Desktop Background Slideshow is a neat little feature in Windows 7 which helps you shuffle your desktop background from a image file store folder, at predefined intervals. But, as Windows doesn’t show the file name of the currently displayed wallpaper, it becomes a problem if you have thousands of images in a store folder and you need to find the file name and the directory location of the currently displayed wallpaper.

Here is a small script which adds the Desktop Background File Location option in the Desktop context menu, which opens the current wallpaper file’s target folder and selects the file.

1. Download WPTargetDir.zip, unzip and extract the contents to a folder.

2. Move the file WPTargetDir.vbs to the Windows directory.

3. Double-click Add.reg to add the context menu option.

4. Hold the SHIFT key down and right-click on an empty area in the Desktop. You’ll see the Desktop Background File Location option.

Selecting this option gets the current wallpaper file name from the registry, opens the target folder and selects the image file.

To remove/uninstall this option, run the file undo.reg, and then manually delete WPTargetDir.vbs manually from the Windows folder.

More Information

The script queries the wallpaper source file name from the following registry key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ Internet Explorer \ Desktop \ General

The information is stored in a string value named WallpaperSource

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8 Responses to “How to Add “Desktop Background File Location” Option to Desktop Right-Click Menu in Windows 7” Subscribe to comments!

  1. said this on Wednesday, February 24th 2010 12:46 am

    [...] can get this by a small script created by WinHelpOnline which adds this option to context menu in desktop. This script opens the current wallpaper file’s [...]

  2. said this on Sunday, February 14th 2010 1:29 pm

    UPDATE: I ran regedit as administrator and used the “import” feature to import the reg file. It’s working like a charm now.

    Thanks for sharing this great tweak.

  3. said this on Sunday, February 14th 2010 1:23 pm

    Ramesh, yes please…and even better, share it with everyone. :) Thanks..

    I’m somewhat disappointed that I’m the only one raising this concern….

    Just goes to show you how “insecure” most Windows users are…

  4. anon
    said this on Sunday, February 14th 2010 12:29 pm

    This particular tweak is incredibly useful. Thanks Ramesh your blog is very helpful. I love your reg/scripted tweaks.

  5. said this on Tuesday, February 9th 2010 1:14 pm

    @Scott: With a little change in the .REG file, you can make it work for limited users as well. Replace HKCR paths with HKCU\Software\Classes, save the file and merge it. And the path to the script file is to be changed as well. I can send one to your mail id if you need it.

  6. said this on Saturday, February 6th 2010 10:24 pm

    You might want to remind users that making a mod to the registry requires you be logged into an Administrator account…

    My regular account has no such rights…..

  7. raveren
    said this on Thursday, February 4th 2010 6:48 pm

    —————————
    Windows Script Host
    —————————
    There is no script engine for file extension “.vbs”.

    —————————
    OK
    —————————

    No worky

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