"Disable Change Wallpaper" Policy Does Not Prevent All Wallpaper Changes

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This article was previously published under Q280687

SYMPTOMS

Setting the "Disable changing wallpaper" policy does not prevent all means of changing the desktop wallpaper. To set this policy, start Microsoft Management Console (MMC), and then open the following items:

Local Computer Policy
User Configuration
Administrative Templates
Control Panel
Display

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CAUSE

When you enable the "Disable changing wallpaper" policy, the options on the Background tab in Display properties are disabled. This setting does not disable other methods of changing the wallpaper. The location of the policy suggests that only the Display tool in Control Panel is affected. The description of this policy in MMC includes the following text:

"By default, users can use the Background tab of Display in Control Panel to add a background design (wallpaper) to their desktop. If you enable this policy, the Background tab still appears, but all options on the tab are disabled."

There is no policy in Windows 2000 to globally disable changing the wallpaper.

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RESOLUTION

Service Pack Information

To resolve this problem, obtain the latest service pack for Microsoft Windows 2000. For additional information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:

260910 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/260910/EN-US/ ) How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

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Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is available from Microsoft. However, this hotfix is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply this hotfix only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

If the hotfix is available for download, there is a "Hotfix download available" section at the top of this Knowledge Base article. If this section does not appear, submit a request to Microsoft Customer Service and Support to obtain the hotfix.

Note If additional issues occur or if any troubleshooting is required, you might have to create a separate service request. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for this specific hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Customer Service and Support telephone numbers or to create a separate service request, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support (http://support.microsoft.com/contactus/?ws=support)

Note The "Hotfix download available" form displays the languages for which the hotfix is available. If you do not see your language, it is because a hotfix is not available for that language. The English version of this fix should have the following file attributes or later:

   Date         Time   Version         Size     File name
   --------------------------------------------------------
   19-May-2002  14:31  5.00.2195.5812  319,760  Mspaint.exe

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WORKAROUND

To work around this behavior, you can set the security on the registry entry in the registry so that users cannot write to it. However, programs that write to the registry may be able to change the security and write to the registry entry.

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Microsoft has confirmed that this is a problem in the Microsoft products that are listed at the beginning of this article. This problem was first corrected in Microsoft Windows 2000 Service Pack 4.

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