Windows Experience Blog : Wallpapers

Personalize Windows 7 with the Personalization Gallery on Windows.com

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:37:27 GMT

One of my favorite things about Windows 7 is how you can customize it and make it your own. Our personalization features give Windows 7 the ability to be as individual and to reflect who you are! Adding to this is a new Personalization Gallery on Windows.com, launched on Oct 22nd. With Windows 7, we’ve made it easy for people to customize their PC with different themes. Each theme has a custom background (or a series of backgrounds that shuffle), different Aero Glass colors, and sounds. Not only will you find Windows 7 themes on the Personalization Gallery, you’ll also find desktop backgrounds and desktop gadgets to download as well.

For the first time ever, Microsoft is working with other companies to enable them to offer their customers a branded experience on the desktop through Windows 7. The effort is part of a pilot program running until October 2010 by Microsoft Advertising. As of today, you will find themes from 7 global advertisers with well-known brands such as Coca Cola, Ducati, Ferrari, Infiniti, Pepsi, Porsche and Twentieth Century Fox on the Personalization Gallery for download. So if you are a fan of one of these brands, check them out! For more on this effort from Microsoft Advertising, see this blog post.

We’re also offering new Microsoft branded themes too – including the Xbox game Gears of War, Zune, and Bing!

So what if you want to make your own theme? No problem – it’s very easy. Click here for a step-by-step outline (and video) on how to customize and create your own themes. Once you’ve created your own theme, you can share it with you friends and family on Windows Live SkyDrive.

For you geeks out there wanting to know more about how we went about designing the ability to use themes in Windows 7, see this blog post on the Engineering Windows 7 Blog.

Shuffle your Desktop Backgrounds in Windows 7

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 14 Jan 2009 01:00:05 GMT

Windows 7 offers some really neat new personalization options for making your desktop yours. I wanted to share my favorite personalization option: the ability to shuffle desktop backgrounds. Windows 7 now supports selecting multiple pictures as desktop backgrounds which shuffle depending on how often you set it to shuffle.

I have a special folder called “Awesome Wallpapers” that is filled with, well, awesome wallpapers. I have my Windows 7 PCs shuffling between these photos every 10 minutes. I find it keeps my desktop “fresh”.

In the Windows 7 Beta – here’s how to enable shuffle for desktop backgrounds:

1. Right-click on your Desktop and choose Personalization.

2. Under the Personalization Control Panel, choose Desktop Background (bottom of screen).

3. Under Picture location, you can choose from the default locations for photos (including Top Rated Photos) or browse to a custom folder where you might be storing photos.

4. Choose multiple photos by checking each photo you want to appear as a background on your desktop.

5. At the bottom of the screen next to Picture position there is a drop down box and a check box for shuffling pictures on your desktop. Make sure the “Shuffle” checkbox is checked.

6. You can also customize how often pictures shuffle on your desktop via the drop down next to the “Shuffle” check box.

After selecting the backgrounds, enabling shuffle, and setting how often they shuffle – you can save your new “theme” in Windows 7 via the Personalization Control Panel (just click the back button from the Desktop Background screen).

You can see in the below screenshot I have a theme called “Brandon’s Awesome Theme”. Once you save your theme, it appears under “My Themes”.

TIP: You can also download new themes for the Windows 7 Beta by choosing “Get more themes online” under My Themes in the Personalization Control Panel.

You can download themes with new wallpapers from places around the world!

Life without Walls Wallpapers for your PC

Brandon LeBlanc — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 07:14:00 GMT

In light of tonight's new ad "Life without Walls" seen in newspapers today along with the new "Real PC" TV ads (see Chris's post); I've decided to make wallpapers for folks so they can add "Life without Walls" as wallpaper on their PC.

1920x1200

1650x1050

1600x1200

1280x1024

1280x800

Just click on the above thumbnails for which ever screen resolution you need and in Flickr - choose "All sizes" and then "Original". Right-click and download away!

These wallpapers were uploaded to Flickr using Windows Live Photo Gallery Beta - available at download.live.com.

Bring the Summer to Your Desktop with a New Wallpaper!

Brandon LeBlanc — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 04:38:00 GMT

I couple days ago I went outside and took some photos with my Nikon D40 (a Certified for Windows Vista camera) as the weather was very nice for taking some shots. I took a really neat close-up shot of a leaf with the sun shining from behind - highlighting the details of the leaf.

I am particularly fond of the shades of blue and green in the photo myself. I've been running it as a wallpaper on my own PCs and thought it would make a great desktop wallpaper for readers here. So I've uploaded the wallpaper up to Windows Live SkyDrive in a variety of resolutions for all to download!

For other wallpapers - you can check out my Railroad Wallpaper I took in the Columbia River Gorge (here in the Pacific Northwest) and my Certified for Windows Vista Wallpaper.

Put Certified for Windows Vista on your desktop

Brandon LeBlanc — Tue, 13 May 2008 01:35:00 GMT

Last week I posted an update on Certified from Windows Vista products in which at the end of the post I mentioned I had something else planned in regards to Certified for Windows Vista. Here at Microsoft in Redmond, the Windows Vista Logo Team made a poster that was put up around campus showcasing the Certified for Windows Vista logo. I thought the poster was really neat so I asked Deryl if he wouldn't mind if we released it as desktop wallpaper here for you to add Certified for Windows Vista to your desktop.

Below are links to download the Certified for Windows Vista wallpaper for your desktop (depending of course on your screen resolution) courtesy of Windows Live SkyDrive:

Enjoy the wallpaper!

For those not really interested in this wallpaper - you might check out another wallpaper of mine I released last month. I also hope to create some more wallpapers for you here in the coming months.

New Wallpaper for your Windows Vista Desktop: Made by me!

Brandon LeBlanc — Sun, 06 Apr 2008 02:21:00 GMT

For the last week, I had been using one of the photos I took on my recent trip around Washington State as my desktop wallpaper. It was an image I took in the Columbia River Gorge near an abandoned railroad track. I got down really close to the railroad track for a really interesting shot. I think it looks really neat as a desktop wallpaper so I thought I'd create a range of different sizes of the image to share with you - the readers of the Windows Vista Team Blog - to use as your desktop wallpaper on your PC.

I've created a range of sizes of the wallpaper for you to download depending on your display resolution via Windows Live SkyDrive:

The shot was taken using the Certified for Windows Vista DSLR Canon Digital Rebel XTi.

Let me know what you think!

A look at the Windows DreamScene Content Pack Favorites

Brandon LeBlanc — Wed, 26 Sep 2007 07:32:00 GMT

Earlier today, Nick and Barry announced the release of the Ultimate Extra Windows DreamScene. Windows DreamScene lets Windows Vista Ultimate users choose full-motion video as their desktop wallpaper.

After installing the final release of Windows DreamScene, I was prompted to download the Windows DreamScene Content Pack Favorites. With Windows DreamScene, you get a standard set of 4 DreamScenes to use on your desktop. The Windows DreamScene Content Pack adds 4 more new DreamScenes for your desktop. Here is a video I created of my desktop PC running several of the new DreamScenes:

Video: Windows DreamScene Released - New DreamScenes

The glowing Windows Vista orb can be downloaded as a Windows Vista Ultimate wallpaper at the Windows Ultimate website. The glowing Windows Vista orb DreamScene is my favorite. The waterfall DreamScene was shown off during the demos at CES last January.

On top of the Windows DreamScene Content Pack Favorites - you can also download (and share) "dreams" over on Stardock's Dream Gallery.

What is your favorite Windows DreamScene?