Unable to change background Windows 7 Home Premium

Anonymous

**Original Title**

Windows 7 Desktop Background Picture won't change. Was working fine, changing everyday, then one day, stopped changing and now stuck on the same picture for 2 weeks.

The desktop backgrounds were working fine (previous 2 weeks ago), picture would change everyday. I downloaded all the other themes (ex. Brazil, China, Spain, etc.). At first these other themes worked fine and then all of a sudden, the desktop background picture won't change.

Another problem: under "Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization" window, when I click on "Desktop Background" link or icon on bottom left and the picture locations are displayed, I can't check or uncheck pictures. When I try to clear all check marks or select all check marks, they seem to disappear (the check marks) randomly and then reappear randomly. Sometimes some check marks will stay and then others will disappear despite selecting "Clear all" or "Select all" (doesn't matter which) and seemingly random pictures are selected or deselected in no particular pattern. And then I tried manually selecting and deselecting each picture check mark and same thing, check marks would randomly stay or else disappear.

Bottom line is I am unable to change anything in "Desktop Background". And I have had the same background picture for 2 weeks unable to change it. Have clicked on every button or drop down menu like "Change picture every:" to 10 seconds, 30 seconds, etc. and still nothing.

I tried finding a work around solution like right clicking on different pictures in Windows Explorer and selecting "Set as desktop background" but literally nothing happens. I tried viewing several pictures in "Windows Photo Viewer" then right click on "Set as desktop background" and then an error pops up "This image can't be set as wallpaper. An internal error occurred."

I have all the latest windows updates. I haven't tried anything in safe mode because I really don't know windows 7 and safe mode turns the desktop background off, anyways, doesn't it? Don't really want to do a system restore for something so small or re-install. Please advise other things I can try!

Should also mention I tried deleting all the additional themes I downloaded to see if these caused problems... and yes I used antivirus and spyware several times (using "Shaw Secure" made by F-Secure). Still same problem. Also scanned with Ad-Aware (although had to turn off F-Secure to do this). Still nothing wrong.

It's a small problem I can live with but also annoying.

Should also mention this is a brand new pc with Windows 7 installed on it (no other OS was installed on it).

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Anonymous

should be noted that when you delete the content in the .ini file you need to reboot

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Answer accepted by question author

Anonymous

Open this with Windows Explorer: %USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\ and tell me what you see?

When choosing only one image for the desktop background there should be only TranscodedWallpaper.jpg and the slideshow.ini should be empty. Is there something inside the .ini file? Maybe it would be possible to force some changes removing the content of the .ini file

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143 additional answers

Anonymous

2010-02-05T19:45:23+00:00
Guys

I would just like to update you on conversations I have had through the official Microsoft support channel (ie Call Centre in India).

Brief reminder of my issue:

All other solutions here do not work, or are already implemented

I was under the impression (now questionning my own memory!) it all worked fine initially, with screen change set to every day picking from a selection of 14 of my own .jpg images

Daily change no longer works if PC is turned off at night

It works fine if the PC is left on 24 hours per day (seems to change around midnight)

Shorter change periods work OK, even if the PC is turned off in between

So having exhausted all known solutions I logged a support call. After working through all of the above, I have just been told that some support "Research" has found that the "feature" is that the slide changer will only change the background daily if the PC is left on and that is the way it is meant to work. It does not store the time or any context to allow this to be remembered through a daily power off cycle.

I am quite convinced this is wrong but as I said I am wondering about my own sanity. Anybody else got this working daily with PC switched off in between?
Nutwood, I have discovered for my own 2 computers the exact opposite (although could be different for everyone else). I used to keep my desktop on constantly, mainly because of the long start up time. But thats when I noticed the wallpaper changer stopped working. But since I got my new laptop, I haven't been using my desktop as much, thus turning it off. I used my laptop a lot, usually keeping it on all day. Then the wallpaper changer stopped working on that too. It wasnt until yesterday (for my laptop) and today (for my desktop) did the auto-change start working again. I did nothing to change any of the settings, except on my laptop. I downloaded that HP fix for the stretch-only glitch. Other then that, no changes to anything. Then, the auto-change wallpaper started working again.

Not sure if Microsoft pushed a patch or what, but for me, as of today, my desktop (which stopped changing 2 months ago) started changing again. The only thing I did differently was turn it off from time to time.
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Anonymous

2010-02-05T17:40:40+00:00
Guys

I would just like to update you on conversations I have had through the official Microsoft support channel (ie Call Centre in India).

Brief reminder of my issue:
- All other solutions here do not work, or are already implemented
- I was under the impression (now questionning my own memory!) it all worked fine initially, with screen change set to every day picking from a selection of 14 of my own .jpg images
- Daily change no longer works if PC is turned off at night
- It works fine if the PC is left on 24 hours per day (seems to change around midnight)
- Shorter change periods work OK, even if the PC is turned off in between
So having exhausted all known solutions I logged a support call. After working through all of the above, I have just been told that some support "Research" has found that the "feature" is that the slide changer will only change the background daily if the PC is left on and that is the way it is meant to work. It does not store the time or any context to allow this to be remembered through a daily power off cycle.

I am quite convinced this is wrong but as I said I am wondering about my own sanity. Anybody else got this working daily with PC switched off in between?
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Anonymous

2010-01-25T22:49:59+00:00

I had the same problem today. I wanted to chance my desktop and it kept telling me that it was transcodedwallpaper. My granddaughter and I share this computer and we are each users. I told her to take me off as a used and when she did this corrected the problem. When she put me back on the problem was gone and she could change my desk top easily. I really like that was can do a picture show of wallpaper to include some of America's beautiful sites. Hope that this helps.
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