How to give your USB devices a Background Image
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I suppose we all have tried to give background images to our desktop folders. How about setting the same background to our USB devices (Pen drive, Portable Hard Disks etc.) as well? That background image will be seen on every computer you plug in that USB device.
It’s really a 3 step process. Let’s begin:-
1.) Copy Paste the following code in the notepad and rename that notepad file to desktop.ini (Just make sure when you paste this code, the Double Quotes are in Notepad format otherwise type the Double quotes manually from your keyboard.)
[{BE098140-A513-11D0-A3A4-00C04FD706EC}]
iconarea_image=“back.jpg”
iconarea_text=”0xFFFFFF”
2.) Choose any image of your choice and rename it to back.jpg
3.) Copy Paste both these files (i.e. desktop.ini and back.jpg) into your USB device and make them hidden by selecting Properties -> Hidden Files.
That’s it. You are done.
Just REFRESH your screen and you will see your image on background.
So, how you feel about this technique?
Is this image for the background of explorer when you open the drive? Or is it the icon which shows up when you insert the drive?
Yeah, this is for the explorer background not that icon one.
I have added the screen shot.
So, I must change the file extention to JPG ?…I’ll try to put my own photo as my USB pen background :). Thanks for the nice tip
Go Ahead!!!
Thanks for your comments.
Hi Rakshit,
Thanks for responing my comment. I’ll change the code instead
…
Nice tip. I wonder is there any software that can do that?
Working with softwares is always easy but I prefer to avoid the use of softwares for simple things like the one above.
What say?
i followed all the instruction, why does the background image that i put is not showing.
It will work for sure. I have mentioned this in my article. Go through it in detail.
If the problem persists, reply back and I’ll surely solve your problem.
now its working…thanks!
Is there anyway to do this for the subfolders? Or does this only work on the root of the drive?
I tried this in Vista and can’t get it work on my Kingston usb drive. I retyped the quotes and tried several times but still no luck. Is it Vista?
Thanks
Great article! Works fine but just wondering, how could you make it so that the picture didn’t tile or was centered with a paticular background colour?
Thanks so much
This apparently doesn’t wok in Vista, I plugged my usb drive into an XP machine and it works fine.
I couldn’t get it to work in Vista either.
you can use: windowpaper XP
Brilliant man! I’m going to use this
thanks for the great tip. Thats a nice idea to make things seem a bit more colorful.
Matts last blog post… Commenting: Does This Help Your PR?
This works only for the root folder. Perhaps, there must be some utility for adding same images to all subfolders. Will let you know as soon as I find it out.
@Wicked
Yes, this code works only in XP. Thanks for testing and replying back again.
@Andy
Thanks for the appreciation. Well, the background picture is large enough to fit in the complete window. Its of higher resolution.
As Wicked pointed out earlier, it works only in Win XP.
@Frank uk
Never tried windowpaper xp before. Downloading it right now. Thanks for sharing it with us.
@Alexandru Strimbeanu and Matt
Try it and am sure you will find it useful.
nice move, but I doubt it’ll always work, have the same issue with some of my homebrew icons not working, even when the desktop.ini file is correct
any way of extending your technique to mac and perhaps linux? would be nice to combine them all in one handy file…
guess that’s just wishful thinking.
It worked for me in all the cases so far. Their may be some. Don’t know yet.
Thanks! works perfectly on my usb…
THEIR IS SOFTWARE FOR THIS
i have an artical on my site about this but i found some software to do this. its inbuilt into windows 98 iv posted it on my site http://dots.webhop.org/files/change_folder_background.exe
just put it in the folder you want to change run it and it will talk you trough the rest.
Is there a way to make it change your desktop background image to whatever the image is in the USB.
Would be useful when using other computers that aren’t yours.
Good to know that.
@Macus
Will surely try it out the software you mentioned. Thanks for contributing to the article.
@Carlos
Well, never heard about that. But surely will let you know soon.
great tip.thx i will show to my friends
Hi Rakshit,
Thanks for this wonderful tip. Makes the USB more colorful. Just wanted to know, what is the solution if one wants to change the image after a while or wants no image atall? Does one just delete the USB code file?
Lemme know to email when you answer.
Thanks and cheers.
If you like to change the image, just replace the file back.jpg with some other image file. Make sure to rename the new file with the same name i.e. back.jpg
Also, if you do not want any image, just delete the same back.jpg file. No need to delete the code file. You may use it some time later.
Dear Rakshit,
Hi. I tried this umpteen no. of times but its not working with my Sandisk Cruzr Pendrive. I retyped the double quotes and when i found that the image was in jpeg format then i changed the code to jpeg and renamed the image as back.jpeg( earlier i named it as back.jpg) but the file type had remained jpeg.
I also deselected the archive box and vice a versa when doing the hidden option. All of the above but to no avail.
Am using Windows XP.
What cld be the reason. Please let me know. I want to give a pleasant surprise to my son.
Thanks.
You are making a simple mistake. See the image file you send it to me. The name of image file is “back.jpeg.jpg”. Rename it properly and it should work without any problem.
Do one thing, open My Computer, go to Tools -> Folder Options -> Views and uncheck Hide Extension for known file types checkbox. After that you could see the original full name of your image file. It should be back.jpeg.jpg. Rename it to back.jpeg or either back.jpg
do you know what is the software to change the entire background of desktop with music?
why is it the names of the files are deleted? how can i get it back?i didnt get the background i need..:c
Names are not deleted. See it carefully dear. You must have used a dark background. So, you may not be able to see the folder names which seems to be hidden behind that dark background.
i allow all the things already ? but my pendrive only can show the iconarea_text colour and havent c any background image?why?im using window xp too
Your image is of what extension? You must type that same extension in desktop.ini file as well… Just cross check. If you are using XP it should work without any problem.
May 8th, 2008 at 11:34 am
[…] How to give your USB devices a Background Image - Rakshit gives a tutorial on how to add a background image to USB drives. […]
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