change background of a folder in Windows XP

 

Step 1- Open up notepad, the native text editor in Windows. Type in the exact line below:

[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]

Note: The above line contains only zeroes and not the alphabet O.

Specify the picture to use: Now, in the next line we will specify the picture that we want to use as the background for the folder. We will do this by typing the following line:

iconarea_image=C:\My Pictures\picture.bmp

Let me elaborate the above-mentioned process. The image to be used as the folder background is specified through iconarea_image. So you can type in the exact path to any image of your liking after the "=" sign as shown above.

Step 2- Now we will save the contents in a file called desktop.ini in the folder that we are customizing (in this case the folder is C:\myfolder). From the File>Save option save the file as desktop.ini and put the file name in double quotes as shown in the picture below to maintain the .ini extension

Step 3- Now we will have to give the folder system attribute. This can be done very easily through the command prompt. Open up the command prompt through Start>All programs>Accessories>command prompt. Type the following and press enter (remember we are using myfolder as an example, so the path name may vary accordingly for you) :

Attrib +s "C:\myfolder"

Additionally you can hide the desktop.ini file.

That's it, done !! The folder will now display the picture of your choice in the background.