People love to keep changing their desktop wallpapers frequently, however if you store the wallpapers in a user directory, you will have to browse through several folders before you can choose a wallpaper to apply for the desktop.

This can get quite tedious if you change wallpapers on a regular basis, however there is a solution for this problem, which will allow you to change the default wallpaper directory and point it to your own custom wallpaper directory.

To apply the solution you will require to edit the registry, if you are not comfortable with editing registry please ask your system administrator to help you out.

Here are the steps that will help you to change the default wallpaper directory in Windows XP.

Step 1: Open Registry by pressing Windows Key + R, type in regedit into the run box and press enter.

Step 2: Navigate to the folder HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion in the Left navigation panel.

Step 3: In the right hand side you will see a string value with the name “WallPaperDir”, whose default value will be %SystemRoot%\Web\Wallpaper, double click on the item and input the path to the directory where you store the wallpapers.

Step 4: Close the registry editor, the changes will now be applied and the next time you open display settings to change the wallpaper, it will show you the wallpapers from your custom directory.