What to check and what to do when Windows 10 wallpaper cannot be changed
If you can’t change the Windows 10 wallpaper, check your visual display settings. If there is no problem with the settings but you still cannot change the wallpaper, you may be able to change the wallpaper after restoring the default wallpaper by editing the registry. This page introduces what to do when the wallpaper cannot be changed.
Please see the following page for how to change the wallpaper image, how to make it a single color, and settings.
What to check and what to do when you can’t change the wallpaper
If your computer is used by an organization such as a company, it may be possible that the wallpaper cannot be changed by setting the “Group Policy” Windows usage rules. In this case, please contact the administrator who configured the “Group Policy”.
*The group policy function cannot be used in the “Home version” as standard.
Checking visual display settings
Check the settings for optimizing the visual display, as background removal may be set. Check from the control panel Click the “Windows” mark to open the Control Panel
, scroll the displayed “Menu”, click “Windows System Tools” in the “W” to expand it, and click “Control Panel”.
When Control Panel opens, click “Optimize visual display”.
If Remove background images is checked, click to remove the checkmark, then click Apply or OK.
If this is not the problem, please refer to “Removing the current wallpaper” or “Editing the registry”.
Delete current wallpaper and reset
You may be able to change the wallpaper by deleting the file related to the currently set wallpaper and restarting your computer.
Since files related to wallpaper are hidden folders, you need to set them to be displayed. It is not necessary when opening from the address box. open from address box
Enter the following path in the address box of Explorer and press the “Enter” key.
%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
open from explorer
Set to show hidden files first.
When you click “View” in Explorer, the contents related to display are displayed, so click “Hidden files” and put a check mark.
*You can display hidden files by closing Explorer once and opening it again.
Click the “>” icon next to the name to expand the tree.
- 〉Local Disk (C:)
- 〉Users
- >username
- 〉App Data
- 〉Roaming
- 〉Microsoft
- 〉Windows
and click ” Themes “.
- Delete “TranscodedWallpaper” in the “Themes” folder.
- If you have “CachedFiles” in the “Themes” folder , delete the wallpaper cache files in the folder.
- Restart your computer and see if you can now change the image.
Reset wallpaper by editing registry
After resetting the wallpaper image setting (Path) to the initial value by editing the registry, you may be able to change the wallpaper by restarting the computer.
* “Path” is the location of the file or folder from the disk name (eg C:).
If you are not confident about the operation, please make a backup before editing and then operate the registry.
Open Registry Editor
- Right-click the “Windows” mark to display a menu, and click “Run” to open “Run”.
- Type regedit in the text box and click OK.
- Click Yes when the User Account Control warning appears.
- It will not be displayed if the User Account Control setting is set to “Never notify”. (Reference: Disable UAC )
When Registry Editor opens, expand the tree by clicking the “>” icon next to the key name.
- 〉HKEY_CURRENT_USER
- 〉Control Panel
and click Desktop .
Edit Registry
Right-click WallPaper and click Modify.
- When the “Edit String” screen appears, change the “Value data”.
- Change the value data to the initial value Path in red below.
C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
The default image is a blue background with a Windows logo on the right side.
Check your entries and click OK to complete editing the registry.
Restart your computer and see if you can now change the image.