Add Desktop Background directly to the Desktop context menu to change wallpaper quickly

With Windows 7 (or rather Windows Vista), Microsoft removed the classic display properties control panel from the Desktop context menu which quickly allowed you to change the desktop wallpaper. The Personalization item replaced it but you have to first open it and then click the Desktop Background item there to get to the page which lets you change the wallpaper. In this article, we will see how to add Desktop Background directly to the Desktop context (right-click) menu.

To add the item to change the wallpaper directly to the Desktop context menu, we need to perform a simple Registry edit. Just follow the instructions below.

1. Open Registry Editor.
2. Navigate to the following Registry key:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\shell

   Tip: How to jump to the desired registry key with one click.

3. Create a new subkey with any name.
   
   For example, change_wallpaper is a good choice. You will get the full path as follows:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\shell\change_wallpaper

4. Create the following string values in the change_wallpaper subkey:
   "Position"="Bottom"
   "MUIVerb"="&Desktop Background"
   "Icon"="desk.cpl"
5. Now create the following subkey:

   HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\DesktopBackground\shell\change_wallpaper\command

6. Here you need to modify the default value and set it to:

   rundll32.exe shell32.dll,Control_RunDLL desk.cpl,,@desktop

So, you should get the following:
Now, when you right click the Desktop, you will be able to access the Desktop background page with one click:

I made a ready-to-use Registry tweak which you can use so you don't have to manually edit the Windows Registry.

Click here to download ready-to-use Registry tweak for changing wallpaper with one click

This trick works in Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 8.1. Note that in Windows 10, the UI has changed again and these settings have been moved to the Settings app so it may not work. See more details here: Windows 10 build 10074 ditches classic Appearance and themes support.

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