Folder Backgrounds

[integer]

Is it possible to change folder backgrounds with my own image or just simply change the color?

[Tinker]

Start>Control Panel>Display>Appearance>Advanced>

Under the Item drop down bar select Window and change Color 1 to what you want for the background color in all windows.

[integer]

If you wanna present someone a folder with background, you have to put the bitmap in the folder (make it hidden). Then change this line to look like "IconArea_Image=.\xx.xxx". This won't survive a 'zip' (the read-only attribute of the folder gets lost).

The image you apply is repeated on the icon area, and there is no way to center or align it. To produce a similar effect use an about 500*600 image and align your image inside it, because your folder size isn't changing very much when browsing.

Background Wizard (free, all versions) lets you put a background to a bunch of folder windows at once, can even do a whole drive. Painless, cool application! But it doesn't make a backup of your existing desktop.ini files.

Windows XP changes stuff (again) - it lacks the options to apply a picture/textcolor, and to apply a webview in the "customize this folder" wizard. What you have to do:

create a desktop.ini file in the folder (new textfile, afterwards rename), containing the lines:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

Attributes=1

IconArea_Image=BGPATH

IconArea_Text=0x00RRGGBB

...replacing BGPATH and RRGGBB (text color).

give the folder a 'system' attribute. The simplest way is the msdos command line, type "attrib", your folder path in quotes and then +s, like this:

attrib "c:\folder\path" +s

. Or you could use PropertiesPlus, or even XP (that's long tho): change the folder icon (this will create a desktop.ini file and set the folder to system), then edit this desktop.ini file replacing its content.

Also, you could restore the old version of the customize wizard (thank you Redhades for this one) - now working from a folders rightclick menu. For that, you'll need a copy of ieshwiz.exe from an older Windows version. Put that in /windows/system32/ and copy this text into a textfile, give it a .reg extension, doubleclick to import in registry:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\customize]

@="Customize Wizard"

[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\customize\command]

@="ieshwiz.exe %1"

Both .exe (English version) and regfile are here (22 kB). If you need the file in your own language, maybe you've got it on a cd somewhere. Some IE installations (sometimes even IE6), got the file in "ie4shlnt.cab" - you get the old 98 version (on a 98 cd, find it in WIN98_40.CAB). Win2k got a later version (no way to extract properly from the cd), Me has the latest (on the Me cd, WIN_16.CAB).

Webview Installer (free, Win XP) can apply any desktop.ini to a folder and it's subfolders while renaming the old ones, you can use it to apply webviews and window backgrounds.

- thx2 VP