"Disable Change Wallpaper" Policy Does Not Prevent All Wallpaper Changes (280687)


The information in this article applies to:

  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Advanced Server
  • Microsoft Windows 2000 Professional
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

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.

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 How to Obtain the Latest Windows 2000 Service Pack

Hotfix Information

A supported hotfix is now available from Microsoft, but it is only intended to correct the problem that this article describes. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.

To resolve this problem, contact Microsoft Product Support Services to obtain the hotfix. For a complete list of Microsoft Product Support Services telephone numbers and information about support costs, visit the following Microsoft Web site:

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

Note In special cases, charges that are ordinarily incurred for support calls may be canceled if a Microsoft Support Professional determines that a specific update will resolve your problem. The usual support costs will apply to additional support questions and issues that do not qualify for the specific update in question.

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

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.
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.
Modification Type:MinorLast Reviewed:10/18/2005
Keywords:kbHotfixServer kbQFE kbWin2kSP4fix kbenv kbfix kbprb kbQFE KB280687
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