Questions tagged [desktop-customization]

Tweaking the look and feel of the operating system's desktop. All OSes welcome.

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262 votes
12 answers
1.2m views

How do I get different background images on my dual monitors?

Is there a way to set two different background pictures for my two monitors in Windows 7? By default the same background picture is used for both displays. I am looking for a solution without ...
balint's user avatar
  • 2,803
84 votes
11 answers
336k views

Make any windowed application 'Always On Top' without keyboard shortcut?

I've checked the previous question here, but unfortunately: DeskPin mostly doesn't work since Windows 8, and it still doesn't work in Windows 10 PowerMenu hasn't been updated since 2002, and does not ...
Nur's user avatar
  • 1,220
78 votes
1 answer
9k views

Windows 10 icons appearance changed

A cat slept on the keyboard and all my desktop icons are now looking like in the picture : Three lines of text description to the right of the image. How can I fix it to see the normal behavior ( one ...
Evgeniy Mishustin's user avatar
53 votes
5 answers
284k views

What is the location of lock screen images on Windows 10?

Where, or what format, are the images used by Windows 10 when logged out or in lock-screen? I searched the entire drive for *.jpg, *.bmp, *.png, and *.tif but the one I was looking for did not appear....
WGroleau's user avatar
  • 784
37 votes
8 answers
485k views

How do I change the wallpaper of Windows 7 Starter Edition?

Is there a way to change the desktop wallpaper in Windows 7 Starter Edition? I wanted to do that on my new netbook, just to find out that there is no "Customize" option in the control panel. Microsoft ...
V. Schreiber's user avatar
35 votes
7 answers
82k views

How can I set the live video feed from the ISS as my desktop background?

NASA have recently started doing a live broadcast of the view from the ISS (if it's black, the ISS is over the night side of the Earth). http://eol.jsc.nasa.gov/HDEV/ How can I set this broadcast (or ...
Moriarty's user avatar
  • 453
33 votes
7 answers
297k views

Set one background to stretch across multi-monitor display?

I have two monitors and my coworker has three. We were wondering if there was a way to set a single background image to stretch across all the monitors. Right now it's the same image but repeated, so ...
JD Isaacks's user avatar
  • 8,484
32 votes
3 answers
31k views

What's the source of those daily changing locked screen wallpapers on Windows 10? [duplicate]

I have these automatically changing wallpapers active on my work laptop (not activated by me) and I think the vast majority is at least high quality, some are brilliant and a few I just adore. What ...
Spikee's user avatar
  • 519
27 votes
6 answers
21k views

Is it possible to turn visible the invisible window's borders of Windows 10?

SCENARIO This is a brief introduction for those who don't know the next information: The new Windows 10's flat window style uses a different window-border mechanism than previous Windows versions, ...
ElektroStudios's user avatar
26 votes
2 answers
466k views

Where does Windows store its current wallpaper? [duplicate]

I created an image for a desktop wallpaper and set the image directly in Windows (not from a browser). However, the image file I made is no longer on my computer, but the wallpaper is still there. How ...
Carpetfizz's user avatar
25 votes
2 answers
85k views

How do I reduce the size of the titlebar and window border padding on Windows 8, 10 or 11?

I think the size of the titlebars and the titlebar text are too large in Windows 8/8.1 and Windows 10. Also, the window border padding cannot be adjusted like it could in Vista and Windows 7, as the ...
paradroid's user avatar
  • 23k
22 votes
8 answers
165k views

How do I set the desktop background on Windows from a script?

On X Windows I had a cool 'silent-alarm" reminder script that would change my root window (background) color to solid red, just for a few seconds a few moments before changing it back. Is there a way ...
user avatar
21 votes
8 answers
41k views

How do I set my wallpaper to a web page on Mac OS X

I'd like to be able to have very ambient and persistent access to a web page. One idea would be to set the web page as my wallpaper. On Windows this would be easy enough, by setting an Active ...
jamesh's user avatar
  • 549
19 votes
3 answers
16k views

How do I make the alt-tab previews smaller in Windows 10?

When I do an Alt-Tab, I get a preview of all the programs I have open. I like this, but I would like the preview windows to be a bit smaller. At the moment I can only fit 5 preview windows in a single ...
Benn Grant's user avatar
19 votes
7 answers
52k views

Stop Windows 8 from converting wallpapers to low quality JPGs

This has been bugging me on Windows 7 as well, and much to my chagrin Microsoft didn't bother addressing that issue in Windows 8. Take this image for example: (Click to open original unaltered image.)...
emmalyx's user avatar
  • 761
18 votes
3 answers
63k views

Tool to put text on desktop wallpaper [closed]

I'd like to put a list of keyboard shortcuts I want to learn on my desktop wallpaper so I can show and hide it quickly by pressing Win+D. I'll want to be changing the list quite frequently as I ...
Sam Hasler's user avatar
18 votes
8 answers
191k views

Change background of a Windows 7 machine using Registry

I connected my machine to a work group. The settings to change the wallpaper is in server machine, so that all the machine will have same wallpaper. Now how can I change my machine's wallpaper using ...
Rauf's user avatar
  • 3,677
17 votes
9 answers
148k views

Wallpaper in Windows 7 locked down by domain group policy?

I am in a situation where my wallpaper is locked to a specific image on my work computer via group policy. I can't change it via the Personalization settings since it is grayed out and says it has ...
void.pointer's user avatar
  • 1,897
17 votes
10 answers
44k views

How do I extract a background from a Windows 7 Theme file?

Pretty obvious, How do I extract a background from a Windows 7 Theme file? I like the background pics from some of the themes I've downloaded, but is there anyway I can get the pictures (background ...
Miles's user avatar
  • 273
16 votes
4 answers
2k views

Low bandwidth Windows wallpaper

I connect to several different machines over a VPN using windows remote desktop. I would like to find several low bandwidth friendly wallpapers to distinguish one machine from another. It's not that ...
Mark Arnott's user avatar
16 votes
3 answers
72k views

Where does Linux Mint keep the files for default desktop wallpapers?

Under Cinnamon Settings > Backgrounds, there are a lot of images I would like to move to my windows partition to use as wallpapers. Where exactly are these files located?
WillumMaguire's user avatar
15 votes
6 answers
23k views

Periodically changing wallpaper under GNOME 3?

I use Fedora 15 with GNOME 3 and I'd like my wallpaper to periodically change like it's possible with Windows 7. It would be the best if it could use RSS/Atom or a specified directory. I haven't ...
KovBal's user avatar
  • 1,250
15 votes
2 answers
56k views

How to prevent black boxes on desktop icons in Windows after removing shortcut arrows?

When removing shortcut arrows using the regedit value %windir%\System32\shell32.dll,-50 in Shell Icons 29, black boxes cover up my desktop icons where the shortcut arrows used to be. How do I fix ...
Wandering Fool's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
3k views

How to make taskbar more transparent in Windows 10

I just installed Windows 10 the other day. I came from Linux and am surprised by how uncustomizable Windows is. I want to add more transparency to the taskbar, but I can't figure out how. Is it ...
cheesits456's user avatar
14 votes
3 answers
11k views

MATE: how to increase window resizing area

I use MATE on CentOS 7 and Ubuntu 15.04 and with both I have trouble resizing windows. It seems like I have to click on a 1px size line to change and that's a bit difficult with touchpad sometimes. ...
Jakke's user avatar
  • 1,010
14 votes
4 answers
24k views

Changing ALL System Fonts in Windows 7

I had a quick question about altering fonts in Windows 7 I was hoping someone could give me a hand with. I have a touch of OCD when it comes to consistency and am having trouble changing the system ...
GregHattJr's user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
19k views

iTerm2 Background image and split panes

Is it possible to have a background image for the whole window and not every split pane itself? I can't find how to do it anywhere.
Gricha's user avatar
  • 243
13 votes
5 answers
47k views

Set custom folder icon for a network folder in Windows File Explorer

I access a Windows share and the 'folder icon' section (the bottom one) is missing in its settings. It shows up properly in local folders. I would like to have it with both. A folder properties ...
user avatar
13 votes
3 answers
4k views

How can I browse white icons in Mac OS X Finder (Mavericks)?

I have bunch of white, transparent png icons in my folder and I find no way to see them clearly even if I change the background in view options (still white overlay on the image stays): I know some ...
Lukasz's user avatar
  • 193
12 votes
2 answers
48k views

How to bring back round window corners on Windows 10?

I like the look of Windows XP, and Windows 7, and like the round corners of the windows of the apps. Windows 10 seems to take a step to remove them and make it 90 degree corners. Are there ways to ...
nonopolarity's user avatar
  • 9,636
11 votes
5 answers
134k views

Where are Windows 10 desktop wallpapers stored? [duplicate]

I plugged in a thumb drive to my pc, right-clicked on an image, and chose 'Set as desktop background'. The thumb drive was subsequently stolen. Windows obviously creates a copy on the image since it ...
undo's user avatar
  • 6,071
11 votes
5 answers
69k views

Is there a Windows 7 keyboard shortcut to change the desktop background?

With all of the new keyboard shortcuts added to Windows 7, I was wondering if a shortcut had been added to change the Desktop Background when the theme was setup to work as a slide show. I want to ...
ahsteele's user avatar
  • 1,914
11 votes
7 answers
53k views

How could I find out the path to the current desktop image, for Windows 8

Having recently upgraded to Windows 8, my script to retrieve the current desktop wallpaper image has broken. For Windows 7, How could I find out the path to the current desktop image?, this works ...
Scott Bennett-McLeish's user avatar
11 votes
5 answers
243k views

Setting an animated .gif as the desktop background on Windows 7

I have an animated .gif I created using Photoshop CS4, but I can't get animation on my desktop although I can set it as a background from the context menu by opening it in Internet Explorer. How can ...
blackjack's user avatar
  • 149
11 votes
6 answers
68k views

Windows 7 dual monitor setup: Wallpaper alignment

I have the following dual-screen set up on my Windows 7 PC: [2][1], that means my secondary monitor is on the left side of my primary monitor. Now I have a dual-screen wallpaper that should stretch ...
Tomalak's user avatar
  • 1,173
11 votes
2 answers
10k views

Using a Flickr stream as a Windows 7 background slideshow?

Is there an app that will let me choose a Flickr photostream to be used as background slide show in Windows 7?
Wilka's user avatar
  • 487
11 votes
5 answers
47k views

Changing wallpaper depending on time of day via script or batch file?

I want to have 2 different wallpapers that change according to time of day (6 and 22 hours respectively) and only want to display the night one after 22 hours and the day one only after 6 hours and ...
Patrick's user avatar
  • 111
11 votes
1 answer
5k views

How to set a website with live information as desktop wallpaper

Here is a great map of the Earth showing live information about winds and temperature. Is it possible to set this as a desktop background with automatic updating every few hours (the map itself ...
octopus's user avatar
  • 219
10 votes
3 answers
27k views

Windows desktop background: how to have system info displayed

Some Windows machines can be configured with a desktop background that will query the local system for its hardware configuration, OS, configuration, statistics, etc. What program do you need to ...
p.campbell's user avatar
  • 4,368
10 votes
5 answers
54k views

Windows 10 slide show shorter than 1 minute

In Windows 10 you can create Desktop background slide shows. The minimum time between two images is one minute. How can I make the interval shorter?
alisia123's user avatar
  • 1,139
10 votes
3 answers
5k views

How to set the Windows 11 taskbar vertical?

My Windows 10 install just upgraded to Windows 11. I have had my taskbar positioned vertically since (I believe) Windows 95. I prefer this, as I can see every document grouped by the app. How do I set ...
user45971's user avatar
  • 403
10 votes
2 answers
24k views

How to use local html page as desktop/background

On a windows 7 computer how might one set the desktop to be a webpage. I want to have a local html file that I can edit as needed. Then windows should show that file as the background for the desktop ...
NDEthos's user avatar
  • 201
9 votes
4 answers
44k views

Windows 8.1 default (system) lock screen customization

Recently, I've reinstalled Windows on my laptop, upgrading it from Windows 7 to Windows 8.1. Now, I want to change the theme (or at least, wallpaper) which is shown on the screen before any user logs ...
DarkWanderer's user avatar
9 votes
5 answers
40k views

How can I span wallpapers over two monitors in Mac OS X?

Is there any way to get a single wide desktop wallpaper to span a dual monitor setup in OS X?
Todd Hunter's user avatar
9 votes
3 answers
15k views

Multiple screen wallpaper in Linux?

How can I wallpaper multiple monitors in Linux in an automated way? Basically how I normally do it is open up GIMP, and then grab several images and composite it together into a single large image ...
Pharaun's user avatar
  • 400
9 votes
4 answers
18k views

Android Live Wallpapers for Windows 7?

Is it possible to have Android live wallpapers on Windows 7?
Sevki's user avatar
  • 211
9 votes
1 answer
14k views

How to remove the 25MB file size limit on PNG desktop wallpaper for Windows 10

I recently purchased a new 40 inch, 4k monitor which has been great. However, in my hunt to find high resolution, high quality desktop wallpapers for my new desktop size, I have found that I'm unable ...
Bronson's user avatar
  • 91
9 votes
3 answers
2k views

Unmodalize Dialogs (Make Modal Dialogs Non-Modal)

I'm on Windows 10 and annoyed by many modal dialogs of built-in applications (e.g. Windows-Explorer's Options dialog) and third party applications (e.g. Eclipse's Run Configuration dialog). Example ...
Socowi's user avatar
  • 639
8 votes
4 answers
40k views

Bing Desktop local image folder

Bing Desktop used to store images at C:\Users\User\AppData\Local\Microsoft\BingDesktop\themes\. After the latest update to 1.3.395 the images are no longer stored there. Did anyone find the new ...
Dean Kuga's user avatar
  • 691
8 votes
2 answers
17k views

Disable preliminary lock screen background Windows Server 2016

When I open up my virtual machine of Windows Server 2016, I'm greeted with an image of a cave with the time and "press ctrl + alt + del". How do I go about removing the image of the cave and replacing ...
Shiffle McDoobles's user avatar

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