Changing Windows 7 Wallpaper Remotely

Question

I am trying to remotely change the wallpaper on about 50 computers that are running Win 7 in a WORKGROUP environment.

I have local admin rights to all of them plus they are running an agent (Faronics) that lets me push .bat .exe .msi .vbs and .ps1 to them remotely.

Just wondering if there was any application that lets me do that remotely or if not, what is the easiest way to get my image to these machines and set it as default wallpaper?

Solution 1

The wallpaper that Windows uses is in the registry under the HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper key

you just can change it with the REG command.

See REG /? and then try...

reg query "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper

and

reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper /t REG_SZ /d D:\my.bmp /f

Solution 2

Replacing the file in the following path C:\Users\[user name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg is hit or miss depending upon the other desktop background settings shown on the GUI and file type.

I have been able to successfully replace the file with another .jpg file renamed TranscodedWallpaper.jpg and put in its place but the Desktop doesn't just update by itself.

You have to force it with the Rundll32.exe user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters command.

This is also hit or miss. I have had it work several times correctly while physically on the computer but cannot get the computer to do the same remotely.

Still working on a 100% working remote solution to fully answer the question.

Comments

[John Doe]

The regedit key shows the following path C:\Users\Admin\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\Tran‌​scodedWallpaper.jpg - can I simply replace the TranscodedWallpaper.jpg with my own image instead of messing with the registry?

[PA.]

replacing the filename in the key is messing with the registry

[Renats Stozkovs]

This is already answered and your answer is not very specific anyway