Whenever yous set your desktop'south background image, Windows stores a thumbnail of that image in the groundwork history. This is where you will run across the terminal 5 images that were used every bit a background, even if yous accidentally clicked on the wrong image while browsing. With a few simple Registry edits, you tin can remove i or all of them and start from a clean state.

Articulate Recently Used Background Images by Editing the Registry Manually

If you've accidentally added an epitome every bit a groundwork and want to get rid of it, you tin't simply right-click the image and delete it. Sure, you could add five more dissimilar images, only using this Registry edit is a lot easier to do.

Standard Alarm: Registry Editor is a powerful tool and misusing information technology tin return your system unstable or even inoperable. This is a pretty simple hack, and as long as you stick to the instructions, you shouldn't have any issues. That said, if you've never worked with information technology before, consider reading about how to use the Registry Editor before you become started. And definitely back up the Registry (and your computer!) before making changes.

Open up the Registry Editor by striking Start and typing "regedit." Printing Enter to open the Registry Editor then give it permission to make changes to your PC.

In the Registry Editor, use the left sidebar to navigate to the following key (or copy and paste information technology into the Registry Editor accost bar):

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers

After opening the Wallpapers key, you'll encounter a agglomeration of values on the right side. The only ones nosotros're interested have names starting withBackgroundHistoryPath, followed past the numbers 0-4. These values betoken where to detect the last v images used for your background.

Now, depending on which image(s) y'all desire to delete yous can delete one or all of them hither by right-clicking a value—0 being the first epitome and four beingness the fifth—and then choosing "Delete" from the context card. You can too delete multiple images at once like we're doing in our example. Later on deleting them, Windows will prompt yous to ostend that you want to make changes to your Registry.

Whenever you delete annihilation from the history, Windows automatically rebuilds these values again and populates them with its default wallpapers.

When you're done, y'all can close Registry Editor. Yous'll need to close the Settings app if you had information technology open up in order for the history to refresh. If that doesn't work, then you volition demand to sign out and sign back into Windows (or just restart Windows Explorer) for the changes to take effect.

Download Our Ane-Click Registry Hack

If you don't feel similar diving into the Registry yourself, we've created a registry hack yous tin can utilise. Just download and extract the post-obit Zip file:

Remove Background History Images

Within yous'll observe one file that volition remove the valuesBackgroundHistoryPath0-four from the Wallpapers key in the Registry, deleting all your background history thumbnails. Once it'due south extracted, double-click the file, and accept the prompts request whether you're sure you desire to brand changes to your Registry.

These hacks are really just removing theBackgroundHistoryPath values we talked virtually in the previous department, so exported to a .REG file. Running the hacks just modifies the value in your Registry. And if you savour fiddling with the Registry, it's worth taking the time to acquire how to make your own Registry hacks.

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