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

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6 Answers 6

Reset to default
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"

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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, 2017 at 21:36
  • You need to reload the registry into memory, by restarting windows explorer.exe
    – not2qubit
    Dec 20, 2018 at 16:34
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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"
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4

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
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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

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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, 2017 at 12:37
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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

Must logoff and login back to apply.

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0

I changed my HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors settings and later wanted to revert back to the original settings, but couldn't find the default colour codes. In case anyone finds it useful, here is a screenshot I made from another system showing the default colour values:

HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\Colors showing default values

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