Problems in Personalizing Desktop

[rowbh91]

Hi, good day everyone. Normally when you right click desktop > click on personalize > then click your theme > click on "Desktop Background", then u can normally see your own customized desktop background. The problem lies here, it keeps on automatically showing "Solid Color" instead of My Pictures folder, and when ever i try to change the folder path, it says this "No items match your search.".

I have try every single step and make sure i chose/picked/typed in the correct folder path and click on "Save Changes" but it still the same by showing "No items match your search".

The day before this works normally and now something is wrong. Can anyone help me please?

 

[madmansam]

I dont know which folder path you trying but....They all have to be in c:\users\your name\ application data\local\microsoft\windows\theme

 

[rowbh91]

I dont know which folder path you trying but....They all have to be in c:\users\your name\ application data\local\microsoft\windows\theme

Thank you for replying but, are you sure is ...\application data\.. cause i couldn't locate it :sarc:

ops sorry, my bad..have to allow hidden files to be viewed.. but still it hasn't solved my problem :'(

 

[madmansam]

Application data is a hidden folder.. you have to unhide it from >tools> folder option>view>show hidden folder

 

[Arc]

Try a simple way . Go to a folder location where your images are stored , right click on a particular image, and set it as wallpaper .

BTW ... the default wallpaper location is C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper

 

[madmansam]

Is the problem here Theme or wallpaper ?????
C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper is for Default Aero theme or call it wallpaper
c:\users\your name\ application data\local\microsoft\windows\theme... for other theme

 

[Arc]

Is the problem here Theme or wallpaper ?????
C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper is for Default Aero theme or call it wallpaper
c:\users\your name\ application data\local\microsoft\windows\theme... for other theme

C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper : all the default themes' wallpapers , categorically in different folders .



c:\users\your name\ application data\local\microsoft\windows\theme... : Only the custom theme at present in use . Changed as the theme is changed



If rowbh91 tells us what is the theme he is trying to apply, and attach a screenshot of the window hwere the changing wallpaper is not permitted, I hope we could help him better

 

[rowbh91]

Thank you for reply madmansam and arc, i really appreciate it .

This is what happen when i try to create a pictures slide show as my desktop wallpaper.



As you can see it does not have any pictures in the Folder under C:\Users\Han\Pictures and i can confirm there is some folder containing pictures inside C:\Users\Han\Pictures. Why is it not appearing there? :sarc:

 

[madmansam]

Try to brows picture library not my picture.

 

[Arc]

Try to brows picture library not my picture.

I second ! These are the actual locations with default setup :


So Pictures library includes some default sample pictures, whereas my pictures folder remain empty. But athre is another location : windows desktop background (manual browse link was C:\windows\Web\Wallpaper )


Whatever it may be, If you dont use desktop slideshow, the best option for you is to browse to the picture manually, right click on it and set it as desktop wallpaper / background .

 

[rowbh91]

Mmm, i chose "Picture Library" instead of "My Pictures" it's still the same. The only different is when i chose "My Pictures" is shows :"No item match your search" where as "Picture Library" shows nothing at all, its like bugged. It worked normally last time, and im not sure is it settings fault or bugged.

Actually whatever folder you picked from "browse" the system will at least show/list out all the picture in that folder in order to make a picture slide show. Feels like giving up on this problem and just use plain normal wallpaper instead of slide show ~.~ .

 

[Arc]

Mmm, i chose "Picture Library" instead of "My Pictures" it's still the same. The only different is when i chose "My Pictures" is shows :"No item match your search" where as "Picture Library" shows nothing at all, its like bugged. It worked normally last time, and im not sure is it settings fault or bugged.

Actually whatever folder you picked from "browse" the system will at least show/list out all the picture in that folder in order to make a picture slide show. Feels like giving up on this problem and just use plain normal wallpaper instead of slide show ~.~ .

If it seems to you that there may be a settings fault, run http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1538-sfc-scannow-command-system-file-checker.html to get all the settings checked and corrected, and get them back to windows default .

 

[rowbh91]

okay, thanks for the advise and hopefully it works !!

 

[Arc]

okay, thanks for the advise and hopefully it works !!

You are welcome
Feeling nice that your problem is solved

 

[Akira1978]

It's an old thread, but since I didn't find anything else related, I'm using this one.

As for the original issue, it's definitely bugged, a lot it seems.
I have the same problem, but it my case, it's only the default "Windows desktop backgrounds" list being empty.
I haven't done anything that could possibly cause this, AFAIK. Apart from adding some of my own directories to the selection of locations to choose from. What's more important, it's affecting ALL users, including admin..

And here comes another glitch - one of my custom folders completely disappeared from the selection. There is just something wrong.

I tried anything I could think of, including deleting custom added folders from registry. Well, that gets rid of my custom folders, but problem with default background list being empty persists.

I noticed one registry hive:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers\knownfolders\0\Windows Wallpapers\MergeFolders]
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Characters"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Landscapes"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Nature"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Scenes"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Windows"=hex(2):00,00
"%SystemRoot%\web\wallpaper\Architecture"=hex(2):00,00

Sure enough, deleting it will also get rid of "Windows desktop backgrounds" from the folder selection.
So, if it's properly in the registry, why is the list empty? I also tried renaming one of the reg. entries to point directly to the specified folder, just in case it has a problem with %systemroot% var, to no avail.

I wonder what else can be involved. :-?

 

[rowbh91]

regards to this matter, somehow, after sometime (not sure how long:sarc it returned back to normal. As in every folder is back with all the pictures in it without any glitch, or bug, like brand new . Not sure how it is done tho..or what i did to make it happen, sorry cant help much here.

The only problem now is, how do i delete the duplicated folder name in the personalize > Desktop background > Pictures Location.

 

[Akira1978]

Hmm, maybe you're not aware of it, but you pointed me to the right direction. The fact, that it fixed itself in your case in time made me think. What changes in time? Icon cache? Well, let's delete it. Bingo! Problem fixed, list is now properly populated with all default backgrounds in it.
BUT. I deleted only my (standard) user's account cache, but it fixed the problem for 2 other users, including admin. My guess is, that if the cache is missing for one user, Win tries to generate new one for all users. Other than that, I have no explanation. So thanx!

As for deleting your custom folders from the list, AFAIK, there is only one way:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers\Images

Delete either the whole images key, or just some of it's contents. Unfortunately, key names make absolutely no sense regarding the folders location, so one doesn't know which folder gets removed from the list upon deleting particular key.

 

[rowbh91]

if i delete via registry entry, will it remove all my pictures as well (ex in C:\Library\Picture) something like that? or just those custom personalize?

 

[Akira1978]

If you delete some entries in the images key I posted above, it will only delete respective folders from the list of available backgrounds. It' will NOT delete any files.

And if you delete the whole images key, only the default background groups will be available to choose from. Again, no actual files will be deleted.

Simple button for removing particular folder from the list would be helpful though. Time for enhancement request? Well, it's not Linux, but maybe they will think about it.

 

[rowbh91]

haha, thanks for "discovering" a way to fix this simple yet..uncommon glitch? i guess..lol