How to change wallpaper using batch - windows

I need to make a batch file that changes the wallpaper to a picture that is in the same location as the bat file I currently have this code:
reg add "HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop" /v Wallpaper /f /t REG_SZ /d c:\images\wallpaper.bmp
the problem with this is that it the pictures need to be in the folder c:\images\ and I need it to be in the same place as the bat file. does any one know how I could do it.

You can use %~dp0wallpaper.bmp
%~dp0 returns the full path of the batch file that is being executed with a backslash at end.
You probably might want to enclose the filename in double quotes in case the batch file's directory contains spaces: "%~dp0wallpaper.bmp"

Related

copying all the elements of a folder into another folder using a loop in batch file

I want to copy all the files of a folder into some other folders using batch script. Say, I have two folders named folder1 and folder2. these two folders are located in C:\Users\xyz . I want to copy the elements of another folder (say, folder3 which is located in C:\Users\abc\def) into these two folders. I have made the following script but nothing is copied. My sample batch file is as follows:
FOR /L %%A IN (1,1,2) DO (
xcopy /s C:\Users\abc\def\folder3 C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A
)
is there anything wrong in the batch file?
xcopy /s C:\Users\abc\def\folder3\*.* C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A\
where *.* is an appropriate filemask and the final \ in the destination name tells cmd that the destination is a directory.
I suggest using this command line in the batch file:
for /L %%A in(1,1,2) do %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "C:\Users\abc\def\folder3" "C:\Users\xyz\folder%%A\" /C /G /H /I /K /R /Q /S /Y >nul
I enclosed both directory paths in double quotes in case of real paths contain 1 or more spaces or other special characters which require double quotes. The last paragraph on last help page output by running in a command prompt window cmd /? outputs on which characters in a directory/file name double quotes are required around the complete directory/file name.
The target path ends with a backslash to make it clear for console application xcopy that the target is a directory and not a file. Together with the redundant /I the target directory is created if not existing already.
For details on the options used on xcopy open a command prompt window and run xcopy /?. This outputs the help for this console application in the command prompt window. On Windows running a command or console application with /? as parameter outputs in general the help for the command/application.
Note: The copying from one user profile directory to another user profile directory requires local administrator privileges. Each user profile directory is by default protected for exclusive usage of the owning user. Therefore I suggest to open a command prompt window and execute in this window:
for /L %A in(1,1,2) do %SystemRoot%\System32\xcopy.exe "C:\Users\abc\def\folder3" "C:\Users\xyz\folder%A\" /C /G /H /I /K /R /S /Y
You can see if that works with just %A as required on command line instead of %%A as required in batch files and without /Q (quiet copying) and without >nul (redirection of success messages to device NUL to suppress them). Or when it does not work, you can see why it does not work as the error message can be viewed on running a command or a batch file from within a command prompt window instead of double clicking on a batch file because the console window keeps open.

REG add Doesn't Run

I've written a batch file that tests for a user's Microsoft Office version, copy an Excel Add-In to their device from a shared drive, and add a registry key to their device.
Each individual action in the batch works as designed. But when I combine them all together, the file doesn't like the REG add command and completely closes the command window (even if I put Pause after the REG add line).
To troubleshoot, I created a new batch file and added pieces of my code to it, one section at a time, and tested the file each time a new section was added. Every section ran fine until I got to this section:
CHDIR "C:\Windows\System32"
IF NOT %ALREADY_ENABLED%=="TRUE" (
REM Add the new key value if it doesn't exist already.
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Excel\Options /v OPEN /t REG_SZ /d "%PATH%" /f
)
To see if the problem was my IF statement, I commented out the REG add line and put ECHO Hello World inside the IF statement. The file ran just fine and gave the Hello World output as expected.
I know the REG add command works because I have a batch file that only includes that piece of code and it works just fine:
#Echo off
setlocal enableDelayedExpansion ENABLEEXTENSIONS
chdir "C:\Windows\System32"
SET PATH=\"C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\Library\Cerner_AddIn.xlam\"
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Excel\Options /v OPEN /t REG_SZ /d "%PATH%" /f
I think the problem has something to do with the PATH variable, but I'm dumbfounded as to why this works in one file but not the other. Is it possible that the value of PATH is somehow changing during runtime after it's been set?
I'm not sure how to trap the error to even see what error is being thrown here. Everything I've tried to handle the error with doesn't work and the command window closes. Any ideas on what I'm doing wrong here?
Maybe this code snippet could help:
SET "myPATH=C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Office\Office15\Library\Cerner_AddIn.xlam"
IF NOT "%ALREADY_ENABLED%"=="TRUE" (
REM Add the new key value if it doesn't exist already.
REG add HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Office\15.0\Excel\Options /v OPEN /t REG_SZ /d "%myPATH%" /f
)
Note:
do not change system environment variable PATH; use another variable name (myPATH);
quoting in set "variablename=variable value";
quoting in if statement;
to trap any error in a batch file, use echo ON while debugging.
Resources (required reading):
(command reference) An A-Z Index of the Windows CMD command line
(additional particularities) Windows CMD Shell Command Line Syntax

REG command after SET is "unknown" in DOS/Windows batch file (.BAT)

In my batch file I started to use variables and suddenly the following commands do not work anymore.
Here is the part of my code with the problem
SET "path=MyPath"
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\ETC\ETC" /f /v "MyRegNameA" /t REG_SZ /d "%path%\ETC\"
REG ADD "HKCU\Software\ETC\ETC" /f /v "MyRegNameB" /t REG_SZ /d "%path%"
PAUSE
START "" "%path%\MyProgram.exe"
This code works without the SET... and of course with MyPath instead of %path%. Error Message is:
The command "REG" is either spelled wrong or couldn't be found
I previously found how to use Variables here: stackEx.SetVariables
To my knowledge I am doing it exactly as supposed, and I couldn't find specific help so far.
path is a logical name, but it's not a good name to use as it is assigned by Windows.
path is a semicolon-separated list of the directories that Windows uses to find programs. When you change it, Windows can no longer find reg.exe since reg.exe is not in mypath.
Simply choose another name - don't use path. If you enter set at the prompt, you will see a list of many of the variables that are established by Windows. Simple rule - don't use any of them for user-variables.

Copy a file to all folders batch file?

I need copy credits.jpg from C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg to D:\Software\destinationfolder and all subfolders
I read many and i write
/R "D:\Software\destinationfolder" %%I IN (.) DO COPY "C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg" "%%I\credits.jpg"
then i save file saveall.bat but i run it , it dont work at all.
help me write 1 bat
Give this a try:
for /r "D:\Software\destinationfolder" %i in (.) do #copy "C:\Users\meotimdihia\Desktop\credits.jpg" "%i"
Of course, if it's to go into a batch file, double the '%'.
This was the first search I found on google for batch file copy file to all subfolders.
Here's a way with xcopy.
There's also robocopy but that would be too powerful for a simple task like this. (I've used that for entire drive backups because it can use multi-threading)
But, let us focus on xcopy.
This example is for saving to a file with the extension .bat. Just drop the additional % where there is two if running directly on the command line.
cd "D:\Software\destinationfolder"
for /r /d %%I in (*) do xcopy "C:\temp\file.ext" "%%~fsI" /H /K
cd "D:\Software\destinationfolder" change directory to the folder you want to copy the file to. Wrap this in quotes if the path has whitespaces.
the for loop - See help here. Or type for /? in a command prompt.
/r - Loop through files (recurse subfolders)
/d - Loop through several folders
%%I - %%parameter: A replaceable parameter
xcopy - Type xcopy /? in the command line for lots of help. You may need to press Enter to read the entire help on this.
C:\temp\file.ext - The file you want to copy
"%%~fsI" - Expands %%I to a full pathname with short names only
/H - Copies files with hidden and system file attributes. By default, xcopy does not copy hidden or system files
/K - Copies files and retains the read-only attribute on Destination files if present on the Source files. By default, xcopy removes the read-only attribute.
The last two parameters are just examples if you're having trouble with any read-only files and will retain the most important file properties.
Lots more xcopy parameters here
xcopy examples here
Just for completeness. This example below will copy the same file in each folder of the current directory and not any sub-folders. Just the /r option is removed for it to behave like this.
for /d %%I in (*) do xcopy "C:\temp\file.ext" "%%~fsI" /H /K
If you can use it: Here is a PowerShell solution (PowerShell is integrated in Windows 7 and available from XP and up):
$file = "C:\...\yourfile.txt"
$dir = "C:\...\YourFolder"
#Store in sub directories
dir $dir -recurse | % {copy $file -destination $_.FullName}
#Store in the directory
copy $file -destination $dir
I'm pretty sure that the last line can be integrated in dir ... but I'm not sure how (I do not use PowerShell very often).

How to open file with default application in cmd?

I'm trying to open a file in it's default editor after the user has created the file. So far my script is:
#echo off
#echo --- Create A New File ---
#echo -
#echo Where should we put the new file?
set /p fileLocation=# %UserProfile%\
#echo -
#echo What do you want to call your new file?
set /p fileName=#
#echo -
#echo Almost Done! What is the files extension?
set /p extension=# .
#echo -
copy NUL "%UserProfile%\%fileLocation%\%fileName%.%extension%"
(ignore the extra echos and '#' those are just for fun)
After I click the file, it does the command: Choose Location > Choose File Name > Choose File extension. I'm almost done on what I want but theres one last thing. How can I get the file name that I created and then open in its default text-editor?
You can use start to open the file with the associated application.
Resources :
Open a File in the Default Application using the Windows Command Line (without JDIC) (waybackmachine capture from Oct 30, 2010)
In windows you can use start (http://ss64.com/nt/start.html).
start "" "%UserProfile%\%fileLocation%\%fileName%.%extension%"
You can also use explorer.exe/explorer to open the file (e.g. explorer file.txt). This also works nicely if you use WSL, especially with an alias like alias open="explorer.exe" so you can just call it like, e.g., open file.txt.
I achieved the correct way of FILE ASSOCIATION using these cmd commands.
this is just an example:
REG ADD "HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Applications\notepad++.exe\shell\open\command" /v # /t REG_SZ /d "\"C:\\Program Files\\Noteepad++\\notepad++.exe\" \"%1\"" /f
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt" /v "Application" /t REG_SZ /d "notepad++.exe" /f
REG ADD "HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\FileExts\.txt\OpenWithList" /v "g" /t REG_SZ /d "notepad++.exe" /f
assoc .txt=MyCustomType
ftype MyCustomType="C:\Program Files\Noteepad++\notepad++.exe" "%1"
(it's better to put them in .bat file)

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