Admin vs User rights

[Delphinus]

Greetings fellow coders, I have a script that changes the desktop wallpaper on a WinXP SP3 machine.

The script works fine under the administrator login but I need it to run under a user account with no administrator privileges but it will not change the wallpaper.

If anyone has any ideas I would greatly appreciate the help.

The code I have:

expandcollapse popup

#NoTrayIcon
#include <GUIConstants.au3>

#region ### START Koda GUI section ### Form=
$gMain = GUICreate("Select Wallpaper", 154, 211, -1, -1, BitOR($WS_CAPTION, $WS_POPUP))
GUICtrlCreateGroup("Classification", 8, 8, 137, 161)
$rd_Unclass = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Unclassified", 40, 32, 81, 17)
GUICtrlSetState(-1, $GUI_CHECKED)
$rd_Conf = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Confidential", 40, 56, 81, 17)
$rd_Secret = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Secret", 40, 80, 81, 17)
$rd_TS = GUICtrlCreateRadio("Top Secret", 40, 104, 81, 17)
$rd_SCI = GUICtrlCreateRadio("SCI", 40, 128, 81, 17)
GUICtrlCreateGroup("", -99, -99, 1, 1)
$bt_OK = GUICtrlCreateButton("OK", 24, 176, 51, 25, 0)
$bt_Cancel = GUICtrlCreateButton("Cancel", 80, 176, 51, 25, 0)
GUISetState(@SW_SHOW)
#endregion ### START Koda GUI section ### Form=

Local $files[5] = ["Unclassified.bmp", "Confidential.bmp", "Secret.bmp", "TopSecret.bmp", "SCI.bmp"]
Local $nMsg, $iCurSel, $iOrigSel

$iInitial = RegRead("HKLM\Software\SSCC\BC", "")
If @error Then
    RegWrite("HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop", "WallPaper", "REG_SZ", @WindowsDir & "\Banner.bmp")
    RegWrite("HKCU\Control Panel\Desktop", "WallpaperStyle", "REG_SZ", "2")
    If @OSVersion = "WIN_VISTA" Then
        RunWait(@ComSpec & ' /c reg load HKLM\def "' & @HomeDrive & '\Users\Default\ntuser.dat"', @WindowsDir, @SW_HIDE)
    Else
        RunWait(@ComSpec & ' /c reg load HKLM\def "' & @HomeDrive & '\Documents and Settings\Default User\ntuser.dat"', @WindowsDir, @SW_HIDE)
    EndIf
    RegWrite("HKLM\def\Control Panel\Desktop", "WallPaper", "REG_SZ", @WindowsDir & "\Banner.bmp")
    RegWrite("HKLM\def\Control Panel\Desktop", "WallpaperStyle", "REG_SZ", "2")
    RunWait(@ComSpec & ' /c reg unload HKLM\def', @WindowsDir, @SW_HIDE)
EndIf
$iOrigSel = RegRead("HKLM\Software\SSCC\BC", "Classification")
Switch $iOrigSel
    Case 1
        GUICtrlSetState($rd_Conf, $GUI_CHECKED)
    Case 2
        GUICtrlSetState($rd_Secret, $GUI_CHECKED)
    Case 3
        GUICtrlSetState($rd_TS, $GUI_CHECKED)
    Case 4
        GUICtrlSetState($rd_SCI, $GUI_CHECKED)
    Case Else
        $iOrigSel = 0
EndSwitch
$iCurSel = $iOrigSel

While 1
    $nMsg = GUIGetMsg()
    Select
        Case $nMsg = $rd_Conf And BitAND(GUICtrlRead($rd_Conf), $GUI_CHECKED) = $GUI_CHECKED
            $iCurSel = 1
        Case $nMsg = $rd_SCI And BitAND(GUICtrlRead($rd_SCI), $GUI_CHECKED) = $GUI_CHECKED
            $iCurSel = 4
        Case $nMsg = $rd_Secret And BitAND(GUICtrlRead($rd_Secret), $GUI_CHECKED) = $GUI_CHECKED
            $iCurSel = 2
        Case $nMsg = $rd_TS And BitAND(GUICtrlRead($rd_TS), $GUI_CHECKED) = $GUI_CHECKED
            $iCurSel = 3
        Case $nMsg = $rd_Unclass And BitAND(GUICtrlRead($rd_Unclass), $GUI_CHECKED) = $GUI_CHECKED
            $iCurSel = 0
        Case $nMsg = $bt_OK
            If $iCurSel <> $iOrigSel Then
                RegWrite("HKLM\Software\SSCC\BC", "Classification", "REG_DWORD", $iCurSel)
                FileCopy($files[$iCurSel], @WindowsDir & "\Banner.bmp", 9)
                RunWait("rundll32.exe user32.dll,UpdatePerUserSystemParameters ,1,True", @ScriptDir, @SW_HIDE)
            EndIf
            Exit
        Case $nMsg = $bt_Cancel
            Exit
    EndSelect
WEnd

[spudw2k]

I believe you have to be an admin to write to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.

[Delphinus]

Then how does a user change the wallpaper via desktop properties?

[Jon]

Example 3:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/q97142/

[Delphinus]

Thanks Jon but that's not what I am looking for. I was hoping to get a bit more help than to just have examples thrown at me. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without doing some research.

Turns out, the reason I couldn't do it as a user was that I was trying to write to the windows directory. That's something that isn't allowed as a user. I rewrote the program to have the registry reference an ini file that stores the path to the .bmp files I want to use as backgrounds.

[Jon]

Thanks Jon but that's not what I am looking for. I was hoping to get a bit more help than to just have examples thrown at me. I wouldn't have gotten as far as I did without doing some research.

An exact example of the API call to change the desktop background in a totally supported way that will work on all versions of Windows rather than a nasty reg hack that likely won't?

Fine. My help here is done.

[Delphinus]

Yes, that changes the desktop but not in the way that I was trying to change it.

Didn't mean to offend but all you did was throw an example at me without even looking at the code I wrote.

[spudw2k]

Then how does a user change the wallpaper via desktop properties?

Any user can write to their own NTUSER.DAT file (mounted as HKEY_CURRENT_USER when logged in)

[Jon]

From the script I'm not quite sure what you are trying to do. You are writing to the Default User wallpaper - but that is only used when a brand new user profile is created - it doesn't change existing wallpapers. Are you trying to change the wallpaper for ALL users that have already logged into a machine?

[Delphinus]

I want to change it for the current user that is logged in when they run the script and for any user that already has a profile on the machine (including administrators) and for any new user that will login and create a new profile, ie the 'default user'.