[question/enhancement] Can it set the logon desktop background?

[scottcopus]

Proposed tags: question/enhancement

Sysinternals BGInfo can supposedly set various 'logon' desktop backgrounds too. However, I've not had any luck with it though. Can PowerBGInfo do this?

cheers,
Scott

[PrzemyslawKlys]

At the moment it can't do that, but I saw some PowerShell code to set Logon Desktop Background. Would need to see if it works, if so there's no reason why this couldn't work.

[scottcopus]

Would love to see this get added! I'm thinking this may require elevation and a good way to elegantly ask for elevation. But in my case, I'd probably be running it with admin/system permissions anyway, so it's a moot point--at least for me.

BTW, I've not used it yet, but I'm assuming that the normal use case of modifying my own user backgrounds doesn't require elevation anyway?

[PrzemyslawKlys]

No it doesn't. But the logon screen will.

[Cool34000]

Hi,

PowerBGInfo creates a file based on the name of your wallpaper.
Let's say that you use these options:

• FilePath is C:\Wallpaper.png
• ConfigurationDirectory is C:\PowerBGInfo
  Then the generated wallpaper will be C:\PowerBGInfo\Wallpaper_PowerBgInfo.png

So you can use that file to make it your logon wallpaper.
You'll have to make a Computer GPO or a task that runs before you open your session.
Here's a PS script to do that (must be run with Admin privs as it modifies HKLM):

$LockScreenImage = "C:\PowerBGInfo\Wallpaper_PowerBgInfo.png"
$RegKeyPath      = "HKLM:\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\PersonalizationCSP"
New-Item -Path $RegKeyPath -Force | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegKeyPath -Name LockScreenImageStatus -Value 1                -PropertyType DWORD  -Force | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegKeyPath -Name LockScreenImagePath   -Value $LockScreenImage -PropertyType STRING -Force | Out-Null
New-ItemProperty -Path $RegKeyPath -Name LockScreenImageUrl    -Value $LockScreenImage -PropertyType STRING -Force | Out-Null
RUNDLL32.EXE USER32.DLL, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters 1, True

Works on Windows 10, 11, 2016, 2019, 2022 and 2025.
But there are some limitations that you must be aware of: as the user is not logged in at the time that the script runs you won't be able to print infos like "BuiltinValue FullUserName"