How could I find out the path to the current desktop image?
Solution 1:
I am not sure if this works on every version of Windows 7 but on my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit it does. I also did not test this out when changing themes. If I manually changed the background picture or select a folder of pictures to slideshow through then the registry value that I query below seems to always be updated with the path to the current image.
There are several ways to make this better (like automatically opening Windows Explorer to the folder the picture is in or launching the picture directly) but this could get you started.
I created a batch file on my Desktop named path2pic.bat and had the following code in there:
@echo off
echo.
echo The path to the current Desktop background image is:
echo.
echo.
REG QUERY "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General" /v WallpaperSource
echo.
echo.
pause
exit
Then I created a shortcut to the batch file, assigned a Shortcut Key like Ctrl+Shift+P to it, and any time I want to know the path to the image I press the Shortkut Keys and the batch file shows me the path.
Solution 2:
The path to the current Wallpaper is located in the following register key:
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\Wallpaper
Open the start menu and in the search box, type "regedit". Navigate to the above key throught the registry explorer on the left. When you single click the "Desktop" folder, at the right, a list with keys will be displayed. Look for the one that's titled "Wallpaper". The value will be the location of the current wallpaper.
Solution 3:
Here's a solution that locates the current wallpaper and show it in Windows Explorer:
How to Add “Desktop Background File Location” Option to Desktop Right-Click Menu in Windows 7 http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/desktop-background-file-location-right-click-menu-windows-7/
Solution 4:
copy "C:\Users\test\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper" to image.jpg
'test' is your user name, image.jpg is the current image in the slide.