Personalization Change Desktop Background in Windows 11

This tutorial will show you different ways to change the desktop background to a picture, solid color, slideshow, or Windows Spotlight image for your account in Windows 11.

You can change your desktop background in Windows 11 to be a picture, solid color, a slideshow, or Windows Spotlight image.

A picture background can apply to all or specific desktops and/or displays.

Solid color, slideshow, and Windows Spotlight backgrounds apply to all desktops on all displays.

Starting with Windows 11 build 23516 (Dev), build 25921 (Canary), and build 22631.2191 (Beta), you can now set JXR files to be your desktop background and if you have an HDR display, they will render in full HDR. The background should load on your display. If you have multiple displays attached to your device, the background will show as HDR or SDR depending on each display’s capabilities. When using external displays attached to your device, it is recommended to run the HDR Calibration app for best picture quality. Please note that for this build, there may be some issues with the HDR version of the desktop background not correctly display on some laptops with HDR. You can download example .JXR files here to try this experience out on your HDR-capable device/display.

References:

It is required to activate Windows 11 before you can change the desktop background to personalize your PC using Option One, Option Two, or Option Three.

You will still be able to use Option Four, Option Five, or Option Six to change your desktop background without Windows activated.

When you set an image as your desktop background wallpaper or slideshow, Windows will import a copy of this image and store it as the TranscodedWallpaper file in the %AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes folder. Your desktop background wallpaper is loaded from this TranscodedWallpaper file cache.

When high contrast mode is turned on, the desktop background is automatically set to a solid color by default, but you can still set the desktop background to a picture or slideshow.

If you turned off showing your desktop background, the desktop background will be set to only show a solid black color no matter what you set as your desktop background in this tutorial.

Using an image the same size as the display resolution will give you the best looking results on the desktop background.

EXAMPLE: desktop background







1 Open Settings (Win+I).

2 Click/tap on Personalization on the left side, and click/tap on Background on the right side. (see screenshot below)


3 Do step 4 (picture), step 5 (solid color), step 6 (slideshow), or step 7 (Windows Spotlight) below for what you want as the desktop background.

If you have more than one monitor (display), then you can apply Recent images to all or specific monitors:

1) Click/tap on a recent image to set for all monitors.

OR

2) Right click on a recent image, and click/tap on Set for all monitors or Set for monitor > Monitor # you want.

If you have more than one virtual desktops, then you can apply Recent images to all or specific desktops:

1) Click/tap on a recent image to set for all desktops on all monitors. (If you came from Option Three, then this will only apply to the specific virtual desktop on all monitors.)

OR

2) Right click on a recent image, and click/tap on Set for all desktops or Set for desktop > Desktop # you want on all monitors.

Windows Spotlight is only available starting with Windows 11 build 22518 and build 22000.706.

You can right-click on the Learn more about this picture icon on your desktop to switch to next picture or tell Microsoft whether you like or dislike a picture.

1 Open Run (Win+R).

2 Copy and paste the command below into Run, and click/tap on OK to open the Desktop Background control panel applet.

shell:::{ED834ED6-4B5A-4bfe-8F11-A626DCB6A921} -Microsoft.Personalization\pageWallpaper

3 Do step 4 (picture), step 5 (solid color), or step 6 (slideshow) below for what you want as the desktop background.
































1 Open Task View (Win+Tab).

2 Right click or press and hold on the virtual desktop you want, and click/tap on Choose background. (see screenshot below)


3 Go to step 3 in option 1 to select a picture background for this desktop, or solid color, slideshow, or Windows Spotight for all desktops.





1 Open File Explorer (Win+E).

2 Navigate to and open the folder the image you want to set as the desktop background is saved in.

3 Perform one of the following actions to set image as desktop background: (see screenshots below)

• Select the image, and click/tap on Set as background on the command bar.
• Right click or press and hold on the image, and click/tap on Set as desktop background.

1 Perform the steps below while you have an image you want to set as the desktop background open in the Photos app:

• Click/tap on the See more actions (3 dots) button.
• Click/tap on Set as.
• Click/tap on Set as background.

1 Perform the steps below while you have an image you want to set as the desktop background open in the Paint app:

• Click/tap on File on the menu bar.
• Click/tap on Set as desktop background.
• Click/tap on Fill, Tile, or Center for what you want.

That's it,
Shawn Brink