Changing Background for user account during setup

[EOTB]

Hi Guys,

I have got quite far in my quest for an unattended network build of vista, but I have got to the point of configuring bits for the desktop and come across this issue. I have seen a lot of issues with backgrounds being reset to black etc, but nothing this specific.

Just a note which may affect the below: I noticed when I was installing Vista manually from the CD, on changing the background from the standard image to a specific color (10 59 118), it changes OK until you reboot. It then set it black. If you change it again and then reboot it is OK from then on.

OK, setting the color during the Vista Setup... I started by entering in the autoaunattend.xml file under the FirstLogonCommands entering registry entries which I have copied into the WIM, eg: regedit /s c:\source\reg\Background.reg

The background.reg file consisted of (which was taken by comparing before and after registery exports for changes):

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Colors]
"Background"="10 59 118"

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]
"WallPaper"=""

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General]
"Wallpaper"=""
"BackupWallpaper"=""

This didn't work, even after a reboot. Other registry imports worked OK using the same method. I have also tried directly editing the NTUSER.DAT in the Default User profile in the WIM image and making the above changes, and this also didn't work. In both cases, the normal background picture stays intact.

Does anyone know if there is a way of changing the background during the unattended setup??

[iamtheky]

open paint, paint the whole canvas the color you want. Save it in the same format (and name) as the default image.

replace the 'default image' with your new solid color background and let windows install your background by default instead?

Edited January 30, 2009 by iamtheky

[EOTB]

Thanks for the reply.

I have thought of doing this as a last resort - I am testing now to make sure that I can change the registry to tile the image.

I was hoping for a way of making the background that specific colour, rather than modifying the image, as you must agree it is a bit of a bodge job - especially for our customer’s machines. I can't believe that Microsoft would have limited the ability of changing this during setup.

Edited February 2, 2009 by EOTB