CODEWITHSUNDEEP
pythonbackgrounddesktop
Ben L
Ben L

Reputation: 783

Changing desktop background with Python

I've been tring to change the desktop background using Python 2.7 : 

SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 20
ctypes.windll.user32.SystemParametersInfoA(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, pngName, 0)

( While pngName is a valid path to an image )

When I run the script nothing changes, and when I try it with a different image it works just fine.

Any suggestions?

p.s. can someone please explain how that script works? I've taken it from somewhere and don't quite understand it.

Thanks!

Upvotes: 1

Views: 1265

Answers (1)

vrs
vrs

Reputation: 1982

Instead of using png files (I believe you're using them, given the variable name for image paths is pngName), try jpg. It seems that MS Windows doesn't support png as a background image format (As a Linux/Mac user, I cannot confirm it myself, but see this discussion for more details).

Regarding how your script works, I can briefly say that it uses ctypes Python package that allows you to call functions in dlls/shared libraries such as SystemParametersInfo. SystemParametersInfo (see MSDN page) retrieves/sets values of some system-wide parameters, including setting Desktop parameters like wallpaper file. See Example Three here for more insights.

Upvotes: 1

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