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I am looking for some code that will convert an image into a Transcoded Image for use as a wallpaper in Windows 10. Ideally I would like to use python, but am open to anything. I am currently blocked on my machine from customizing my wallpapers so I want to create a workaround where I can give some code an image, it can transcode it, and Windows can display it as my background.

My images will all be simple jpeg and png files.

For reference, the transcoded wallpaper will live in the folders relating to this answer: Path to current desktop backgrounds in Windows 10?

Cheers

obewanjacobi
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  • If you're blocked from customizing your wallpaper, then how will you set your transcoded wallpaper? Or is it your idea to overwrite the wallpaper? Note that just overwriting the wallpaper is not enough. Windows will not automatically reload it, so it would only change on every reboot. – LPChip Nov 30 '23 at 15:01
  • I am aware, yes. My plan is to overwrite it, and possibly to replicate the Windows customization option of a "slideshow" by having this code run automatically in the background on a schedule. So yes, it would need to be run after every reboot, but I'm ok with that. – obewanjacobi Nov 30 '23 at 15:06
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    If you don't mind spending a bit of money, ActualTools Multiple Monitors or their full suite Window Manager, has this build right-in. You specify a path and it will slideshow all images. It bypasses the windows desktop image unless its set to a static color. They have a 30 day demo version too, so you can test it. – LPChip Nov 30 '23 at 15:18
  • I might not mind, but if possible I'd really like to generate my own code for this. It seems like it should be semi easy, just read in an image file into python, then convert it to the transcoded windows format. But I don't know how the transcoding is done. – obewanjacobi Nov 30 '23 at 15:26
  • "I am currently blocked on my machine from customizing my wallpapers." If this is a corporate policy, you're workaround would seem to be a violation of it. Is it worth a black mark on your record? – DrMoishe Pippik Nov 30 '23 at 17:55
  • #1: that's irrelevant to the question at hand. #2: if it was a corporate policy, I'm not editing any of their policy changes, purely 1 file that has nothing to do with them. – obewanjacobi Nov 30 '23 at 18:09

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The background image is located in C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\TranscodedWallpaper.

I used a hex editor and saw that it had a PNG file header. So I copied it elsewhere and renamed it to TranscodedWallpaper.png. A photo editor then had no problem to display this image.

The conversion is then very simple : Convert the image to PNG format and rename it to TranscodedWallpaper. I have not checked if the JPEG format will also work.

I think the "Transcoded" part of the file-name just means that Windows by default will take the image the user specifies and convert it to a low-resolution image (this might date from pretty far back and wouldn't probably be needed on today's computers.)

harrymc
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  • You are a wonderful human. Idk how I missed that but this does indeed work. Coding something like this to rotate on a schedule would be extremely easy with this knowledge. Thank you! – obewanjacobi Nov 30 '23 at 20:25