Desktop Wallpaper - All Photos Showing?

[Jason Dunn]

I'm trying to figure out if this is normal or a really bad feature that someone at Microsoft implemented - when you right click on the desktop, select settings, then change to the desktop tab...does your MCE show you all the photos from your My Pictures directory? Please let me know if it does...

[Darius Wey]

Is it meant to? I don't have MCE (yet...) but on all Windows XP-based systems (Home and Professional), all compatible pictures from My Pictures do show up in the Desktop tab of Display Properties.

It can be kind of nutty, especially when you have a horde of holiday snaps stored in there. :roll:

[Bob12]

I have XP Home SP2 and NONE of the pictures I've added to the My Pictures folder show on the Desktop Tab, whether they're in the root directory or in sub-folders.

[Jason Dunn]

Ok, it's not an MCE thing, because my XP Pro install on the laptop does the same thing...Darius you're saying they all do this, Bob is saying none of them do. Now I'm officially confused. :-) I wonder if it's ACDSEE? I have it installed on all three systems in question.

[boots up new $299 Dell test system]

Ok, this system does the same thing - it shows all the photos from My Documents in the desktop wallpaper tab.

Yeah, the problem is that with around 11,000 photos, the machine basically locks up when you switch to the desktop wallpaper tab. This is a STUPID idea...maybe it's an SP2 thing?

[Darius Wey]

Ok, it's not an MCE thing, because my XP Pro install on the laptop does the same thing...Darius you're saying they all do this, Bob is saying none of them do. Now I'm officially confused. :-) I wonder if it's ACDSEE? I have it installed on all three systems in question.

I've got three computers with XP Pro on it (and no ACDSee) and the problem exists on both. A friend of mine has XP Home, and his suffers from the same problem too. So I'd imagine it wouldn't matter which version of XP you are running, it will still be present either way, but if Bob's doesn't show it, then perhaps it may be an SP2 thing as you suggested (but IIRC, I remember seeing this before XP Service Packs even came to existence - but that was so long ago that I've now forgotten).

Yeah, the problem is that with around 11,000 photos, the machine basically locks up when you switch to the desktop wallpaper tab.

Yeah, I know what you mean. I think Microsoft ought to add a "Watch Folder" feature in that tab whereby you can add and/or remove folders that the system will monitor for changes. If such a feature existed, I'd be jumping for joy.

[James Fee]

Yeah, the problem is that with around 11,000 photos, the machine basically locks up when you switch to the desktop wallpaper tab.How about moving them out of the my documents folder? Just up a couple hundred in there you want.

[Jason Dunn]

How about moving them out of the my documents folder? Just up a couple hundred in there you want.

No dice - I synchronize the My Documents folder to four different computers, and I want to have ALL my data on all the machines. Besides, it's where they're supposed to go - I wish I knew what genius thought this was a good idea...

[Bob12]

Curious! I just rechecked both of my computers and in both cases, none of the pictures I've added to "My Pictures" show in the desktop list. To recap, and maybe spark some solution, both are notebooks running Win XP Home SP2. In both cases, the jpg and bmp files are linked to the Windows Picture and Fax Viewer. Most pictures are arranged in subfolders within "My Pictures" but I tried copying some to the root directory of the folder and the same applies - they don't show. The "My Pictures" folder on my picture notebook contains 9660 pictures (22.2gb), most of which are jpg format. I have no cataloging software installed and the editing software is Corel PhotoPaint.

I have no idea why mine appears to be different than others mentioned here but I'm pretty sure that I'm happy it is :)

[Jason Dunn]

Utterly bizarre! 8O