"set as desktop picture" option completely disappeared!

I'm running snow leopard on a mac mini, and up until yesterday I could select any photo I had on my computer, right click and select "set as desktop picture" at the bottom of the options. Now, my options end at label colours, and is no where to be found. I phone apple tech support and they are completely stumped. anyone who can answer this one is a hero I suppose.
Also, I have selected another user in accounts to test if it happens there when I log out, and it works just fine when I do so, so this is related to a user acount (my main one). The tech support said to find apple.com.finder.plst and drag to the desktop+restart, but this didn't work either. Any ideas?

If your contextual menu stops at Labels, something is blocking the Services menu. I'm not sure why Applecare tech support would start at deleting those plists which have nothing to do with the services menu.
First, Go to an Application menu, like Safari, and select Services>Services Preferences… Look in the Pictures section and make sure that "Set Desktop Picture" is selected.
If that's not it, open up your user Library/Contextual Menu Items folder and see if anything is in there; if so, move them all to the desktop. Log out and log back in. It's likely that folder doesn't even exist there, but just in case. Since it is only your user, I don't think the main Contextual Menu Items folder in /Library/ would cause problems, but you could try the same with anything in there.
The next step would be doing same with your user Library/Services folder. Move everything out of that folder to a folder on your desktop and see if that helps.
If at any time something starts working, you can move items back one at a time and see what happens. When it stops working again, remove the last item you moved back.

Similar Messages

"Set the Desktop Picture" command does not work in certain instances

I've decided to take a try at using automator. Anyways I've created a very simple workflow.
Get Specified Finder Items (points to an image file)
Set the Desktop Picture
Now this usually works when the desktop is set statically to a specified image. But when I set the desktop to change the picture periodically, the automator action fails to change the picture to the specified image, when executed.
Is this a bug? Is there any workaround for this?

Your workflow actually is changing the static desktop picture, it's merely failing to then switch off the "Change picture" feature.
The "Change picture" feature has a somewhat misleading name in that it's not actually changing your static desktop picture at all. Your static desktop picture remains in place as a new dynamic picture layer is continually drawn and redrawn directly on top of it.
I don't see any way of testing for or turning off the desktop slideshow automatically, short of writing a GUI AppleScript that opens System Preferences and clicks through to the relevant toggle setting. If you file feedback with Apple they might take a look at it.
http://apple.com/feedback/

In linux, saving a background image (set as Desktop)feature doesnt download my image to wallpaper folder..or even to standard "Save download" feature. Can I tell firefox where (what folder) to save my "Set as Desktop" picture?

When I find a suitable picture to use as wallpaper" I often right click and use the menu item "Set as Desktop Background". The file ""example.jpg" is saved in directory\folder "/home/user" rather than for example "/home/user/my wallpaper" or in the directory
"/home/user/Downloads". The latter as being set under the "Downloads" section on the "General" tab in the "Preferences" dialog box.
Is there a configuration file where I can change the default location to save my "Set as Desktop Background" images. Or better still can the menu be customized to launch the application that allows me to set my desktop wallpapers?
I am using the "PCLinuxOS" Linux OS but I have encountered this issue in many if not all the Linux distributions I have sampled.

Don't use "Set as Desktop". Use ''' "Save Image As..." ''' instead, and file it with your other "wallpaper" images so the operating system has access to those images.
IIRC, Firefox saves a "desktop image" to the Profile folder, and it will only save one image, at that. Change the image and the previous one is gone.

"Set the Desktop Picture" settings

Is there any way to change the default "Fill Screen" to "Center" when using this automator script?

dumb plist files

How can you disable "set desktop picture" from the finder contextual menu

I teach high school. And MUST find a way to keep my students from changing their desktops.
First I basically got rid of Firefox when it had that feature in the Tiger days.
Then for Leopard I had to create dummy "locked" Safari Desktop Picture files for all my user accounts so the kids couldn't use Safari to set their desktop pictures.
NOW I discover (maybe this was here before) Snow Leopard lets you change the desktop right from the Finder itself! Just right click on any image file and the contextual menu will give them the option to "set desktop picture".
Come on Apple, every educator I know has complained about what a distraction and constant battle images are for students who use computers. While not all students are inappropriate, quite a few are...meaning no one can be allowed the privilege. Why is this such a huge battle to try and lock down? Please allow Parental Controls or Server managed preferences to keep our students from being able to change their desktop pictures, ever, at all, from anywhere or any program.
Does anyone know if this is even possible?

The only way (I have found) to shut down using Safari's "Use Image as a Desktop Picture" feature is to create a bunch of blank documents that the users have no permission to change (i.e. set permission to only allow, say YOU to read it and no access to write to it for anyone)
Create a number of these blank documents and rename them
Safari Desktop Picture.jpg
Safari Desktop Picture.tiff
Safari Desktop Picture.gif
Safari Desktop Picture.jpeg
Safari Desktop Picture.png
(you get the point....come up with as many .3 extensions of photo files that you can think of)
Put these locked and unchangeable files into the following directory of each of your student accounts
Macintosh HD/Users/~User Name/Library/Safari/
What this does is create a bunch of dummy files that will "block" Safari (or the system or user) from trying to replace them. Even though the right click comman will still be there, Safari will not be able to put the picture in the correct part of the system for it to be used as a Desktop Picture.

How do I disable "Set as Desktop Background" as an option in Firefox 3.6 running on Mac OSX 10.5?

I'm trying to disable the "Set as Desktop Background" option for Firefox 3.6 in a Mac OSX 10.5 environment. I have a default image that I want as the background on my desktop and I don't want it to be changed.

See http://kb.mozillazine.org/Editing_configuration#How_to_edit_configuration_files
Add code to [http://kb.mozillazine.org/UserChrome.css userChrome.css] below the @namespace line.
<pre><nowiki>@namespace url("http://www.mozilla.org/keymaster/gatekeeper/there.is.only.xul"); /* only needed once */
#context-setDesktopBackground {display: none !important;}</nowiki></pre>

Why can't I right-click and set desktop picture?

Greetings.
I am having a lot of trouble changing my desktop picture. From what I understand, you right-click the image and click on 'set as desktop picture'. I click it and nothing changes. I have tried to download the image and set it manually through System Preferences but when I go into Desktop & Screen Saver but there are no other folders other than the 'Apple' one that have the wallpapers that come with the computer.
If it's relevant at all, my macbook pro is a 10.6.8 version.

You should be able to do it three ways, some of which you already know:
Right-click image, choose "Set Desktop Picture"
Right-click desktop, choose "Change Desktop Background"
Go into System Preferences, click "Desktop and Screen Saver"
Note when you are in System Preferences, the current desktop is shown in an indented "well." That always indicates that it is a drop target. You don't need to be able to see in the list the pictures or folder you want. Just drag it from the desktop, or iPhoto, or whatever app you're looking at your photo in, and drop it in that well, and it will be set.
muffinpirate wrote:
I have tried to download the image and set it manually through System Preferences but when I go into Desktop & Screen Saver but there are no other folders other than the 'Apple' one that have the wallpapers that come with the computer.
If you did want to do it the old-fashioned way and drill through folders and files, you can click the plus symbol [ + ] below the list there and then you can add any folder to the list. In case you have a folder full of desktop backgrounds, for instance.
(I might be wrong about some of this since I am using 10.8)

Where is the desktop picture stored if you set it from the finder?

I've read several discussions here asking where this is stored but none of them address the location when you use the Finder to set a desktop picture. I've looked in all Libary folders and Safari and can't find it. How can I locate it?

Finder takes the actual directory of the picture you set as a desktop background and the "com.apple.desktop.plist" file in ~/Library/Preferences points to the directory of the picture you set as the desktop background. It's not stored in any other folder

Client desktop pictures disappear after admin share screen

I share my screen with 15 computers in my lab. When I quit the process and clients have access again, several machines lose their custom desktop pictures. It seems to fix itself if they log out and log back in. Any ideas on what causes this?

What version of the mac os x is the client computers running?
if one of the effected users, on an effected computer sets their desktop picture, then logs out, and then logs back in, do they still keep the custom desktop picture? or dose it default back to the generic picture?
On the effected computers, dose the issue happen on all user accounts? Or just specific user accounts? If you create a new local user account, dose it have the same issue?

Zooming desktop pictures without "pixelating"?

Greetings. I have a number of photos I downloaded that I want to use as desktop pictures. The photo size is 800 x 600 (pixels). The native screen resolution on my MacBook is 1280 x 800. When I set the picture in the "Desktop" system pref, I am not happy with the CENTERING option. But when I select the FILL SCREEN option the photos become all "pixelated" on the display (because, of course, they are not large enough to fill the screen at native resolution).
Curiously though, when I set the same photos to display in the "Screen Saver" system pref, they zoom in WITHOUT ANY "PIXELATING!" Can anyone explain to me why the zoom effect in "Screen Saver" doesn't pixelate the photos, and is there anyway to tap into this zoom capability in the "Desktop" system pref to view smaller photos at full screen? Is there a third party utility that can do this?
Thanks!

Greetings. I found several "screen saver run as desktop picture" options (including a cool widget called "Desktopsaver Plus") that essentially accomplishes what I'm after.

Changing Desktop Pictures

I selected a folder full of images to use for my desktop pictures. The thumbnails display and I select an image and it shows in the upper left corner of the window, however, it will not change on the desktop. I also tried to select the options for Change picture every 5 minutees and random order, though this does not work either. Is there a button I need to press to activate the new desktops?

You can also use iPhoto to set the desktop picture, if the picture is in iPhoto.
Launch iPhoto and select the picture.
Click on Share and select Set Desktop.
If you have a picture you want to use for the desktop but are having trouble navigating all the pictures through the System Preferences window this is great alternative.

Lost the ability to resize desktop pictures

I have just recently used onyx to do my general maintenance cleaning. After I restarted my computer I went into system pref. to change my desktop picture and found that I no longer have the option to choose Fill Screen, Stretch to Fill Screen, Center or change the background color. The box where these options normally used to be is now gone and there is only a blank space, as if it was never there. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
MacBook Pro 2.33 GHZ Mac OS X (10.4.9)

HI Patric and Welcome to Apple Discussions.
If you hadn't posted this question I wouldn't have known my Sys Prefs/Desktop Pictures options have also disappeared. All it shows is the name of the photo and the size. Patric, you indicated that you are running 10.4.9 but did you by chance update to the 10.4.10 yet? That could be the glitch.
In the meantime I hope someone else has some suggestions....
Carolyn

How do I set the desktop wallpaper with an image in aperture 3?

Sorry for the silly question, but I can't find how to set my desktop wallpaper with an image in aperture 3. It was simple when using Iphoto, but I can't find the method in aperture.
Thanks,
Dale.

Command(⌘)-9 is no longer listed in the list of default keyword shortcuts, and it has no effect.
I wrote a little Automator service to bring the Command(⌘)-9 back.
A copy of this service is here for download:
http://dreschler-fischer.de/scripts/SetDesktopPicture.workflow.zip
This service uses three actions:
Aperture: Get selected images
Export Masters
Finder: Set the Desktop Picture
To install it, open the workflow in Automator and save it as service.
To use it, select any image in Aperture, then activate the service from the Aperture menu -> Services, and it will set the master of the selected image as Desktop picture.
If you like, you can assign the Command(⌘)-9 key to the service (in the System Preferences -> Keyboard -> Keyboard Shortcuts Panel) and then turn any image you selected into Desktop wallpaper by simply pressing (⌘)-9.
@Frank Caggiano, if you are still following this thread: for some reason this workflow succeeds with exporting the master, but I could not get it to work with the versions instead. Any ideas?
Caution: this service will clutter the Desktop with the exported images. If you want to avoid that, change the export action to export the image to a different folder.
Regards
Léonie

Company-wide Desktop Picture on Mavericks Clients

We're looking at rolling out Mavericks on our systems at work, and I have set up a test machine to make sure everything will work as expected. We have a Lion server that is using Workgroup Manager MCX (instead of Profile Manager, which will change) to distribute policies to all the workstations. All of them are working well except for the desktop picture.
Now, I understand that the setting for desktop picture in Mavericks is no longer in a plist, but in an sqlite database. Is there any way to set the desktop picture using the Workgroup or Profile Managers for a Mavericks client? I don't want to replace the default picture on Mavericks systems because we update the desktop picture regularly.
EDIT: I should add, I tried to write a login script to do it, but I couldn't get it to run. The script has this single line:
tell application "System Events" to set picture of every desktop to "/Volumes/Groups/Everyone/Wallpapers/Current.png"

Your script is a kludgy hack that won't prevent users from changing the Desktop for the entirety of their session .
The correct way to do this is with Managed Preferences for OSX also called 'MCX' as you have already seen.
There is a tweak that should still work on 10.9 to import all the Apple based 'managed preference keys'.
Get Workgroup Manager for the same OS as the server (you may need the server admin tools, it varies, search for both). It may need to be the 10.9 version on Mavericks.
http://support.apple.com/downloads/#workgroup%20manager
Open WGM on a client, connect to the server (do not work in the local node!). Select the group or computer group you are managing & select the 'Preferences > Details tab'. Click the + button to add the following…
/System/Library/CoreServices/ManagedClient.app
This will give you the power to manage a lot of extra keys, find the 'Desktop picture' in the list, double click it, decide how often to manage it (once = first login, often = at each login, always = what it says ).
Select 'Often' & create a New Key, click the new item & select the key to manage (in this case Background). It should autofill the other values (e.g. image path & the path to the current Desktop. Sometimes Always won't create the key correctly, so create it inside often & drag it down.
Once all that is saved login as a member of the managed group & it should pull down the desired MCX prefs (reboot).
Your Macs will need to bound to the server for this to work & I haven't tested on 10.9 (WGM doesn't want to apply these to the local node, which may indicate it isn't possible.
I'd strongly suggest you copy the desired image to the Macs in question to increase reliability, or host it in an auto mount that appears in /Networks.
Good luck

Desktop Picture Changing Time

Do any of you know if there's a way to set the desktop picture to change slower than 30 seconds but faster than 5 minutes?
Is there a script or terminal command out there that will work?

Hi there,
Appears you can edit the...
/Users/YourUserName/Library/Preferences/com.apple.desktop.plist
You'll need either Property List Editor, (part of Developer Tools installed), or PlistEdit Pro...
http://www.fatcatsoftware.com/plisteditpro/
1 minute equals 60.00000 in Default>Change time, so change it in Seconds.

"set as desktop picture" option completely disappeared!

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