Sorta odd .bat question. Odd indeed.

Is it possible to set your wallpaper with a batch file? I'm trying to make my whole install/config process as quick as possible and this just happens to be one of the things I'm attempting to include. :D

Thanks in advance.

If your trying to make the install config as quick as possible... make a machine, configure it perfectly then make an image of it and dump it on a machine whenever needed.... as for your question .. i dunno :) heh

I don't have money for any software. Do you know of a good, free alternative? I assume you're talking about something like ghost, right?

I'm going to go look up how that works. Sounds implausible at first. So did going to the moon, though. Hehehe...

:D

you could create a .reg file and apply it silently using a batch file

http://www.winguides.com/registry/display.php/1097/

this link shows where and what registry keys need to be set/changed and then you can export the key to the .reg file

to install a .reg file silently use the following syntax:

regedit /s [filename].reg

Quote:

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Originally posted here by user_batch
I don't have money for any software. Do you know of a good, free alternative? I assume you're talking about something like ghost, right?

I'm going to go look up how that works. Sounds implausible at first. So did going to the moon, though. Hehehe...

:D

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Hey Hey,

There are plenty of free alternatives to the Norton Ghost software....

The first is g4u (Ghost for Unix)

Quote:

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g4u ("ghost for unix") is a NetBSD-based bootfloppy/CD-ROM that allows easy cloning of PC harddisks to deploy a common setup on a number of PCs using FTP. The floppy/CD offers two functions. First is to upload the compressed image of a local harddisk to a FTP server. Other is to restore that image via FTP, uncompress it and write it back to disk; network configuration is fetched via DHCP. As the harddisk is processed as a image, any filesystem and operating system can be deployed using g4u. Easy cloning of local disks as well as partitions is also supported.

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Another very similar piece of sofeware is g4l (Ghost for Linux)

Quote:

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DESCRIPTION:

g4l is a Gh*st like set of scripts to create and restore hard drive or partition images under Linux.
g4l comes:
-as a two-disk set, a boot disk that loads the shipped kernel (at the moment linuxkernel 2.6.3)
and a root disk that holds the compressed root image that is beeing loaded into the ramdisk.
The disk set contains only the GUI version of the script.

-as a bootable CD iso image. Only this version contains the the GUI _and_command line drive script sets!

What can it do?

Again, it is possible to:
-create a (compressed) image of a local hard drive or partition
-store this image on a ftp server
-restore a (compressed) image from ftp directly to the desired hard drive or partition
-clone a harddrive

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There you have 2 very good free alternatives.. They make lack some of the fringe benefits of Norton Ghost.. but they are very hand and quite useful..

As far as actually changing your wallpaper... check out CMD/COMMAND Prompt Tools.. I'm assuming you'll have a CD or something with all these batch files on them to simplify the process.... There's a program on cmdtools.com called WallMake... it'll let you change your wallpaper from the command line.

Peace,
HT

Thanks all! That answered all my questions, plus some!

I'm happy.

:bigsmile:

was it here or techtv that had a file that allowed custom windows xp installs....such as being able to install xp without IE or outlook.....or am i just crazy

to add to what djscribble said you could use the batch fike to create the reg file and then run it.

set a machine to have the wallpaper you want to use the way its shown on the link (trusting the link gives valid info) then export the key containing the settings. open the exported .reg file in note pad and add 'echo' before each line and '>> my.reg' after each line without the single quotes of course. copy and paste the whole thing into your batch file and follow it with 'regedit /s my.reg'

or you could just rename the background you want to the default name after giving the default background another. in windows 9.x its logo.sys but i dont believe thats true in newer versions. i dont know for sure as i dont have any boxen with default setting to check