How we can allow users to select multiple wallpapers from their laptops, need to implement it through Active Directory GPO.

Question

We want to allow users to select any wallpaper from the given images. How to achieve this from Active Directory Group policy.

Answer 1

Hello,

To allow users to select multiple wallpapers from their laptops and manage this through Active Directory Group Policy (GPO), you can use a combination of GPO settings and folder redirection or script-based approaches. However, Windows does not natively support rotating multiple wallpapers using GPO directly. Instead, you can achieve this functionality with the following approach:

1. Allow Users to Change Desktop Background

• Ensure that users have permission to change their desktop backgrounds. This is controlled via a GPO setting:
  • Navigate to User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization.
  • Set Prevent changing desktop background to Disabled.

2. Deploy a Wallpaper Folder

• Create a shared folder on a server where users can access multiple wallpapers.
• Use folder redirection or a logon script to copy or map this folder to users' local machines.

3. Custom Script for Wallpaper Rotation

• You can deploy a PowerShell script via GPO that rotates wallpapers at a set interval:

powershellCopy code
$wallpapers = Get-ChildItem "C:\Wallpapers"
foreach ($wallpaper in $wallpapers) {
    Set-ItemProperty -Path 'HKCU:\Control Panel\Desktop\' -Name wallpaper -Value $wallpaper.FullName
    rundll32.exe user32.dll, UpdatePerUserSystemParameters
    Start-Sleep -Seconds 600  # Change wallpaper every 10 minutes
}

• You can deploy this script through a scheduled task or a GPO startup script.

4. GPO Settings for Wallpaper

• If you want to enforce a specific wallpaper, you can set it via:
  • User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Desktop > Desktop > Desktop Wallpaper.
  • Set the path to the desired wallpaper.

Thanks