Where does Windows store its current wallpaper?

Question

I created an image for a desktop wallpaper and set the image directly in Windows (not from a browser). However, the image file I made is no longer on my computer, but the wallpaper is still there. How can I retrieve this wallpaper? It has to load from somewhere.

Possible duplicate of [Where does Windows store its wallpapers?](http://superuser.com/questions/304801/where-does-windows-store-its-wallpapers), [How can I find the file that is currently used as a wallpaper in Windows 7?](http://superuser.com/questions/173397/how-can-i-find-the-file-that-is-currently-used-as-a-wallpaper-in-windows-7), [Custom Windows 7 wallpapers location](http://superuser.com/questions/245930/custom-windows-7-wallpapers-location), [How could I find out the path to the current desktop image, for Windows 8](http://superuser.com/questions/507571/how-could-i-find-out-the-pa) ... — Karan, Jul 18 '13 at 01:05

score 57 · Accepted Answer · edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

57

Windows XP (Reference):

You can find the actual path in the registry key named Wallpaper at [HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop]

Usually it's something like:

C:\Documents and Settings\ [YOURUSERNAME] \Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Wallpaper1.bmp

Windows 7 (Reference):

C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper (default themes)

C:\Users\ [YOURUSERNAME] \AppData\Local\Microsoft\Windows\Themes ( any new themes that you might have installed )

C:\Users\ [YOURUSERNAME] \AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes ( any other pictures that you might have made as an wallpaper.

edited Mar 20 '17 at 10:17

Community

1

answered Jul 17 '13 at 09:48

Ashtray

1,669
2
15
19

10

Under Win7, it's exact location is `%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.jpg` – bryc Mar 07 '15 at 21:57
Is there a windows 10 option now? – Forward Ed May 13 '16 at 21:27
12

@ForwardEd The current wallpaper on Windows 10 is saved as C:\Users\[YOURUSERNAME]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper – SnoringFrog Jun 21 '16 at 13:54
1

@SnoringFrog nice - I just had to add .jpg as the extension and she opened right up. – RJ Cuthbertson Mar 05 '17 at 19:44

score 3 · Answer 2 · answered Jul 17 '13 at 09:43

The specifics would depend on your Windows version, but going by Windows 7 (which should be reasonably useful in the absence of a specified version, and which I have easy access to):

right-click on the desktop and pick Personalize
click Desktop Background
right-click on the selected image and either:
- pick Properties and look under General, Location
- or, pick something under Open With

This should provide you access to the file so that you can copy or save it elsewhere. I would guess that it is stored in a temporary files folder somewhere currently.

Great! This is the easiest way on how to know the image's file path. — rhavendc, May 25 '16 at 05:17

Where does Windows store its current wallpaper?

2 Answers2