ENABLE/DISABLE CHANGING DESKTOP BACKGROUND IN WIN 7

Changing desktop background is very easy. One can easily right click on a image and ‘Set as desktop background’. You have a favorite image which you set as desktop background. Later you don’t want any other guest users of your Windows 7 PC to change the desktop background. You can prevent changing desktop background on your PC. Follow the steps below:


1. Login to Windows 7 with Administrator Rights.
2. Type ‘gpedit.msc’ in the Start menu search box.
3. This will launch Local Group Policy Editor. In the left pane propagate to:
User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Personalization
4.  In the right pane, double click on “Prevent changing desktop background”.

5. In the “Prevent changing desktop background” window, select “Enabled” option.

6. Click Apply and then OK.
To check whether what you have done is working, right-click on desktop and choose “Personalize”. The option “Desktop Background Slide Show” will be grayed out. Also right-click on any image and “Set as desktop background” will do nothing.

To enable changing the desktop background image again, follow the same steps. Except in step 5, choose option “Not Configured” and Click OK.





The Desktop Slide Show is already greyed out, and I cannot set any new wallpapers. I tried this, enabled it, disabled it, and left it as not configured, but nothing changed. Advice?

This may be because of the ‘Desktop Wallpaper’ setting.
Open Local Group Policy Editor and navigate to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates –> Control Panel –> Desktop –> Desktop.
In the right pane, look for the setting titled ‘Deskto Wallpaper’. Make sure this is either ‘Not Configured’ or ‘Disabled’.
When this setting is enabled, a wallpaper is fixed for the desktop and so you will not be able to change the desktop background from the personalization gallery.