August 11, 2015
HomeConfiguration ManagerReplacing default wallpaper in Windows 10 using Script/MDT/SCCM

Replacing default wallpaper in Windows 10 using Script/MDT/SCCM

By  Configuration Manager, Windows 10  54 Comments

When deploying Windows 10 one of the most common things you want to do is to modify the default wallpaper. Windows 10 uses different backgrounds depending on the resolution you use. If you use any of the following resolutions, 768 x 1024, 768 x 1366, 1024 x 768, 1200 x 1920, 1366 x 768, 1600 x 2560, 2160 x 3840, 2560 x 1600, 3840 x 2160 the file matching the resolution  in the following folder %Windir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows will be used.
Win10Backgrounds

If the resolution used doesn’t match any of the above resolutions the default background %Windir%\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg will be used instead.

So a script that replaces these files will do the trick, the files however are owned by TrustedInstaller and TrustedInstaller is the only user that has permissions to change it as well.
Win10Backgrounds1

To be able to replace them using a script either in MDT or SCCM we need to take ownership of the files and then change the permissions on them so we can replace them with our own custom background images.

I have created to script that can be used, on old school .cmd file and a Powershell script both works, so you can choose which one you want to use. Place your own custom backgrounds in the 4K folder and the img0.jpg file in the same folder as the script like this.

Win10Backgrounds2

Important to note as well, if you use SCCM to deploy the script the System account will be used, you use MDT you need to change this to Administrators instead for the script to work as the Task Sequence isn’t executed in System context.

Download the script and create a package that can be used by either a “Run Command Line” step or “Run Powershell Script” step in the task sequence.

The .CMD file content:

takeown /f %WinDir%\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg

takeown /f %WinDir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
icacls %WinDir%\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant System:(F)
icacls %WinDir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant System:(F)
del %WinDir%\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
del /q %WinDir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
copy %~dp0img0.jpg %WinDir%\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
copy %~dp04k\*.* %WinDir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows

takeown /f c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant System:(F)
icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant System:(F)
del c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
del /q C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
copy %~dp0img0.jpg c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
copy %~dp04k\*.* C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows


And the Powershell Script:

takeown /f c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant 'System:(F)'
icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant 'System:(F)'
Remove-Item c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
Remove-Item C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
Copy-Item $PSScriptRoot\img0.jpg c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
Copy-Item $PSScriptRoot\4k\*.* C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows

Both scripts can be downloaded here as well in this .zip file.

So why not just change the default background using a GPO for instance? One reason would be that you miss out on the dynamic selection of background that matches your resolution.

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Jörgen Nilsson

54 Comments
  1. Trevor

    If you do this at the WinPE phase of a deployment, you don’t need to change any permissions as you are working with the offline OS. I wrote a blog about that: https://smsagent.wordpress.com/2015/06/16/setting-the-default-windows-wallpaper-during-os-deployment/ 🙂

    Reply
  2. Al

    I wonder if just doing a straight robocopy of a folder which already contains your custom resized images over the top of the current 4k\wallpaper folder would work or be easier?

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      If you copy them i WinPE before the Windows 10 Operating System starts up then the file permissions are not enforced so then it would work.
      /Jörgen

      Reply
  3. Jay Connor

    Have you found it ever using the wrong res? Which may not be noticeable as it stretches the image. I think it might be using 1024 768 during OSD on my test machine atleast.

    To check just go to the properties of c:\windows\web\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg

    Reply
  4. Jay Connor

    Disregard prev post.
    This isn’t working with my build it seems, just defaults to img0.jpg

    Reply
  5. Jay Connor

    Sorry for all the comments, just trying to get how Microsoft is working I think. It seems to be working, just the registry doesn’t match up. It’s stored in C:\Users\%Username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\CachedFiles

    Reply
  6. sharpy

    I attempted to use your option to install at winpe and as such inject powershell capability into the boot image but each time it kept failing when i had to distribute the boot image. I have no idea why. Send me an email if you have any idea but its most frustrating. I’m attemping to use the legacy .cmd method as documented in this blog

    Reply
  7. Isaac

    Would this by chance work in Windows 8.1?

    Reply
  8. Matt

    @Trevor – it doesn’t appear $OSDTargetSystemRoot is a valid variable in MDT per http://www.hayesjupe.com/sccm-and-mdt-list-of-variables/

    your hijacking of this article and suggesting others use your solution rather than a solution offered here that works caused a derailment in at least one person.

    thank you for your help, but please verify your solution meets the needs of the original topic of the article which is “Replacing default wallpaper in Windows 10 using Script/MDT/SCCM”

    Reply
  9. Johan Claesson

    Snyggt Jörgen! 😀
    Jag hade hittat att man skulle byta ut img0.jpg, men inte förstått att man var tvungen att ta över äganderätten utav filerna!
    Jag skall testa! 🙂

    Reply
  10. Jason

    Nice script. I would suggest adding quotes around “%~dp0img0.jpg” and “%~dp04k\*.*” so that if they resolve to a path with spaces, they will work.

    Reply
  11. Ethan

    What do you do for a Surface Pro 3 looking for a resolution of 2160×1440? During WinPE, I have a script that copies my custom background which I named img0_2160x1440.jpeg to %Windir%\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows but it does not automatically set my custom image as the default background?

    Reply
  12. Gerard

    Has anyone got a custom background image to work on a Surface Pro 3? We’ve tried replacing the default img0 and also created one in the 4k folder with the correct resolution but none of these are working for us. Any ideas?

    Reply
  13. Joe

    This works great. Thanks

    Reply
  14. Garvin

    When i run the Powershell script as custom task in MDT i get permission denied to the folder on C:\Windows\Web

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      For MDT you need to change the permissions to grant to Adminstrators instead of System as the MDT Task Sequence is executed as local Administrator and not system.
      /Jörgen

      Reply
      • Nick

        Hi Jorgen, could you please provide more details about how exactly to grant “Administrators” permission on MDT ?
        Thanks

        Reply
  15. Sachin

    Hi Jörgen,
    I have tried this script into powershell but it did not work.
    I get an ” Access to the path is denied” error when it tries to remove-item and copy-item.
    Can you please advice?

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      How did you test it? you must run it under System context like using Psexec because it adds permissions to the files for System.
      /Jörgen

      Reply
  16. Shane

    I can’t get this to work. I set it up exactly as you say (I think) but I just get a black background in the local administrator profile when the task sequence is finished. I see the wallpaper jpegs in the c:\windows\web\wallpaper\windows and c:\windows\web\4k\wallpaper\windows directories but it’s not applying them. The task sequence is a UDI task sequence in SCCM 1606. I’m running it on a blank VM. Any ideas?

    Reply
  17. Jason

    So it works for me, but when my users upgrade from one Windows 10 build to another, my images are replaced.

    Any workarounds?

    Reply
  18. Jason

    So you have to have SCCM to do this?

    Reply
  19. Jason

    What if use a scheduled task that runs this script every time the computer starts up? Is that a potential workaround?

    Reply
  20. Jay

    this works great with a VM but fails on tablets with UEFI? no cdrive. any ideas how to make it work for both bios and UEFI?

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      No Cdrive? which drive do you deploly the OS to?

      /jörgen

      Reply
  21. JagoWu

    On Windows 10 v1607 default Media VL using MDT 8443.
    It appears that the following commands work correctly in the batch file:
    takeown /f c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
    takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*

    The next commands work correctly in the batch file:
    icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant System:(F)
    icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant System:(F)

    The last commands both are failing with “Access is denied”.

    As stated in this article when using MDT it installs using the local administrator account. So change

    icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant System:(F)
    icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant System:(F)

    to

    icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant Administrators:(F)
    icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant Administrators:(F)

    Reply
  22. Colton

    I’m having trouble getting this to work exactly. I have tried both the Powershell script and the command line script but I just get a black background in the local administrator profile when the task sequence completes. I don’t see any wallpaper jpegs in the c:\windows\web\wallpaper\windows but all of the images did get copied to c:\windows\web\4k\wallpaper\windows but it’s not applying them. I’m not sure why the 4K folder copies over without issue but img0.jpg does not, seeing as how they are using the same commands in the script. Any thoughts?

    Reply
    • Graham Riley

      @Colton
      Did you ever figure this out? I want to set a custom 1920 x 1080 default wallpaper and I’ve tried adding it to both folders but I end up with a black screen for all new users.

      Reply
  23. Neil Natic

    So i had the same issues as a few others. I noticed when I RDPed the other day the wallpaper worked but not on the console. HAS to be the resolution. I created a file and named it img0_1920x1080.jpg and it works! So for all of you going through hell to resolve this i hope i made your day easier. I wasted multiple days on it 🙁

    Reply
  24. Jose Espitia

    You can also configure a startup script that will apply a specific wallpaper using the function that I wrote recently.
    http://joseespitia.com/2017/09/15/set-wallpaper-powershell-function/

    Reply
  25. Kurt Mitchell

    So when I try to run these scripts from MDT in WinPE, it fails to find the C:\Windows\Web\ or C:\Window\Web\4k folders. It’s like the paths don’t exist yet. When I try the task after install, say after state restore but before windows updates, it still fails. Any suggestions?

    Reply
  26. v-juanm

    Version without deleting existing images
    TESTED OS Windows 10 version 1709 Build 1629.64
    Use> MDT 8443, and ADK 1709
    Deployment Share F:\W10_1709_Creation
    Images location F:\W10_1709_Creation\Scripts\Wallpaper
    Create new cmd in MDT Custom Group, add a new command, choose your preferred name
    Command line point to our Wallpaper folder inside of scripts folder
    %SCRIPTROOT%\Wallpaper\setwallpaper.cmd

    setwallpaper.cmd contain

    takeown /f C:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
    takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
    icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant Administrator:(F)
    icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant Administrator:(F)
    rename C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg img1.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_1024x768.jpg img1_1024x768.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_1200x1920.jpg img1_1200x1920.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_1366x768.jpg img1_1366x768.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_1600x2560.jpg img1_1600x2560.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_2160x3840.jpg img1_2160x3840.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_2560x1600.jpg img1_2560x1600.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_3840x2160.jpg img1_3840x2160.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_768x1024.jpg img1_768x1024.jpg
    rename C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_768x1366.jpg img1_768x1366.jpg
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0.jpg C:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_1024x768.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_1200x1920.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_1366x768.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_1600x2560.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_2160x3840.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_2560x1600.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_3840x2160.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_768x1024.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\
    xcopy /Q /R /Y img0_768x1366.jpg C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\

    Reply
    • c0nundrummer

      v-juanm

      where are you running the CMD from in your SCCM or MDT task? or anyone else that has had success with this script?

      Reply
    • c0nundrummer

      v-juanm

      where are you running the script in your SCCM or MDT task sequence? or anyone else that has had success in deploying the wallpapers with this script? what about the lockscreen?

      Thanks,
      Josh

      Reply
  27. MelQ

    Shouldn’t ownership and permissions be returned to normal on those files when done? Or, since they are just wallpaper files, are you not concerning yourself with that?

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      As it is only background pictures and still restricted to System, I thought it was ok.
      regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
      • Lucian

        Hi,
        This works to a certain extent for us. Both 4k images and C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper\Windows image get copied correctly; however, the only images that gets applied is img0, the ones in the 4k folder are being ignored. Do you have any thoughts of why that is? Thank you for posting this!

        Best,
        Lucian

        Reply
  28. Richard Grant

    We use this method, but now finding out when we install a feature update (1709 in our case) the wallpaper is replaced with the default Windows wallpaper again. Anyone else experienced this issue?

    Reply
  29. Roland

    yes, you have to re-run the replacement

    Reply
  30. Roland

    looks like as Windows doesn’t like that approach.
    When you run a sfc /scannow, it will restore the original files:
    00004d2c [SR] Repairing corrupted file \??\C:\WINDOWS\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\img0_1366x768.jpg from store

    anyone has an idea how to fix that?

    Reply
  31. Jason

    From where do the scripts run? On the GM to be captured?
    Thanks

    Reply
  32. Timothy

    FYI, Just Delete the c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg ,
    Do not replace it. It will auto recreate itself from one of the default wallpapers in C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows that you replaced. To enforce the new wallpaper, point your policy to the c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg

    If doing this after the OSD,
    Run As System (psexec -I -s cmd.exe)
    takeown /f c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
    takeown /f C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
    icacls c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg /Grant System:(F)
    icacls C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.* /Grant System:(F)
    del c:\windows\WEB\wallpaper\Windows\img0.jpg
    del /q C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows\*.*
    copy %~dp04k\*.* C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows

    Reply
  33. Jeremy

    The script used to change Wallpaper doesn’t work as wanted for me (W10 1709).
    The default wallpapers are correctly removed and mine is copied. But on first boot, it’s still the default one which is displayed .. Even with another reboot.

    Otherwise, in the personnalize menu, i only see my wallpaper, but it doesn’t apply automatically.

    Have you already encountered this issue ? How can I resolve it ?

    Thanks

    Reply
    • Alterator

      I am having the exact same problem, with a new 1803 image. Img0 is replaced, and in Personalization, it says it is the selected image. But the actual wallpaper is the Windows 10 default. This was working well in 1703 for me.

      Reply
    • Tim

      same. This worked well in v1607, but I recently upgraded my image to 1709 and I’m seeing the same behavior

      Reply
  34. Oliver

    Is there a way to use this method to apply a TILED image regardless of resolution it picks?

    Reply
  35. Arjen

    if you use a new installation just add a folder named $OEM$ and place it in the Sources folder of Windows. Add another folder below that named $1, $1 means the Windows partition.
    Finish the folder structure like this USB-Drive\Sources\$OEM$\$1\Windows\web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows and place your custom wallpapers there. Don’t forget the folder for the img0.jpg file.
    During installation they will replace the default images without the need for scripting or file ownership or taking away user functions

    Reply
  36. Nick

    Hi Jorgen,
    I am little confused about the location of the script and img.0 and 4K folder on MDT. Where exactly to copied and TS location.
    I am trying this script and the deployment finished with errors and no background changed on Win 1803.

    Reply
  37. Jesse

    Hi Jorgen,

    I’ve been able to get your script working fine – if I run it from an elevated PowerShell prompt. However, during imaging (Placed in my SCCM TS as the very last step) the script fails. Any recommendations?

    Reply
    • Jörgen Nilsson

      Hi,
      It shouldn’t be working from an elevated command prompt as that will run it as local admin the script is made for running under System Context to be used in SCCM..
      It works great for me.. but it must use SYSTEM in the script for it to work in SCCM.
      Regards,
      Jörgen

      Reply
  38. Neil Clinch

    to run the script as the system account use
    psexe.exe -s -i cmd.exe
    or
    psexec.exe -s -i powershell
    you will get a cmd prompt or powershell windows that are running as system. execute the script and all is well.
    Thanks Jörgen for this post

    Reply

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