changing desktop background in windows 10 via python

Question

I'm working on a small project for myself and I hit a wall. I need to change the desktop background on Windows 10 64-bit. I have attempted to use the script below to change the background based on a local image. The code executes without errors, however the desktop just turns black. I double checked and my image is at c:\CuratedWallpaper\Mario.bmp so that is not the issue.

import ctypes

directory = "c:\CuratedWallpaper"
imagePath = directory + "\Mario.bmp"

def changeBG(imagePath):
    SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER = 20
    ctypes.windll.user32.SystemParametersInfoA(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, imagePath , 0)
    return;

changeBG(imagePath)

Answer 1

I use SystemParametersInfoW instead of SystemParametersInfoA like this:

ctypes.windll.user32.SystemParametersInfoW(20, 0, path, 3)

It is a matter of ANSI vs UNICODE path string.

It works for me in windows 10.