Desktop Registry Settings
Other versions of this page are also available for the following:
.gif "A hyphen indicates that the information in this topic is not relevant for this platform, or that the platform does not support the API that is listed.")
.gif "A checkmark indicates that the information in this topic is relevant for this platform, and that any API listed is also supported on this platform.")
8/28/2008
Your shell can display specific desktop wallpaper by retrieving the current wallpaper registry values from the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop registry key.
To specify the name of the wallpaper bitmap to retrieve, set the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop\Wallpaper registry value to a string that is the path to the bitmap. The following registry key example shows how to set this registry value.
"Wallpaper": REG_SZ
To specify whether to tile the wallpaper bitmap, set the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\ControlPanel\Desktop\Tile registry value. Set this registry value to 1 to display the wallpaper bitmap as repeating tiles, set to 0 to display the bitmap normally. The following registry key example shows how to set this registry value.
"Tile": REG_DWORD
Finally, call PostMessage to post the message to all top-level windows in the system, including disabled or invisible unowned windows, overlapped windows, and pop-up windows. This call is shown in the following code snippet.
PostMessage(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0);