Cannot change Desktop Background image

When I go to change my Desktop Background, it will try and load up the pictures in my Pictures folder (but no subfolders). I can switch my background to one of these images, even though the "Loading" progress bar is still visible.
Here is the odd thing, however. If I click on any of the other types of images (Apple Images, nature, Plants, Black & White, Abstract, and Solid Colors), nothing appears. I jumped over to another user on the same computer, and those images populated properly. Any ideas on what is going wrong? Why can't I change my background image? I've had this problem with both Mac OS 10.5.0 and 10.5.1.

I managed to fix this problem.
I did verify and repair permissions just for kicks. Not sure if that helped or not, but I did it anyway.
Then I went back into the System Pref pane, and clicked on Apple Images, then clicked on the Change Picture checkbox. While none of the images appear in the white box, my background did change to one of the Apple Images (such as the black and purple Leopard-only background). I then closed System Preferences, opened it back up, and the images loaded up properly this time!

Similar Messages

Cannot change desktop background picture to my own photos

Hi, in desktop & screen saver I cannot change the desktop background image to any of my own (iphoto) pictures, it shows the list of the images and thumbnails but will only change the pic to the 'Apple' ones (nature,plants,black & white, abstract), if I select any of my photos under 'iphoto albums' the desktop image simply turns light blue.

Hi.
I'm seeing what seems to be the exact same problem you described. Were you able to figure it out and fix it? I don't see a solution posted.
Thanks.

Cannot Change Desktop Background in Windows 8 Installed Via Bootcamp

I've been running parelells, but decided today to just go the boot camp route and everything went through fine EXCEPT I cannot change the wall paper on the windows 8 desktop?
I select the new image in desktop background in personalization click save changes and the background stays the same...?
I don't get it.
And by the way, I am NOT new to windows or mac, been using both for a long time and was a systems administrator and bench for years, this is NOT a novice "how to" question...It's just not working?
Anyone else seen this before?

are you using an activated version of win 8? you cant personalise win desktop otherwise.

Cannot change desktop background...

This is a problem that has been annoying me for about a month now... i set my desktop background as an iphoto image, and went to change it a few weeks later but it wouldn't let me! the small image of the desktop appears in system preferences, but the background will not change.
if anyone knows how to fix this, your help will be appreciated...

Confounding!
Log back into your problem account:
Here's the whole litany for thoroughly checking your home folder. It's not as daunting as it looks.
1. Navigate to ~(YourHome/Library/Fonts - drag this folder to the desktop.
• Restart and test your applications.
• If they work start adding the fonts back few at a time.
( Likely suspects are Times RO, Helvetica Fractions and Times Phonetic, also if you do not use Classic you can trash the classic fonts.) If not, put your Fonts folder back.
2. Check Preferences Thoroughly;
• Navigate to ~(YourHome/Library/Preferences drag this folder to the desktop.
• Restart and test your applications.
• If this works, save the old preferences folder somewhere else or on disk, name it "old prefs" .
** Note: A very important file is the "com.apple.Mail.plist" preference file located in the Preferences folder which contains all email account settings and general mail preferences (hold this one and replace if your problem is not with Mail).
You'll have to go through some of your System Preferences and apps to set the preferences back to how you like them. (Or if you have the time and inclination, "cherry pick" through until you find the problem one or two.)
3. Check Permissions Inside Home Folder
• Navigate to YourHome/Library.
• Get Info (Command - i) on folders for apps you are having problems with.
• Open the "Ownership & permissions" disclosure triangle.
• Make sure you are the owner, with "read and write" access.
• Click on "apply to all"
• If this is correct, open the "Applications Support" folder and do the same procedure (Command+I) for the folders with the names of the applications you are having trouble with.
(Note:The reason to check this is because repairing permissions with Disk Utility doesn't touch permissions inside your home folder.)
4. Navigate to YourHome/Library/Caches and drag this folder to the trash, then log out and back or restart. There is no need to replace this folder.
-mj

Satellite C50-B-13T - Win 8.1 cannot change desktop background

Hi folks,
I'm new to this forum so please bear with me.
I bought a new Toshiba Satellite C50-B-13T laptop yesterday with Windows 8.1 installed and I cannot change the desktop screen from a blank black one to a picture of my choice... I've tried everything, and even looked for videos on Youtube to see if there's a remedy for it.
When I look at the control panel the thumbnail shows the picture I've chosen, but the actual desktop (not the smart screen bit) is still plain black. All of my icons work just fine but the background will not change.
If anyone can help me sort this out I'd be really grateful?
Thanks everyone :O)

You ask how to change the Windows background?
This is not very tricky.
Microsoft released a useful article regarding Windows system personalization.
Please check this aricle:
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-8/personalize-pc-tutorial
Note: there is a difference between the desktop background and the lock screen.
The lock screen is the screen you see when you lock your PC (or when it locks automatically after you haven't been using it for a while).

How to block changes of desktop background image

I manage a 30-computer Mac lab in a public high school and I would like to prevent users from changing the desktop background image.
As far as I know, there are two ways to change the desktop background image: through System Preferences and by right-clicking an image and selecting Set Desktop Picture.
Blocking System Preferences is easily done through Parental Controls.
But how do I prevent the right-click, Set Desktop Picture method of changing the desktop image?
You can imagine the kinds of images that end up as desktop backgrounds in a high school computer lab.

You might try going to System Preferences > Keyboard > Keyboard Shortcuts. In the left pane select Services, then uncheck the item "Set Desktop Picture" under Pictures in the right pane. Once that's done, block that prefs pane.

How to change desktop background in AppleScript in 10.7?

I'm just now upgrading from 10.6 to 10.7, and I'm having trouble with a script that I wrote that worked fine under 10.6. In part, it executes the following command:
     osascript -e "tell application \"Finder\" to set destop picture to POSIX file \"<path>\""
to change the desktop background image to one of two different files based on other conditions.
In 10.7, this command completes with no error code, but it only changes the background of one of my four desktops. Is there a way to programmatically change the background image of all of my desktops simultaneously? Failing that, is there a way to a) find out how many desktops I have and b) loop through them, setting each of their backgrounds in turn?
I did search the web and found the following suggestion:
     osascript -e "tell application \"System Events\" to set picture of every desktop to \"<path>\""
Unfortunately, that also changes only the current desktop's picture.
The larger script is in Perl, so I'd prefer a technology that works well with that language, but if I have to change to a different scripting language, that's not the end of the world.
Thanks much for any suggestions!
Richard

Actually, “repeat with k from 18 to (18 + N - 1)” was not a good idea, since it works only with N < 5, as I discovered after posting the script.
So here's an improved version of the previous script that should work with any number of desktops:
set theFile to POSIX file "/Library/Desktop Pictures/Isles.jpg" -- just an example
-- Find out how many desktops you have:
tell application "System Preferences"
    reveal anchor "shortcutsTab" of pane id "com.apple.preference.keyboard"
    tell application "System Events" to tell window "Keyboard" of process "System Preferences"
        set N to count (UI elements of rows of outline 1 of scroll area 2 of splitter group 1 of tab group 1 whose name begins with "Switch to Desktop")
    end tell
    quit
end tell
-- Loop through the desktops, setting each of their backgrounds in turn:
tell application "System Events" to key code 18 using {control down} -- Desktop 1
tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to theFile
repeat (N - 1) times
    delay 1
    tell application "System Events" to key code 124 using {control down} -- ⌘→
    delay 1
    tell application "Finder" to set desktop picture to theFile
end repeat

Wallpaper not showing up in "Change Desktop Background" window

I just noticed an odd issue today on my Mac Pro. When browsing the built-in wallpaper folders (Nature, Plants, etc) in the Change Desktop Background window they are empty. My "Pictures Folder" one shows all the images correctly as well as browsing the ones from iPhoto. (I also have Aperture 2.1.2 installed but no projects yet so that part is empty.)
I performed a permissions repair, checked that the actual files were there in /Library and removed the com.apple.desktop.plist pref's file. After doing that all the pictures showed up again UNTIL I browsed around the picture folders in the Change Desktop Background window then they stopped showing again.
Could something in my Pictures Folder be causing the issue? Any ideas?
Thanks,
-Jim

Thanks for clarifying. I don't do right or left click, but occasionally do CONTROL-click and doing that brings up the contextual menu item "change desktop background" which leads to the Desktop prefPane. Now, why you're having issues, I have no idea. However, I suggest creating a new admin user account, logging into it, and seeing if changing the desktop picture works there.

Is there an ARD command or Unix command that I can send to reset the desktop background image to default?

I was forced to create a local user with an automatic login on all of the machines in the building. I listed off many various issues that could come arise by doing this but was tuned out. Now people are changing all of the desktop backgrounds to some pretty inappropriate images. I forewarned the person ordering this that this may be one of the many issues that would arise when doing away with our server based logins, and now I am charged with fixing every desktop every time someone changes it to something inappropriate.
Is that an Apple Remote Desktop command or a Unix command that I can send through ARD v3.5.3 to the machines to reset the desktop background image to the default Aqua Blue jpeg image located in the /MacintoshHD/Library/Desktop\ Pictures/Aqua\ Blue.jpg.
The machines that I am dealing with have OS X 10.4.11, OS X 10.5.8, OS X 10.6.8, and OS X 10.7.4 installed on them, but the OS X 10.4.11 machines are the ones that are creating the biggest issue so I would like to deal with those first.

Ya, I'd love to have the computers connected to the Xserver, unfortunately against my heeding, I was ordered to take them off of the Xserver, so they only have a local account that automatically logs in on startup, and even though I have Parental Controls set, I can not stop them from going to Safari, selecting an inappropriate image and setting it as the background, so now I’ve been ordered to fix all of the backgrounds that people are messing with.
My Xserver is running OS X 10.4.11 Server Edition. Yes, I would love a new server, but that’s not happening due to budget cuts.
So what I am hoping for is a command that I can put into Apple Remote Desktop v3.5.3 and push out to all of the computers via its Unix commands and reset all the desktops to their default image.

When viewing some websites my desktop background image shows as the page background...why...and how do I fix this?

It seems that the current version of Firefox does not understand how to process style sheets. Instead of the stylesheet background color or image, I am now seeing my PC's desktop background image. This does not happen with IE or Chrome. When checking the error console, I get "Warning: Unknown property 'zoom'. Declaration dropped. Source File: http://trustserve.net/themes/ModernBlue/templates_cached/EN/global.css Line: 4"
I am not trying to zoom.
Any ideas on how to fix this. I can't use Firefox with these problems and I really liked it prior to these problems.

I thought I had it disabled. I enabled aero and then disabled to be sure, and still have the problem, but that was a very good idea. Thanks.
The problem started shortly after I installed two new programs, a graphics program, and an anti-virus. I just removed both programs and restarted the computer and that seems to have solved the problem. Your idea about Aero gave me the idea that one, or both of these programs changed some of my system settings. I am now going to install them, one at a time, and see if the transparency problem returns. I'll post my findings.

Change Desktop Background - Stretch Picture

I noted a strange thing when i right click and select Change Desktop Background, i once noted the option of whether to Stretch the picture. But now it is gone.
Does anyone know how do i enable it?

The option is only offered when it is actually needed, most likely your images don't need stretching.
Mario

Help me change the background image

I just installed my copy of iWeb. The first thing I did after selecting a template was try to change the background.
I hit the inspector button, found the tab with the background stuff, selected image fill, fit to size, and chose my photo. And nothing happened.
Then I hit the media button, selected photos, dragging a photo to the background image in the inspector and nothing happened.
What is the secret to changing the background image?
Thanks.

I tried to delete everything but the background image that comes with the template and iWeb still refuses to change to anything I want to change it to.
Any ideas? The application doesn't seem to be working for me.
Also if I save a file, where on the local HDD does it get saved? When I hit save iWeb didn't allow me to set a file name, it apparently just saved the document somewhere in a place that I cannot find.
I want to be able to do some quick down and dirty web pages and then bring them into Dreamweaver at a later date and FTP them to the web.

Setting the desktop background image via Powershell

UPDATE:
I found the solution that addressed my problem, which I posted in a post below. Keeping the original post for Internet historical reasons as I the hope this helps someone else later on in their search for a solution.
===============
I have Bing'ed and I have Google'd and I haven't found a solid answer to setting the desktop wallpaper programmically. I am trying to do this via PowerShell, but I would be happy for any other language flavor or application to work.
Below is the code I have tried to set the desktop background image. This has been scrounged from a few sources across the web. This solution works 25% of the time and I haven't figured out what the cause for success or failure of the execution. Or maybe
it's neither, but waiting for Explorer to refresh. The only way to see the change 100% is to log out and log back in.
I am running Windows 8.1 btw.
Thank you for looking.
Function Get-WallPaper()
$wp=Get-ItemProperty -path 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop\' -name wallpaper
if(!$wp.WallPaper)
{ "Wall paper is not set" }
Else
{"Wall paper is set to $($wp.WallPaper)" }
Function Refresh-Explorer {
$code = @'
private static readonly IntPtr HWND_BROADCAST = new IntPtr(0xffff);
private const int WM_SETTINGCHANGE = 0x1a;
private const int SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG = 0x0002;
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError=true, CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern bool SendNotifyMessage(IntPtr hWnd, uint Msg, UIntPtr wParam,
IntPtr lParam);
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("user32.dll", SetLastError = true)]
private static extern IntPtr SendMessageTimeout ( IntPtr hWnd, int Msg, IntPtr wParam, string lParam, uint fuFlags, uint uTimeout, IntPtr lpdwResult );
[System.Runtime.InteropServices.DllImport("Shell32.dll")]
private static extern int SHChangeNotify(int eventId, int flags, IntPtr item1, IntPtr item2);
public static void Refresh() {
SHChangeNotify(0x8000000, 0x1000, IntPtr.Zero, IntPtr.Zero);
SendMessageTimeout(HWND_BROADCAST, WM_SETTINGCHANGE, IntPtr.Zero, null, SMTO_ABORTIFHUNG, 100, IntPtr.Zero);
Add-Type -MemberDefinition $code -Namespace MyWinAPI -Name Explorer
[MyWinAPI.Explorer]::Refresh()
Function Set-WallPaper($Value)
echo "Setting background to: $value"
Refresh-Explorer
Set-ItemProperty -path 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop\' -name wallpaper -value $value
rundll32.exe user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
#sleep 1
rundll32.exe user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
#sleep 1
rundll32.exe user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
#sleep 1
Refresh-Explorer
#Stop-Process -ProcessName explorer
NOTE: I left in a few commented out statements. I found that they do not offer any help in formulating a solution.
Thank you.

Great news! I found the solution and all props and credit goes to
jsd1982 of the XKCD comic
forum from a post he made in 2007 and some deep search kung-fu Googling on my part. Here is the
direct link to the post.
This solution has worked for me 100% of the time on Windows 8. The only gotcha I found (minor detail) was when setting this process to run as a scheduled task, I had to run it as elevated privileges for the code to compile in memory. Running this function
from PowerShell at the command prompt was fine.
NOTE: The code below is a slight trimmed down version posted by jsd1982 to just set the desktop wallpaper. I removed the image fetching from the Internet and the color inversion.
# Credit to jsd1982
function Compile-Csharp ([string] $code, $FrameworkVersion="v2.0.50727",
[Array]$References)
# Get an instance of the CSharp code provider
$cp = new-object Microsoft.CSharp.CSharpCodeProvider
# Build up a compiler params object...
$framework = [System.IO.Path]::Combine($env:windir, "Microsoft.NET\Framework\$FrameWorkVersion")
$refs = new-object Collections.ArrayList
$refs.AddRange( @("${framework}\System.dll",
# "${mshhome}\System.Management.Automation.dll",
# "${mshhome}\System.Management.Automation.ConsoleHost.dll",
"${framework}\system.windows.forms.dll",
"${framework}\System.data.dll",
"${framework}\System.Drawing.dll",
"${framework}\System.Xml.dll"))
if ($references.Count -ge 1)
$refs.AddRange($References)
$cpar = New-Object System.CodeDom.Compiler.CompilerParameters
$cpar.GenerateInMemory = $true
$cpar.GenerateExecutable = $false
$cpar.CompilerOptions = "/unsafe";
$cpar.OutputAssembly = "custom"
$cpar.ReferencedAssemblies.AddRange($refs)
$cr = $cp.CompileAssemblyFromSource($cpar, $code)
if ( $cr.Errors.Count)
$codeLines = $code.Split("`n");
foreach ($ce in $cr.Errors)
write-host "Error: $($codeLines[$($ce.Line - 1)])"
$ce |out-default
Throw "INVALID DATA: Errors encountered while compiling code"
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Drawing") > $null
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName("System.Runtime") > $null
# C# code to post to wallpaper
$code = @'
using System;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using System.Runtime.InteropServices;
using System.IO;
using System.Net;
using Microsoft.Win32;
namespace test
public class Wallpaper
const int SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 20 ;
const int SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE = 0x01;
const int SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE = 0x02;
[DllImport("user32.dll", CharSet=CharSet.Auto)]
static extern int SystemParametersInfo (int uAction , int uParam , string lpvParam , int fuWinIni) ;
public static void SetWallpaper(string uri)
System.IO.Stream s = new WebClient().OpenRead(uri);
Image img = System.Drawing.Image.FromStream(s);
Bitmap copy = new Bitmap(img.Width, img.Height);
Graphics g = Graphics.FromImage(copy);
Rectangle rect = new Rectangle(0, 0, img.Width, img.Height);
g.DrawImage(img, rect, 0, 0, img.Width, img.Height, GraphicsUnit.Pixel);
g.Dispose();
img.Dispose();
// Save to a temp file:
string tempPath = Path.Combine(Path.GetTempPath(), "wallpaper.bmp");
copy.Save(tempPath, System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageFormat.Bmp);
RegistryKey key = Registry.CurrentUser.OpenSubKey( @"Control Panel\Desktop", true ) ;
key.SetValue(@"WallpaperStyle", 1.ToString( ) ) ;
key.SetValue(@"TileWallpaper", 0.ToString( ) ) ;
SystemParametersInfo( SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER,
0,
tempPath,
SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE | SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE );
function Set-Wallpaper([string] $imgurl)
compile-CSharp $code
[test.Wallpaper]::SetWallpaper($imgurl)

HT2478 how do you make the setting to change desktop background every time you shut down your mac

how to make setting to change desktop background every time you close your mac
because i want to make it if anybody tries to change my dekstop picture i want it to go backto set desktop picture

Don't let other people access your Mac in admin mode - they might change something a lot more important than the Desktop picture.
However you can use Automator: create an Application in it, and select 'Set the Desktop Picture' from the Library. Choose the picture you want. Save the application, then go to System Preferences>Accounts>Login Items and select the Automator application you just created. This will then run at startup and set your chosen picture.

"Change desktop background" instantly hides when opened

I have a rather strange issue that's a nuisance. When I right click on the desktop and select "Change Desktop Background," the system preferences pane opens, but automatically is hidden (similar to if you press cmd+H). I have to click the icon to restore the window.
This does NOT occur if I first open System Preferences and then select "Desktop & Screen Saver," or if I open "DesktopScreenEffectsPref.prefpane" from quicksilver.
I have tried deleting com.apple.desktop.plist and restarting, but this did not solve my problem. I think I may have experienced this problem in Lion as well, but I currently experience it on Mountain Lion.
Any help is greatly appreciated.

This same thing happens to me, and while not the end of the world, it is defintely annoying. Have you figured it out? Thanks!

Cannot change Desktop Background image

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