How to Fix: Can’t Change Desktop Wallpaper on Windows 10

Do you have problems changing the desktop wallpaper of your Windows 10 PC?

Well here is the solution!

Changing wallpapers is easy, right?

But what if when you right-click on an image and choose “Set as Wallpaper” nothing changes?

And sometimes even the Settings app won’t let you change the wallpaper. This is due to some issues we are going to show you how to fix in this tutorial.

This problem can be caused when having the option “Remove background images” enabled in Ease of Access Center or because of other reasons we are going to fix in this guide.

This is the kind of message you may encounter when trying to change the Background/Wallpaper in the Settings App: *Some of these settings are hidden or managed by your organization.

1. Fix Black Background with Ease of Access Center

Open Start menu and search for Control Panel.

Click on “Ease of Access Center“.

Click on “Make the computer easier to see“.

Scroll down and uncheck “Remove background images (where available)” and click “Apply” then “OK“.

2. Fix Wallpaper in Group Policy Editor

Open Run (Windows+R) and type in gpedit.msc, click “OK“.

Navigate to: User Configuration > Administrative Templates > Control Panel > Personalization.

Double-click on “Prevent changing desktop background“.

Choose Not Configured or Disabled. Click “OK” button.

Changes are immediate, so you don’t need to restart.

3. Disable “Active Desktop” in the Registry Editor

Open Run using Windows+R keyboard combination and type in “regedit“, click “OK“.

Follow this path in the Registry Editor.

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\ActiveDesktop

Modify the value NoChangingWallpaper.

Put the value 0, click “OK” button.

4. Check Power Options to Fix Background SlideShow

If you have a slideshow that is not working properly this may fix the problem.

Right-click on Start and choose “Power Options“.

Click “Additional power settings“.

Click on “Change plan settings“.

Click on “Change advanced power settings“.

Go to “Desktop background settings” > “Slide show” and put in “Available“. Click “OK“.

If you are using a laptop you will see “On battery” and “Plugged in” options, set them both to “Available“.

5. TranscodedWallpaper File Corrupted Fix

Sometimes the file “TranscodedWallpaper” gets corrupted and will cause the wallpapers not to work as expected.

Open Run using Windows+R keyboard combination and enter the following path:

%USERPROFILE%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\

Rename the file TranscodedWallpaper to TranscodedWallpaper.old.

Empty the file slideshow.ini.

This will reset the slideshow wallpaper.

I hope this tutorial helped you fix the wallpaper problem under Windows 10.

Please share this tutorial with your friends! Thanks a lot!