Changing Desktop Solid Color Via Registry

Question

does anyone know where in the registry for a user the current solid desktop background color is set?

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered May 11 '11 at 02:41

12

HKCU\Control Panel\Colors\Background

It's a string with a space between the numbers for red/green/blue, for instance for straight blue: "0 0 255"

answered May 11 '11 at 02:41

Shane Madden

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I did it and the value is changing in the registry but the color of the background doesn't, if i tried from the control panel, it will work, any suggestions? – Mousa Alfhaily Sep 10 '17 at 21:36
You need to reload the registry into memory, by restarting windows explorer.exe – not2qubit Dec 20 '18 at 16:34

score 6 · Answer 2 · edited Feb 06 '20 at 22:57

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the command line "reg add" works well. You can also import this registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

; remove picture wallpaper
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"WallPaper"=""

; set RGB = black
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]
"Background"="0 0 0"

edited Feb 06 '20 at 22:57

Tarulia

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answered Dec 04 '19 at 22:12

Dave

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score 3 · Answer 3 · answered Mar 31 '19 at 10:42

You can change the desktop background for a user in the registry.

First remove the wallpaper, if there is one:

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop" /v WallPaper /t REG_SZ /d " " /f

Then set you color. The values are in RGB so for example "255 0 0" would be red.

reg add "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors" /v Background /t REG_SZ /d "0 66 117" /f

daniol · Answer 4 · 2020-01-13T10:31:14.007

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The changes on the registry are not applied immediately.

A better alternative would be to use the windows function SetSysColors in C++.

See this answer: https://stackoverflow.com/a/19849675/3844137

edited Jan 13 '20 at 10:31

answered Sep 14 '17 at 12:08

daniol

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Please note that the question was not about timings of changes. Alse please write the full answer you are giving and link references. – Federico Galli Sep 14 '17 at 12:37

score 1 · Answer 5 · answered May 06 '20 at 00:29

In Windows 10 1809, to set the wallpaper to Solid color: black (0 0 0)

:: BackgroundType: 0 -> Picture | 1 -> Solid color | 2 -> Slideshow
reg add "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers" /v BackgroundType /t REG_DWORD /d 1 /f
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v WallPaper /t REG_SZ /d "" /f
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Colors" /v Background /t REG_SZ /d "0 0 0" /f

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Changing Desktop Solid Color Via Registry

5 Answers5