Disabling the Ability to change the desktop wallpaper

[Cyber Axe]

I Administer a load of computers at a place I volunteer that all run windows XP Home, but one annoying thing keeps happening, people (well ok one person) has managed to get around all my blocks (disabling of the desktop properties and so forth) and can change the wallpaper.

I believe she does it in internet explorer (which I thought I had managed to disable), and it’s annoying resetting it back to the one I want as I have to log out of the guest account log into the admin account disable the restrictions on the desktop so I can go back to guest and change it then put all the restrictions back again.

I do have the ability of removing the right click menu from IE however that is not an option as the users need the ability to save images and such from time to time.

Does anyone know of a way to remove the ability to set image as wallpaper in IE? Or does anyone know if it’s possible to set a desktop theme from the command line? Then I might be able to set it to the theme I want at start-up.

Thanks

[PC_LOAD_LETTER]

this should do the trick

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]
"NoChangingWallpaper"=dword:00000001

i assume you already have these 2:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoDispBackgroundPage"=dword:00000001

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoThemesTab"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
DisableRegistryTools=dword:00000001

if the 'set as wallpaper thing still works you can try setting the wallpaper using IE then denying write access to the file to the user (be sure to leave write turned on for another user)

C:\Documents and Settings\username\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Internet Explorer Wallpaper.bmp

if i remember right it gives the good ol' "Access Denied" dialog when they try to set a wallpaper

as for your logging in/out dilemma, just create 2 .reg files and save them somewhere the user doesnt know about (pen drive or network drive but you can hide them in the windows folder if you have to )

locksoff.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]
"NoChangingWallpaper"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoDispBackgroundPage"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoThemesTab"=dword:00000000
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
DisableRegistryTools=dword:00000000

make your changes and then run:

lockson.reg

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop]
"NoChangingWallpaper"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
"NoDispBackgroundPage"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer]
"NoThemesTab"=dword:00000001
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\System]
DisableRegistryTools=dword:00000001

if these are public access computers SteadyState (free) will save you a ton of time or if your place has a budget and/or a lot of PCs to manage i recommend Deepfreeze itll make you machines just about userproof. if they screw anything up just reboot 'em and its fixed (Deepfreeze Enterprise will even let you reboot remotely -really p***es 'em off but its so much fun)

[Idontwantspam]

By the way, you don't need to pay for software to remotely reboot a machine.

shutdown.exe -m \\computername -s -t 30 -c "Hahahaha sucker"

[Cyber Axe]

Thanks for the replies, will try them out on mnday (as i'm only there monday and tuseday) wish i knew about SteadyState sooner, i've been using a trial of 1st security agent to do what SteadyState seems to do for free (i've downloaded it but not looked at it yet in detail)

Though most likley wont be able to use DeepFreeze as there si no budget whatsoever for PC stuff (charity funded everythng donated)

Thanks