

 

Hello Racu, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

If you like, the easiest way would be to use your Pictures library for this. This way you could include any folders you want to the Pictures library to have them for the slideshow as well.

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8...dows-10-a.html

https://www.tenforums.com/tutorials/8...dows-10-a.html

 

But the Windows 10 slideshow feature doesn't allow you to select a library, and subfolders aren't searched for images (which is completely idiotic).

 

Doh, sorry forgot about that.

It looks like you can only create a new folder where you like to keep the images in, and set that folder to be used for the slide show.

 

Yeah, which I'm not doing with my thousands of images. Goodbye hard drive space. Microsoft dropped the ball with this one. Not even my synced theme has all my images, just a small selection.

Edit: Actually, I might be able to do that. Still, not even remotely practical, but if that's what I have to do...

Edit 2: Alright, I'm using the Wallpaper Library that I set up earlier to source my images, then copying everything in a type:image search to a folder I have titled "Wallpapers 'Library'". Turns out I have less than 4,000 images altogether, which is apparently less than 4 GB, which I can spare.

Again, not very practical, but if anybody else is looking for how to tell Windows 10 to have multiple folders in a slideshow, this is about the only way I can think of without third-party tools which may be too old to work properly.

 

Hi,

I can't change the desktop background. I have tried option 6, download the file, but when the menu opens it says: "the feature has been disabled. Please contact your system administer for details"

I cannot also change the desktop background with the images on the computer. Weirdly, I can change the desktop background if I browser a wallpaper online. Does anyone know what is wrong?

 

Hello mystvearn,

Are you able to use OPTION FIVE to change your desktop background?


It sounds like you may have a group policy like below enabled to prevent it.

Desktop Background - Allow or Prevent Changing - Windows 7 Help Forums


Do you have Windows 10 Pro installed? If so, you can also check group policy to see which ones you have enabled that could be preventing this if the above doesn't help.

Group Policy Editor - Quickly View Enabled Policies in Windows - Windows 7 Help Forums

 

Hello, I was disappointed to see that the random or shuffle was not an option for my background photos in windows 10. I was excited when I saw your tutorial on how I could do this. I followed your instructions to open the registry editor and enter HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Personalization\Desktop Slideshow. However, I have tried this several times and I keep getting this message; "Windows cannot find 'HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control', make sure you typed the name correctly, and then try again". Is there something I'm doing wrong or is there some other way this can be done?

 

Hello Joe, and welcome to Ten Forums. *Smile

You'll need to search for "Desktop Slideshow" instead, or just manually navigate to the key.

If you like, you can also set this using OPTION SIX.

 

Well, by pure luck I figured it out.

I noticed as I went back through this thread that the pictures shown are those of windows 8. My windows 10 looks nothing like the stuff being shown here.

Here's what I did for anyone who really wants to know how to shuffle their background slideshow in windows 10.

Click on the file icon in the task bar at the bottom of the screen and navigate to the folder you wish to select for your desktop background. At the top of the page you'll see the words (from left to right) File - Home - Share - View - Manage. Click on "Manage" and a drop down menu will appear that has a "Slideshow" tab. Click on the slideshow tab and your slideshow will come up on the screen. Right click on the screen and a menu will appear with several choices for your slide show. You can shuffle and/or loop your slideshow and you can also select the speed at which the show changes the pics from slow to medium to fast. Once you've made your selections just click "Exit" and you're done.

 

Joe,

I'm not sure what you mean. Everything in this tutorial is for Windows 10. *Confused

 

Sorry Brink, wasn't trying to be confusing.

You referred me to Option 6. Under steps 2 and 5 there are picture examples. Both of those pictures are what my desktop slideshow looked like in windows 8. I now have windows 10 and it looks nothing like the pics you have as examples. Maybe somethings wrong with my up grade to windows 10 but I have it on 2 different computers and it's the same on both of them.

 

No problem. Option 6 is still in Windows 10 has well, but it's opened by using the shortcut that is linked to in step 1 of Option 6. *Smile

 

Option 1 is soo cool Shawn! I didn't know about this one... (was it in Win8.1 too and I didn't notice*Think)? This is great when I'm looking for something new in Bing Images. Instead of right-click>save as>go to personalization, and, and, and... it's just a click and an "are you sure" away. That was a good pick up by you.