How To Prevent Users from Changing the Desktop Wallpaper in Windows 10

Certain organizations do not want their employees to use random wallpapers on their screens. They might want to display their logo or brand name. Also, at home where you share your system with others, you need a particular wallpaper to be used, but you notice some other user keeps changing it. To avoid this, you can make simple settings so that other users cannot change the desktop wallpaper.

For any good reason, if you want a specific Wallpaper on your desktop screen and don’t want any other user to change the desktop wallpaper from your system, read through this article to know how to achieve it step by step.

Steps to be followed:

Step 1: Open the run window. Hold the keys Windows+r from your keyboard at the same time.

Step 2: Enter regedit and press OK

 

 

Regedit In Run

 

 



Step 3: If you see a UAC popping up, just click on Yes

NOTE: Registry editing can be risky and can have an adverse effect on the system even with the slightest mistake. It is advised to take the backup of the registry settings before proceeding. To take a backup, In the Registry Editor window –> Go to File –> Export –> Save your Backup file.

 

Step 4: In the Editor window, type or copy-paste or navigate to the following location,

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies

 

Policies path

 

 

 

Step 5: Check if the subkey/subfolder named ActiveDesktop is present within the Policies folder. If not, create one using the following steps.

1. Right-click on the Policies key

2. Select New

3. Select Key

 

New Key

 

 

4. Name the newly created subkey as ActiveDesktop.

 

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Step 5: Within ActiveDesktop, we have to create a New DWORD

  1. Right-click anywhere on the right-hand side
  2. Click on New
  3. Choose DWORD (32-bit) Value

 

 

New Dword

 

Step 6: Name the newly created DWORD as NoChangingWallpaper.

 

Nochanging Wallpapaer

 

 

Step 7: Double Click on the NoChangingWallpaper to modify its value. In the Edit DWORD window, Set the value 1 and hit Enter to prevent others from changing the Desktop Wallpaper.

 

 

Edit Dwordchanging Wallpaper

 

With the above changes, one can prevent the user from changing the Desktop Wallpaper from the Settings. (i.e  Settings > Personalization > Background).However, one can still change the Desktop Wallpaper by right-clicking on the image and choosing Set as desktop background from the context menu. To avoid this from happening. Do the following

 

Step 8: Within Policies key, Check if the subkey/subfolder named System is present within the Policies folder. If not, create one using the following steps.

1. Right-click on the Policies key

2. Select New

3. Select Key

 

New Key

 

 

4. Name the newly created subkey as System.

 

 

System

 

 

Step 9: Within System, we have to create a New String key

  1. Right-click anywhere on the right-hand side
  2. Click on New
  3. Choose String key

 

 

New String Key

 



 

Step 10: Name the newly created String key as Wallpaper.

 

 

Wallpaper Key

 

 

Step 11: Now, Double-click on the Wallpaper key that we created so as to modify its value. In the Edit String key window that appears, specify the location of the desktop wallpaper that you want to be displayed. Refer to the below screenshot for more details

 

Example Wallpaper

 

 

Step 12: Restart your system to have a look at the changes taking effect.

Now, we have disabled all the ways for a user to change the desktop of a screen.

 

That’s All. We hope this article has been helpful. Thank you for Reading.