BGINFO & Desktop Wallpaper

[Manny-Tech]

Hi

 

We are currently using the GPO to set the Desktop Wallpaper however this doesn't allow changes to the wallpaper at all, including the BGINFO variables I like to display. How are others getting around this? I tried embedding the desktop background into the BGINFO file but it only brings through the colour of the wallpaper and not the logo. The next place I was thinking of exploring is setting the wallpaper with GPP and hoping that wouldn't be enforced and stop BGINFO overwriting onto it.

 

Any help would be much appreciated, I'm pulling my hair out over this one.

 

Thanks

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Hi

We use BGinfo on Windows 10. Has to disable the force a walllpaper and set BGinfo to run as a logon script instead. Had loads of trouble getting it to work at first but it seems fine now. We have the BGinfo and wallpaper saved locally on clients using group policy preferences.

[gshaw]

GPP to push down background

Script to detect resolution and run either a widescreen or 4:3 command for BGInfo, runs via GPO > System > Run these programs at user logon

GPO to disable changing background or login screen wallpaper

 

Works like a charm

[LeMarchand]

Hi

We use BGinfo on Windows 10. Has to disable the force a walllpaper and set BGinfo to run as a logon script instead. Had loads of trouble getting it to work at first but it seems fine now. We have the BGinfo and wallpaper saved locally on clients using group policy preferences.

 

Another vote for this. I'd subscribed to this and forgot to check what we're doing - which is basically the above.

[Manny-Tech]

Another vote for this. I'd subscribed to this and forgot to check what we're doing - which is basically the above.

 

I went with this option and it seems to be working. Though I do have the odd few that appear to sometimes just give the default Windows 10 background, if I logout and back in again it's fine. Bit of an odd one. Anyone come across that?

[LeMarchand]

I went with this option and it seems to be working. Though I do have the odd few that appear to sometimes just give the default Windows 10 background, if I logout and back in again it's fine. Bit of an odd one. Anyone come across that?

 

I've noticed ours sometimes get BGInfo but not the wallpaper, but our wallpaper is stored on the network so I've always put it down to 3o+ kids logging on at once, Maybe I should copy it locally and check. Maybe one day...

[Jobos]

BGInfo here too using the standard win10 blue smokey background called from a vbs script. This allows for different wallpapers on special days so in October I set the script to have different wallpapers Halloween, Guy Fawkes Night, Children in Need, Remembrance Day and a different wallpaper each day for the last two weeks before Christmas. If it’s not a special day it defaults to the standard blue wallpaper so set and forget. I just need to change the dates in the script before next autumn.

[DJ-1701]

I use powershell...

Boot and Logon wallpaper generation using PowerShell. - Blogs - EduGeek.net

[Manny-Tech]

Hi

We use BGinfo on Windows 10. Has to disable the force a walllpaper and set BGinfo to run as a logon script instead. Had loads of trouble getting it to work at first but it seems fine now. We have the BGinfo and wallpaper saved locally on clients using group policy preferences.

@jthornton1605 what GPPs are you setting? I'm still getting a lot of clients not applying the background at first logon with the bginfo file. Is there a way to set it in the registry and then apply the bginfo over the top?

[HereIGoAgain2601]

Hi, sorry only just seen your message. We apply 4 group policy file copy from the DC to local machine to copy files as below:

 

Wallpaper to C:\Support folder

BGInfo.exe to a folder on C:\ProgramFiles

BGI file to set the settings for BGInfo to same folder on ProgramFiles

We also place a shortcut in here that points to the EXE on C C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\StartUp\BGInfo-Local.lnk

 

If we need to update the wallpaper or item level target it for departments etc we can do this all from one policy. Applies every time without fail and also on local user accounts which can be nice if people are logging in locally on laptops for example.

 

Thanks

[Manny-Tech]

I found that in some cases BGInfo was running before the profile was fully created so I added a timeout to my script to delay it by 5 seconds which seems to have solved all my problems!

[Planehazza]

Bumping an old thread, as we're trying to get BGInfo running again after a few years without it. If you disable the 'Desktop Wallpaper' GPO, how do you prevent users (naughty children) from changing it?

 

I have the same issue as OP. Wallpaper is set via user based GPO, but this is stopping BGInfo from changing the wallpaper. I can confim that BGInfo is infact running as it is allowed in AppLocker logs and I can manually run it from a desktop icon as the test user. However, hitting apply doesn't actually change the wallpaper or show the text. Turning off that GPO allows it to run, but then anyone chance right click an image and 'set as wallpaper'

Edited August 17, 2021 by Planehazza

[Guest Guest]

Bumping an old thread, as we're trying to get BGInfo running again after a few years without it. If you disable the 'Desktop Wallpaper' GPO, how do you prevent users (naughty children) from changing it?

 

I have the same issue as OP. Wallpaper is set via user based GPO, but this is stopping BGInfo from changing the wallpaper. I can confim that BGInfo is infact running as it is allowed in AppLocker logs and I can manually run it from a desktop icon as the test user. However, hitting apply doesn't actually change the wallpaper or show the text. Turning off that GPO allows it to run, but then anyone chance right click an image and 'set as wallpaper'

We use desktop info, it runs an application which overlays the required info on the desktop, as it doesn't modify the wallpaper no changes to GP are required.

 

It also has the benefit of updating in realtime so ram usage etc can be reported on accurately

 

https://www.glenn.delahoy.com/desktopinfo/

[KeepLearning]

Has anyone figured out how to use BGinfo to overlay the wallpaper that is also set by Active Directory Group Policy? If I set the wallpaper via GPO then BGinfo does not show up. If I turn off the GPO setting then it works. I am late to the party and know this thread is pretty old. I'm running Windows server 2019 and Windows 10 with both AD forest and domain at 2016. Thank you in advance!

[Jobos]

Have you tried delaying Bginfo until GP has been applied?

[Rob_D]

Running BG info using a shortcut in the Shell:startup folder works for us. And has since the XP days.

[KeepLearning]

Yes I did. I also decided to apply the wallpaper from the local group policy instead of the Domain GPO. The local policy applies fast and you can see the temporary command window fire the logon script via the AD GPO but it will not add the BGinfo data to the desktop wallpaper.

[Rob_D]

I've always had very mixed results trying to double duty GPO and BGinfo. Using BGI to set the image has been much more reliable for me. I'm assuming the GPO is dropping the image somewhere and BGI accessing/editing the image. This means the both the system account that the GPO is being processed under and the user account that BGI is probably running in both need write access to where'ever the background image is being saved to. Which can all be very tricky when temp folders are involved.

 

Just have BGI pull the wallpaper image from a network share the user has read access to. It's way easier.

[Jobos]

Here is my script that sets the wallpaper for different events throughout the year.

 

Using BGInfo make the .bgi file and save it somewhere, then call GBInfo telling it when the .bgi file is. You will need a different .bgi file for each wallpaper.

 

As you can see some code is commented out because the students made a different wallpaper for each month but they lost interest so it stopped but I kept the code just in case.

 

 

 

Option Explicit

On Error Resume next

'wscript.sleep 30000


Dim iReturn, Min, max, objShell, image, Month, Wallpaper

set objShell = wscript.createObject("wscript.shell")


'Set default wallpaper
Wallpaper="c:\WINDOWS\BGInfo\Bginfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Wallpapers\Win10.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


' Months Wallpaper goes here ---------------------------------------------
'Select Case (datepart("m",now())) 'Just select the month


'Case "5"
'	Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Months\May.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"

'Case "6"
'	Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Months\June.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


'End Select
' Months Wallpaper END ---------------------------------------------



Select Case Left(Date,5) 'Select day and month and change the wallpaper if required

Case "03/02" 'Maths Day
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\MathsDay\MathsDay.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "17/03" 'Red Nose
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\RedNose\RedNose.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "13/10" 'Hello Yellow
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\HelloYellow\HelloYellow.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "31/10" 'Halloween
max=5
min=1
Randomize
image=(Int((max-min+1)*Rnd+min))
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Halloween\halloween-wallpaper-" + CStr(image) + ".bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "03/11" 'Fireworks
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Fireworks\Firework-wallpaper.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "10/11" 'Remembrance
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Remembrance\Remembrance-wallpaper.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"




Case "13/11" 'Odd Sock Day
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Odd-Sock\Odd-Sock.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"

Case "14/11","15/11","16/11" 'Anti-Bullying
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Anti-Bullying\Anti-Bullying-wallpaper.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "17/11" 'Pudsey
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Pudsey\Pudsey-wallpaper.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"




'Christmas starts	
Case "10/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\A.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "11/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\B.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "12/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\C.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "13/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\D.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "14/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\E.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


'------ Week 2 -----

Case "15/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\F.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "18/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\G.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "19/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\H.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "20/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\I.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


Case "21/12"
Wallpaper="C:\Windows\BGInfo\BGInfo.exe \\school.leicester.sch.uk\SYSVOL\school.leicester.sch.uk\scripts\BGInfo\Christmas\J.bgi /NOLICPROMPT /timer:0"


'-------------	

'Christmas ends	


End Select



iReturn = objShell.Run(Wallpaper, 1, TRUE)


objShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\WallpaperStyle","2"
objShell.RegWrite "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop\TileWallpaper","0"