/?pid=21464

Updated:05:58 PM EDT Mar 27


this is ggmania.com subsite Here's Why Windows 7 Is Nuking Your Background Image - TechAmok

Here's Why Windows 7 Is Nuking Your Background Image - [briefly]
01:31 PM EST - Jan,22 2020 - post a comment

A recent security update appears to be messing with some Windows 7 PCs by replacing the custom background image with an all-black wallpaper. The timing of the mishap comes on the heels of Windows 7 officially entering retirement, leading to speculation that Microsoft is petty towards people who refuse to upgrade their OS to Windows 10. That is not necessarily what is happening, though. Reports of the black wallpaper issue are popping up in various places on the web, including over at Reddit and on Microsoft's own support forum.
After KB4534310 installed, every boot-up replaces my graphic wallpaper with a black solid color. I've tried creating a new theme, tried renaming transcodedwallpaper.jpg to .old, but although these changes allow me to restore my graphic wallpaper, after restarting, the desktop wallpaper is black again. Icons and start bar color are unaffected. The only solution was to uninstall the update. But now my PC is less secure. Microsoft, please fix this!
The issue is indeed related to KB4534310, and appears to be a bug rather than a crummy attempt to annoy users into upgrading to Windows 10. Users discovered the actual culprit is the Stretch setting in the Desktop Background options menu. This allows users to stretch an image to fit the entire screen, but for whatever reason, KB453410 broke the functionality. Unfortunately, it's not yet clear if Microsoft will fix the issue, since it is no longer supporting Windows 7. We hope it does, because it's a bad look to break something with a final update and then essentially tell users, 'Too bad!'.

Fortunately, there are a couple of workarounds. One is to uninstall the KB4534310 update, though I don't suggest going that route. The other is a clever trick. Since the stretch option is borked right now, you can take a screenshot of of your desktop with the image stretched out, and then use that resulting image as your background without the stretch option enabled.
  • Go into the Desktop Background settings and select the Fill option to restore your custom image, then select Stretch again. It will stretch the image as normal until your reboot your PC, at which point it is replaced by a black wallpaper. So don't reboot after doing this. Save the changes.
  • Right-click on your desktop, select View, uncheck Show Desktop icons, and select Show Desktop Gadgets.
  • Exit all windows and hit the Print Screen key to take a screenshot. Using your image editing program of choice (MS Paint, Photoshop, GIMP, or whatever), save your screenshot.
  • Go into the Desktop Background settings and use your saved image as the new background. In the position setting, select Center. You can now safely reboot your PC without having the background revert to a black wallpaper.
  • Right-click on your desktop, select View, and re-enable Show Desktop icons.


Add your comment (free registrationrequired)

Short overview of recent news articles

Mar,27 2024 Unreal Physics is a new free game on Steam
Mar,27 2024 Is The World's Cheapest Hardware Wallet SafePal S1 Worth It?
Mar,27 2024 Yes, this was a Bad Idea (Emergency Wall-Mounted PC Build)
Mar,27 2024 11 Cool Command Line Programs You Need to See
Mar,26 2024 When you Accidentally Compromise every CPU on Earth
Mar,24 2024 Everyone Who Tried This Has FAILED - Khadas Mind Modular PC
Mar,24 2024 Air Cooling is Dead
Mar,24 2024 US Justice Dept. Sues Apple for Monopolistic Behavior in Smartphones
Mar,24 2024 Beetlejuice Beetlejuice - Official Teaser Trailer (2024) Michael
Mar,22 2024 Alien: Romulus | Teaser Trailer
Mar,22 2024 NVIDIA Is On a Different Planet
Mar,21 2024 Everyone Needs This and it's Under $10 - Handy Tech Under $100
Mar,21 2024 20 COOL GADGETS FOR 2024
Mar,21 2024 Nvidia's 5090 Is Built From WHAT?!
Mar,20 2024 Parasyte: The Grey | Official Trailer | Netflix
Mar,20 2024 Fastest m.2 on Planet EARTH | Crucial T705 Nvme Review
Mar,20 2024 LG's new 480Hz OLED dual-mode monitor
Mar,19 2024 First 9.1 GHz CPU (overclocked 14900KS)
Mar,18 2024 Haley Messick - Saatisfaction @bennybenassi - In10sive Mastercamp
Mar,18 2024 1000W CPU: The Most Powerful Desktop Processor
Mar,18 2024 Expands Snapdragon 8 Series to Cover More Price Points
Mar,17 2024 Train Vs Lamborghini
Mar,16 2024 Don't use a Microsoft Account!
Mar,16 2024 This Ghillie Made from MIRRORS is SHOCKINGLY GOOD
Mar,16 2024 How Hackers Deliver Malware to Hack you using Social Media
Mar,15 2024 Call of Duty: Warzone Mobile - Launch Trailer
Mar,14 2024 Intel's 4th Attempt At Beating Ryzen - "New" 6.2GHz Core
Mar,14 2024 Asus Goes Big with Zenfone 11 Ultra
Mar,14 2024 House Passes Bill to Force Sale of TikTok
Mar,14 2024 Motorola Brings More Affordable 5G Phones to its 2024 Lineup
Mar,14 2024 Capristan Swim - Miami Swim Week | Art Basel Miami
Mar,11 2024 The Most Stunning All SSD NAS Ever? Inside QNAP's All-SSD
Mar,11 2024 M2 vs M3 MacBook Air - ULTIMATE Comparison!
Mar,11 2024 Risky PC Experiment: Direct CPU Water-Cooling! Can It Survive?
Mar,11 2024 SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches 23 Starlink satellites from
Mar,10 2024 I tried the Cheapest Arduino Alternative (that Nobody heard of)
Mar,10 2024 This is the WEIRDEST PC I've ever seen.
Mar,10 2024 Nvidia Retires GTX 16 Series, GDDR7 Arrives, FSR Upscaling Going AI?
Mar,09 2024 The New BIOS Hack That Bypasses Every Antivirus
Mar,09 2024 Microsoft says it hasn't been able to shake Russian state hackers
>> News Archive <<

TechAmok - Privacy Policy        loading time:0.01secs