Deploying Desktop Wallpaper through Group Policy in Entire Company’s Computers – Server 2012 R2

In this post, we will learn how was can deploy computer wallpapers through group policy for the entire organization or some of the computers or any departments. The procedure complies the same for everything either we are deploying wallpaper to the entire organization or to a specific group of peoples.

We need to make sure that whatever policy we will apply, can only be applied to organizational units. An organizational unit (OU) is a subdivision within an Active Directory into which you can place users, groups, computers, and other organizational units. You can create organizational units to mirror your organization’s functional or business structure.

Each domain can implement its own organizational unit hierarchy.

Make Sure: The wallpaper we are going to deploy should be placed at a central location where it has permissions for everyone to have access.

In active directory, make sure you have a computer and/or users in the proper OU. Here we are using TestOU.

Open Group Policy Management, expand the domain and right-click on the organizational unit where you want to apply the wallpaper policy and click Create a GPO in this domain, and Link it here…

Now go to User Configuration –> Administrative Templates: Policy definitions.

Under Desktop, Select Desktop. On the right side, there will be many options related to Desktop settings. Double click on Desktop Wallpaper.

It will open up Desktop Wallpaper configuration windows. Click on Enable. And under Options: Enter the path where desktop wallpaper is placed. Make sure this path must be accessible to the users so that computer can pick up the image. On wallpaper, style select Fill so that it should be displayed on the whole desktop. Click on Ok.

Now the policy has been setup. Run gpupdate/force on the server so that it can forcefully update the group policy on all client computers. Normally it will be displayed once user will log-off and re-login.

Muhammad Imran Habib

Imran is a technology evangelist with 8 years of experience working with some of the Industry leading companies. Imran's expertise includes On-Prem/Virtual Infrastructure deployments, IT Solutions for SMEs, End User Computing Support.

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