Cannot Change the Desktop Wallpaper – Fix

Q: My desktop has a black background. Whenever i go to Desktop Properties, it won’t let me change any of my backgrounds. I’m able to select the images, but the background never changed. I rather just have it back to the Vista background.

To restore the ability to change the desktop Wallpaper in your system, download the file wallpaper_enable.reg for Windows 2000/XP/Vista systems, and save the file to your Desktop. Right-click wallpaper_enable.reg and choose Merge to apply the settings.

The REG file removes the Wallpaper Policy setting from the following registry locations

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE \ Software \ Microsoft \ Windows \ CurrentVersion \ Policies \ System

Windows Vista specific setting

Click Start, Control Panel, Ease of Access, Ease of Access Center.

Under Make things on the screen easier to see, deselect the option:

Remove background images (where available).

Select Save.

You should be able to change the desktop background now.

Bookmark this Page!

BlinkList | del.icio.us | Digg it | Furl | reddit | Spurl | StumbleUpon |

Related Posts


Email SubscriptionPrefer an E-mail subscription?

Enter your email address:

Delivered by FeedBurner

21 Responses to “Cannot Change the Desktop Wallpaper – Fix” Subscribe to comments!

  1. Pale Writer
    said this on Monday, November 16th 2009 10:16 pm

    Clearly there are a number of us who still have the problem – unmoved by the .REG file merge (registry didn’t have anything there to change, anyway, in my case) NOR was the checkbox checked, nor did checking it and unchecking it (as someone suggested) avail any change whatsoever. In addition to this patent refusal to set an image file as wallpaper (sure, I can change the solid color to things other than black, but BFD) I notice that the dialog for selecting from pic files now shows odd, pixellated icons or NOTHING in the selection window (except that holding the cursor over where one guesses the file’s icons to be pops up file properties). So, much as I’d like to join the chorus of “Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you for saving my sanity,” it would be specious flattery at this juncture. Has ANYONE out there come across something that actually DOES work?????

Leave a Reply