Setting the Desktop Background

You can change the image, or wallpaper, that appears under the icons on your desktop. You can use your own pictures in addition to the ones that Windows or your PC manufacturer provides. Windows can show a static background image or cycle through a multiple-image slideshow.

To set the desktop background:

  1. Choose Start > Control Panel > Appearance and Personalization > Personalization > Desktop Background (Figure 4.10).

    Figure 4.10

    Figure 4.10 By default, Windows looks for background pictures in your personal Pictures folder (\Users\\Pictures), the shared Pictures folder (\Users\Public\Pictures), and \Windows\Web\Wallpaper.

    or

    Right-click an empty area of the desktop and choose Personalize > Desktop Background.

  2. Choose a location from the Picture Location drop-down list, and click the picture or color that you want for your background. To select multiple pictures, use the check boxes that appear when you point to each thumbnail image, or click Select All or Clear All.

    or

    To use your own pictures, click Browse, find the picture folder on your computer or network, and then click OK. The folder appears in the Picture Location drop-down list.

  3. Choose an option from the Picture Position drop-down list.

    Fill, Fit, and Stretch distort small images. If you're using your own small photos, try Tile or Center.

  4. If you selected multiple images, choose a slideshow interval from the Change Picture Every drop-down list.

    To randomize the display sequence, check Shuffle. To advance to the next image manually, right-click the desktop and choose Next Desktop. Background.)

  5. Click Save Changes.


If the photos from your digital camera are larger than your screen, here's how to trim them to use as wallpaper:

  1. Right-click an empty area of your desktop and choose Screen Resolution.
  2. In the Resolution drop-down list, note the number of pixels (for example, 1024 x 768).

  3. Find the icon or thumbnail of the image that you want to use for wallpaper, and hover the pointer over it until its file-information tooltip appears. (Alternatively, right-click the icon and choose Properties > Details tab > Dimensions property.)

    Dimensions gives the image's width and height size in pixels (for example, 1600 x 1200).

If the image's dimensions exceed your computer's screen resolution, Windows fills your screen with the center portion of the image, and the edges go wherever leftover pixels go. This result will be fine with you if the image edges are uninteresting. But if you want the uncropped image to be your wallpaper, make a copy and use the Resize function of a graphics program (Windows Paint, GIMP, or Adobe Photoshop, for example) to shrink it to the same size as your screen (or close).