Dead links have always been a problem on the internet, but still I'm always a bit miffed when a big institutional player deletes content with no warning. Anyway, this isn't a post about that, that's just why this post exists. This post is about a kind of obscure bug in Windows Background Slideshow mode that only appears if you switch virtual desktops, or dock/undock from a secondary monitor. Not a lot of people are going to run into this because it requires a combination of features that most people rarely use, let alone all at once. But if you do happen to be in that tiny percentage of people who love to have their desktop wallpaper change over time, and likes to use multiple desktops, it can be super annoying.
It bothered me for years, eventually I made a Windows Feedback Hub thread about it, turned out there were dozens of us, my thread merged into another thread, and eventually someone posted a solution which I will now share below.
Unfortunately if the cause is docking/undocking this solution won't work, but at least you now you're not losing your mind!
Big shoutout to OrihalconDE an absolute legend for getting to the bottom of this!
OrihalconDE's reply to a question you're following, How to fix the slideshow background and multiple desktop problem?, was marked as an answer.
I have the same problem and because of the elieu post, I was able to fix it, but the fix ist not like in the link descripte, because the user doesnt knew how the error works.
I managed to figure it out thanks to that.
First to understand, Windumb, for no reason, falls back to the last selection of a picture how to show your background, when you switch the virtual desktop.
The idea of putting the folder to the root is not quite wrong, but this can only work under one condition:
The last selected picture has to be removed, after you changed to slideshow!
Here now how the error works:
Let's say, you used the standard picture from Windows, this picture might be saved at C:\Windows\picture.jpg
Now you Change to slideshow and select your pictures folder e.g. %userprofile%\pictures\backgrounds
After you swap your virtual desktop, the setting will be reset to the picture.
Why this happens, I don't know, but windows can only do it, because the last selected picture is still available C:\Windows\picture.jpg
Now here is how my solution to this works:
Put a random picture anywhere, e.g. C:\dumppicture.jpg
Select the picture as your background in your settings
After the Background changed to the picture, select now slideshow and the folder where your slideshow is saved e.g. %userprofile%\pictures\backgrounds
Now delete the file C:\dumppicture.jpg
Swipe to your different Virtual Desktops and back, the setting shall not reset to pictures because the file C:\dumppicture.jpg doesnt exist anymore
That's it, with this i managed to keep my slideshow, because windows still trys to change the setting back but since it cant find the last used picture, it will stay in slideshow mode.
Greetings everyone.
Additional info:
It seems that windows also loses the slide show setting when you disconnect/connect from/to multiple monitors via direct cable or docking stations.
In that case, windows will set the last shown background from your slideshow as the new background picture.
Luckily it doesn't do that while changing virtual desktops.
Anyway, later Microsoft deleted the whole forum with no warning even though the thread that this was on was active at least 90 days ago, and of course the bug persists, it seems to come back with updates. So here's me, "I'm doing my part!".
Cheers.