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How do I change the background picture on my Windows XP PC?I might be the last person to the party, but I can't figure out how to easily change the background picture on my WinXP ASUS EeePC Netbook. For that matter, how can I find new pictures online that I can use as a replacement desktop image? While the desktop picture is one of the most enjoyable things to change on your computer since you probably spend a lot of your time staring at it, it's surprising to me that if you scan across a dozen computers in a café or airport, you'll find that 30-50% of users never change the desktop from its default. Add the unusual screen dimensions of the ASUS EeePC screen (my 1000H, for example, operates at 1024x600 resolution) and it's perhaps no surprise that people leave things alone rather than fiddle with them. The irony is that, just like on the Macintosh, it's pretty darn easy to change your desktop picture on a Windows XP computer system. The fastest way is to right-click on the Desktop itself, which pops up a menu: ![]() Choose "Properties"... ![]() Now click on the "Desktop" tab... ![]() You can see a list of different pictures and patterns you can apply to your desktop here. The default, as you can see above, is "EeePC01" and it's not very exciting, all in all. Tip: if you look closely at the list of background images, you'll see that there are two different icons represented. The paintbrush icon is a pattern that "tiles", so it's small and not a photograph. The tiny paintcan icon, however, denotes a full-size image that's usually a photo. For tiled images, note the options on the lower right for position and, if you don't tile and have an image smaller than your desktop resolution, the background color to use. Even with photos, you'll find that "stretch" is a good default setting. I'm going to choose "Radiance", an amazing photo of the moon, and leave the default Position setting of "Center". The preview looks like this: ![]() Change "Center" to "Stretch", however, and now it looks like this: ![]() Nice. That's what I want, so I'll click on "Apply" and now have a cool lunar desktop. To experiment with adding my own photograph, I've decided to pop over to the splendid NASA Image of the Day Gallery hosted by our friends at NASA. Tons of amazing photos, all free for the download. After spending way too much time enjoying the gallery (who knew they were so gorgeous??) I picked an image and choose the 1024x768 image size from the download area. At this point I can simply right click on the image and choose "Set as Desktop Background" from the contextual pop-up menu. Or I can save the image itself onto the Desktop by choosing "Save Image As..." and, in this case, calling it "nasa-dual-galaxy.jpg" Double-clicking on the image opens it up in Windows Picture and Fax Viewer and, surprise, right-clicking on the image pops up a menu that includes "Set as Desktop Background": ![]() That's what you want to select. A second or two later, you've got a new desktop image. Congratulations!
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Categorized:
Windows PC Help
(Article 8620,
Written by Dave Taylor)
Tagged: customize workspace, desktop photograph, desktop picture, windows xp, winxp Previous: Gmail themes?! How do I change my Gmail theme? Next: How can I make my Windows XP desktop icons smaller? Reader Comments To Date: 5Dave Taylor said, on December 16, 2008 1:06 PM:
Yesica, from digging around, it seems possible you have a malware program called SpySheriff that could be causing this problem. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pest_Trap Hope that's helpful! John Bailey said, on March 4, 2009 3:26 PM:
After setting magentic as my desktop and screen saver and setting up windows with the length of time they should run. Neither destop or monitor will shut down when not in use.Is there a way to correct tis? geeps said, on April 14, 2009 9:10 PM:
My XP widescreen laptop either stretches the image, or in centering or tiling centers on an annoying part of the pic. I would like to simply have the chosen photograph in its entirety, without the people made to look short and fat. I don't mind bars, the pic doesnt have to fill the screen. How do I acheive this? How do I simply have the photo as my background, unstrtetched, uncentered? Is it my resolution? Don said, on July 14, 2009 8:32 AM:
I have windows vista. i have attempted to download some disney pics from the net as a background. one time it was of good quality and the next time it was out of focus with the same pic. how can i fix it?
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I am able to use the "set as desktop background" option only if the image is stored in the pc. I used to be able to surf the web and when I came across an image I liked I would just right click and set as background. However that option "set as desktop background" is now grayed out. Help!