How to Personalize, change desktop MANUALLY in Win7 Starter?

[MDYarma]

So, I have this new netbook my parents(much kindly) bought me while I was studying abroad, and it comes with Win7. The default wallpaper is quite pretty but I'd rather have one more... ehm.... personal than the super awesome windows logo. So, question is: How to Manually set another wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter Edition? (I stress the manually because I've seen there's programs out there that let you personalize windows completely, nevermind it's this blocked Starter edition, and I do not want one of those. I want something home-made, so to say)

Little story/explanation/diary for those with more time:

So, I right clicked on the desktop and.... I saw no way to do it. Neither right clicking on a picture file. Tryed the typical (what we do at school) open with the browser and then right click to set as wallpaper.... and nothing again. So it starts getting annoying. I search throughout the control panel and so on and more nothingness. I look for it at the help thing and... the only solution doesn't apply to Starter edition. Uhm. I go to the administrative tools and... well, I think I lack some. I remember there used to be more... ehm.... the ones I see... don't give much inspiration so... I go to the Registry Key (regedit). (By now you might have guessed I have, indeed, wandered lost around the resources that ring a bell in my memory without much, ehm, expertise... ehm... yeeeaahh.... ^^;; ) And there I Search for "Desktop" (yeah, like that). And.... after some time I get to somewhere with something comprehensible. In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop I find a chain called Wallpaper with value "%windir%\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg". So, there, at last, something to change. And I do change it. And restart. And it does get automatically fixed and set to the default value when I open again. Crap.

My thoughts were:
1) Find a way to override the fixing-->absolutely no idea how
2) If it gets fixed, it means the address is saved somewhere else, from where it copies the default one. Edit that one. --> No idea where it is.
3) If it always points to that file and there's no way around it, change the file with another same name same address, different content. Replace. --> After some messing with ownerships and privileges and so on I get to be able to delete the file and make a new one, same name, similar dimensions (I think. done with paint. damn, should have checked.). --> The Wallpaper doesn't load. Neither the new one... nor the old one. So... got nowhere here neither. And, now I think, even if I had succeeded, it would not have been a handy solution because since that file is the one pointed at from all users register place... everyone would have my new wallpaper and that's not something I want... So, thís (replace file) is not a solution.

Explained everything so you can ehm... say like "that would be done that way" or "next time don't even try this" or whatever. Open to any advice in any direction.

[mShred]

Please, keep your ehms to yourself.. But anyway, after a little bit of Googling, I have found that Windows 7 Starter won't allow you to change your desktop background. The reason is just in that, it's the starter edition. I'm not sure, but this may or may not be able to help you.

[MDYarma]

Please, keep your ehms to yourself..

Sorry about the ehms. I will try not to type more of them.

But anyway, after a little bit of Googling, I have found that Windows 7 Starter won't allow you to change your desktop background.

Windows 7 won't "allow me", true. I was wondering if there was a way around it. I mean, it loads its wallpaper, so why wouldn't it load mine? I thought that there should be a way to put the one you want in place of windows' logo.
I've gotten it to show me a black background... which is not what I wanted but neither is it the windows wallpaper. So I've actually achieved it, change my desktop background. It's just that a black background is crap. But it's not the default one. So, I see a change there. Now I'd like to get something better ^^''

I'm not sure, but this may or may not be able to help you.

Sorry, that's programs you have to install. I know that's an option but I was looking for some manual trick to do. You know, like changing a key value in the Register or replacing a line in a ini file or something. Just for the fun of it, really.

Anyway, thanks for replying ^^ that's a nice thing to do. We are all busy so it's really nice from you to spend some of your time in helping me with this smallest issue.

[LoGiCaL__]

Let me start off by saying this issue fucking sux, I honestly can't believe you can't change the desktop background, their a bunch of fucking mooks.

On topic: Anyway to find out the name of the background or .jpg and search for it? Find the location and rename a new pic the same and delete the old one. I'm guessing not but it;s worth a try. Try to find the location of where the background files are. (does it have more than one to choose from?) And start from there.

[mShred]

Yeah i was gonna say, use that registry key you entered. Go to the path and change delete that picture and replace it with one you want. Make sure it has the same filename. But Logical already covered that. If that works, idunno what to tell you. Linux doesn't have those kinda restrictions...

[Phantom Wolf]

If you're going to try what LoGiCaL__ and mShred suggest, you might want to do it with a livecd so Windows doesn't know about it. Ensure that the image you replace it with is the same size, if that works you can try a different sized image and see what happens.

[MDYarma]

I already did that, and it "broke" (first said there was a problem with desktop and temporal userprofile, the next try didn't break that much, but was just black. black background). But the size probably wasn't the correct one. I will try again and make sure size and resolution.

Anyway this solution has one counter side and it's that ALL users will have the new background. Which is OK, but... not the ideal solution, no.

[LoGiCaL__]

If you're going to try what LoGiCaL__ and mShred suggest, you might want to do it with a livecd so Windows doesn't know about it.

Great thinking. Even if it doesn't work it's a good step to take towards the goal.

I already did that, and it "broke" (first said there was a problem with desktop and temporal userprofile, the next try didn't break that much, but was just black. black background). But the size probably wasn't the correct one. I will try again and make sure size and resolution.

Anyway this solution has one counter side and it's that ALL users will have the new background. Which is OK, but... not the ideal solution, no.

I have three things to respond to this.

A) with the black background at least you know your getting close.

B)Someone that is specialized in steganography might be able to help you out.

C) Only the people that use that background's name will have that background.

-- Sun Aug 28, 2011 11:11 pm --

After researching it looks like M$ went above and beyond the call of duty to add this in as a feature(?). I do stand by what I said, good place to start.

[MDYarma]

Okay, this has no cd-reader so if I wanted to do what you suggested, livecd, I shall use the usb port and make it sort of live-usb... right? Tried that but, puff, I'm not really used to linux and I got lost inside this portable DamnSmallLinux...

Right now I managed to get a pretty orange background. Getting better already, heh? So, I can choose the color of the background with the Registry key in /Control Panel/Colors/Background or something like that. Still, I wanted to have a wallpaper... a nicer one, not just a plain color one.... but, ah, well, this is good already ^^

I noticed that it doesn't get always fixed. If I make it pointto a picture of mine , like a duplicate of the original with inverted colors, or a random picture I have, then it gets fixed, the value automatically points to the original wallpaper again. But if I delete the original (or put a substitute I've done, but I mean, actually replace the file in place of change the direction "Wallpaper" points to) then it doesn't fix the pointing place, just leaves it blank and when it's blank it must be fixed "manually" retyping the original. And if I make it point to one of the "Sample pictures" the pc came with, it doesn't fix itself neither. It "breaks", orange background, but the registry is not blank, keeps pointing at the picture I made it point to.
Any thoughts about that? Maybe it can tell "Windows' images" and "user images" apart, and point only at Windows'? (even if so, why doesn't it show the picture, if it's pointing at it?)

[LoGiCaL__]

Try this link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zQmCiQ1yktQ&feature=related

It was the only one that seemed legit and didn't require a 3rd party software.