[XPPRO] Windows Desktop Properties Tab List delays

[Da_maniaC]

Hey there,

This is my first post on these forums, so hi. :P

Anyway im having this strange problem with Windows and i was hoping you guys might know the answer...

My 'Desktop' Tab of the Windows desktop properties (Where you get to pick your background) has a strange long delay on my computer.

And with delay i mean i have to wait for like 2 minutes before the tab is shown!

I know the cause.... the cause is that the list that usually only shows the wallpapers from your windows root wallpaper directory (%systemroot%\web\wallpaper) now also shows all the pictures that are in the 'My Pictures' folder.

And since My Pictures contains like 10.000 pictures here it takes this long to load the list.

This never used to be like this, so i was wondering if there was a way to make sure windows will only load the standard folder again.

Thanks in advance. :)

Ps.

There is a regvalue called Wallpaperdir and this is set to %Systemroot\web\wallpaper though this still does not force it to use this folder alone.

Any help would be greatly appreciated. :)

[Da_maniaC]

Anyone? :(

[-pops-]

Hello Da_maniaC and welcome to Windows Forum.

Sorry that you've not had a response to your enquiry - it must be that you have got our experts stumped. I must say that your problem is not one I've come across before - or anything like it.

Don't give up yet. There are a number of members who don't come here every day and they may hold the answer or, perhaps, your post has been missed for some reason.

Not a full remedy but, I keep the My Pictures folder quite small - storing most pictures on a separate hard drive for safety.

How about creating a new folder and putting the pictures in there and keep the Windows designated folder fairly empty?

[Da_maniaC]

Well, the thing is the folder is not designated normally as far as i know.

I used to be able to do this without any problems a couple of months back and my folder was already fairly large back then.

I dont quite feel like moving files around because this is just the way my computer is set up.

I mainly use the mydocuments folder for the pics so....

And theres no gain in backups for me either since i burn the entire my documents folder onto a dvd regularly.

So it would be really cool if someone knew what was causing it.

(Most likely just another regvalue).

[-pops-]

I've been looking in the desktop themes of the three computers I have and they all have the contents of My Pictures as possibilities for use as a desktop background.

I wasn't aware that this was the norm but it seems it is - I have never set them up to be like that. The reason I don't notice any time lags in startup is because, as I wrote above, I don't keep many pictures in the My Pictures folder.

The obvious remedy seems to me is to reduce the number of pictures you have in that particular folder - just by creating a new folder and moving them there.

Altering the registry or other potentially dangerous procedures seems rather over the top for such an apparently small problem.

[Da_maniaC]

Hmm...

Maybe SP1 does not have this feature and SP2 does. :\

Oh well, if its an actual setting in winXP i think im just gonna have to live with it... im not using the menu that much anyway.

Thanks for the help anyway. :)