Csdrhrt

I have Windows 7 displaying random images every minute from all of my photo directories and every so often there is one I really want to see again.

How can I either always display on the screen the image path/filename? Or perhaps I could simply look at a registry setting or something at the time the image is being displayed to find out the image path / filename?

I am not sure if this works on every version of Windows 7 but on my Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit it does. I also did not test this out when changing themes. If I manually changed the background picture or select a folder of pictures to slideshow through then the registry value that I query below seems to always be updated with the path to the current image.

There are several ways to make this better (like automatically opening Windows Explorer to the folder the picture is in or launching the picture directly) but this could get you started.

I created a batch file on my Desktop named path2pic.bat and had the following code in there:

@echo off



echo.



echo The path to the current Desktop background image is:



echo.

echo.



REG QUERY "HKCUSoftwareMicrosoftInternet ExplorerDesktopGeneral" /v WallpaperSource



echo.

echo.



pause



exit

Then I created a shortcut to the batch file, assigned a Shortcut Key like Ctrl+Shift+P to it, and any time I want to know the path to the image I press the Shortkut Keys and the batch file shows me the path.

The path to the current Wallpaper is located in the following register key:

HKEY_CURRENT_USERControl PanelDesktopWallpaper 

Open the start menu and in the search box, type "regedit". Navigate to the above key throught the registry explorer on the left. When you single click the "Desktop" folder, at the right, a list with keys will be displayed. Look for the one that's titled "Wallpaper". The value will be the location of the current wallpaper.

Here's a solution that locates the current wallpaper and show it in Windows Explorer:

How to Add “Desktop Background File Location” Option to Desktop Right-Click Menu in Windows 7
http://www.winhelponline.com/blog/desktop-background-file-location-right-click-menu-windows-7/

copy "C:UserstestAppDataRoamingMicrosoftWindowsThemesTranscodedWallpaper" to image.jpg

'test' is your user name,
image.jpg is the current image in the slide.

BioniX Background Wallpaper Changer might be your answer:

1. how can I always display on the screen the image path/filename?

Bionix can show the name of the current wallpaper.
But you have to activate "Show wallpaper name on desktop" in Settings:

2. there is one I really want to see again

Bionix can take you back to any previous image what you had as desktop background (just press the "Previous wallpapers" button):

It can also do the third thing - that you haven't requested but I guess you might need it. It can help you with the image management. For example you can delete (Recycle Bin) with a single click an wallpaper that you don't like, as soon as you see it on your desktop.

Windows wallpaper images live in C:WindowsWebWallpapers and you need to give Administrator permission to add, delete or move images.