Change Desktop Background in Windows 10  

Failed again!!!
I am just a dunce, but I tried this and still I can select just one folder of pictures.
Selecting a folder of folders does nothing I'm afraid.

Brink said:

Peter,

It looks like you'll need to create a folder to keep all the pictures you want to use saved in it.

As I said...





Edit: I'm in the "classic" desktop background menu, is there any way to get it to recursively search the proper Wallpapers Library I have? It's only showing the top-level pictures in the first folder, no subfolders (and most of my wallpapers are divided by artist, characters, etc.).

Aha! I finally figured out how to make a desktop background slideshow that includes all subfolders!

Courtesy of the last answer in this Microsoft Answers thread, here is my guide!

• Go to libraries folder
• Right click the Pictures library
• Choose Properties
• In "Library locations", remove everything and add the folder(s) you want. It will auto-include the subfolders.
• Apply/OK
• Open the old Control Panel Desktop Background, either through a shortcut or Run->
  Code:

  control /name Microsoft.Personalization /page pageWallpaper

• Select "Pictures Library" from drop down menu
• Save changes

And that's it! I wish this functionality was more readily available, but for now it's a good workaround!

Brink said:

Hello LifeWulf, :)

Thank you for sharing. It sounds like doing step 6 in OPTION SIX after getting what you want in your Pictures library.

Yes, it's fairly similar, but my guide is more specialised towards anyone looking to set multiple different folders in different locations. Plus, the default "Pictures library" setting for some reason sometimes is incomplete. My way allows for total control, rather than dealing with the awkwardness of Ctrl+clicking the headings/category in the slideshow menu.

I'm not sure just what MS is trying to do to our heads.

When Win 7 came along with the idea of Libraries, at first I thought that it was strange (a folder that isn't really a folder, but containing other folders as links?), but it took me about 30 seconds to appreciate how useful they are. Just the idea of a Documents Library for every user that includes that user's documents plus Public documents is great..

I have a whole bunch of pictures that I like to use for wallpaper (or is it "background" now?). I created a Library called "All Desktop Pictures" that included all those various folders, some from previous computers, some from Windows Themes, and so on. Cursor on the desktop, right-click, "Personalize," "Background," choose my library, and I had constantly-changing wallpaper. Cool.

Then comes along Win 10, and all of a sudden Libraries are getting the cold shoulder. You have to turn them on specifically in Windows Explorer (oops, I mean File Explorer). Even when you got past the clunky "finger-ready" Control Panel pages to the old-fashioned "Advanced" ones behind them, you couldn't point "Background" to a Library. Until I found someplace some piece of exotic code that I put into a shortcut and would bring back that old page and this one could use libraries. Whoopee, I'm a happy camper again.

Then, a Win 10 update (I think it was 1703, maybe 1607) and all of a sudden that piece of code doesn't work, and we're back to having to point to only one folder for our backgrounds. (I even seriously contemplated copying all the files in my All Desktop Pictures library to a single folder as a workaround.)

Then, a Google search landed me in this thread, and Option 7, another piece of exotic code, worked! This brings up a Personalize window that looks like the old one, and which allows me to Browse to my library! I created a .txt file containing this single line of code and renamed it to a .bat file, and it works consistently. Many many thanks for this.

What was MS thinking? Introducing Libraries then trying to kill them; arbitrarily deciding that for some purposes libraries aren't appropriate? Would it have hurt to leave Libraries and Wallpaper they way they were?...