Networknet.nl Blog

If you using a OEM Windows installation often there will be a wallpaper set when you login from the console or with Remote Desktop services. For me this is annoying when using RDP session as it is slow to render the wallpaper bitmaps over the internet connection or WAN.

I prefer the disable this.

Example

Open RegEdit and navigate to HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop and check Wallpaper key. To disable the wallpaper just delete this or use a script.

reg delete "HKEY_USERS\.DEFAULT\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper /f

If you are managing Dell servers with OEM installation than there is also the large bitmap wallpaper and using the script above will disable it.

If you manage multiple computer systems than BgInfo tool from Microsoft (formal SysInternals) is the right tool to display relevant computer information (CPU,Hostname, IP/DNS/DHCP/Default Gateway, Memory,Disk,etc.)  of the system. I am using this tool on all my virtual and physical host machines to identify what kind of system I am logged on. You can implement different background colors and identify type of machine your are working on. For example use RED for physical host machines; BLUE for virtual machines and YELLOW for lab machines. Couple years ago I also implemented this tool and used the corporate wallpaper on 500+ desktop clients; we also included the numbers of helpdesk and other important information.

Picture 1. BgInfo Netowknet Wallpaper

Below I will summarize 10 steps how to download, configure and prepare your system with Networknet BgInfo template.

1. Download the tool from Microsoft website here; open the the zip file
2. Copy BgInfo.exe to C:\Windows
3. Run BgInfo.exe to register the .bgi extentions
4. Download my Bgi file from http://www.networknet.nl/apps/content/Networknet.bgi
5. Open Networknet.bgi file and modify if needed; save the file to C:\Windows like bginfo.bgi
6. Right click BgInfo.exe and select “Create Shortcut”
7. Right click the BgInfo.exe – Shortcut and change the target to C:\Windows\Bginfo.exe c:\windows\bginfo.bgi /timer:0; click OK
8. Copy the shortcut
9. Goto C:\ProgramData\Microsoft\Windows\Start Menu\Programs\Startup
10. Paste the shortcut