Where's the wallpaper registry key in Windows 8?

Question

I'm working on a tool that needs to get the current user's wallpaper path.

On Windows 7, I can get that by reading

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Desktop\General\WallpaperSource.

On my Windows 8 installation, that key always has the value

C:\Users\Peter\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows Photo Viewer\Windows Photo Viewer Wallpaper.jpg

which is not even the wallpaper that's currently set.

Is there any other key I can rely on?

Answer 1

You are FAR better off calling SystemParametersInfo with the SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER option to set the desktop wallpaper. As far as I can tell, registry key you're using is undocumented and thus can change at any time without warning.

See this stack overflow question for an example of how to call the SystemParametersInfo with SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER.