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Quick reference
Personalize the Desktop
Change the background and the colors in Windows 11 to personalize the desktop.
When to use
We personalize the desktop whenever we want to put our own stamp on our copy of Windows 11.
Instructions
Let's liven up our copy of Windows 11 and make it more personal by changing the desktop background (wallpaper), theme, and colors.
Change the Background
The wallpaper is simply the image we see on our desktop background. Windows 11 comes with a selection of pre-installed, HD backgrounds that we can use for free or we can choose our own image.
When it comes to choosing an image, make sure you consider if the image is appropriate first.
- Right-click on the desktop and select Personalize.
- Click Background.
From here we can choose the type of background: Picture, Solid Color, Slideshow, or Windows Spotlight.
If we choose Picture, we can Browse for a photo on our PC. For the best result, choose a large, high-quality image so there is no pixelation or blur. Once we have selected an image, we can then choose how to fit that image on the desktop. Experiment with each of the options as some will stretch and distort the image.
We can fill the desktop background with a solid color. This has a much cleaner, less fussy look and some people prefer this as it distracts them less than an image. Choose Solid color from the drop-down menu and then select a color from the gallery.
If we simply can't decide on one image to use as our background, we could choose the Slideshow option. Slideshow will cycle through a selection of images stored in a folder. Before selecting this option, we need to ensure we have a folder that only contains the images to use in the slideshow. Choose Slideshow from the drop-down menu and Browse for the folder that contains the images. We can also make further adjustments here such as defining how often the image should change.
Windows Spotlight injects some fun into your day. Choose Windows Spotlight from the drop-down to receive a new background image from Microsoft each day.
Change the Colors
We can change the overall color of our windows and applications and change the accent color in Windows 11.
- Right-click on the desktop and click Personalize.
- Click Colors.
We can choose our mode: Light, Dark, or Custom. This changes the overall appearance of our windows and applications. We can also toggle on the transparency slider to give the taskbar a slightly transparent look and feel.
The Accent color relates to the highlight color used in Windows 11. For example, if we look at the taskbar, open applications have a small solid line underneath them. The color of that line is determined by the accent color we have selected.
Choose a Theme
Windows 11 comes pre-installed with a number of themes. Themes contain a desktop background image, a light or dark mode, and accent colors. Applying a theme is a quick way of personalizing the desktop without having to modify each individual setting.
- Right-click on the desktop and click Personalize.
- Click Themes.
- Choose a theme from the gallery.
Hints & tips
- A picture background applies to our current desktop. Solid colors and slideshows apply to all desktops.
- 00:04 We can live in our pack copy of Windows 11 by personalizing the desktop.
- 00:09 And when I say personalizing the desktop,
- 00:11 I mean we can change the background wallpaper that we're using,
- 00:15 we can change the theme, and we can also change the colors.
- 00:19 So let's have a look at some of the options that we have.
- 00:22 Now I mentioned at the beginning of the course that when you upgrade
- 00:27 to Windows 11, it comes with some really nice Free HD backgrounds.
- 00:31 And you can see that I'm using one of those free backgrounds on my desktop.
- 00:36 Now we do have a small selection of built in images that we can use,
- 00:40 or we can use our own image.
- 00:43 So let's take a look at some of the options we have when it comes to
- 00:46 personalization.
- 00:48 Now the quickest way to get into the correct area to do this is to simply right
- 00:52 click on the desktop background.
- 00:55 And notice right at the bottom we have an option for personalize.
- 00:58 Now all this is going to do is basically open up settings,
- 01:01 but it's going to jump us across to exactly the correct place.
- 01:06 And you can see right at the top the background wallpaper that I'm
- 01:09 currently using.
- 01:11 Next to it we have different themes.
- 01:14 Now there is a difference between simply a background wallpaper and a theme.
- 01:19 A theme contains more than one thing, so if I was to select one of these themes not
- 01:24 only is it going to apply the background wallpaper that you can see here, but
- 01:29 it's also going to set a color scheme for Windows 11.
- 01:32 So you can see here we have a slightly greeny color scheme, slightly gray and
- 01:37 some of these will use a light or a dark overall theme.
- 01:41 So choosing one of these basically sets our background wallpaper and
- 01:45 the colors and accents that we're using.
- 01:48 Now if you want to customize each individual element i.e you want to upload
- 01:52 your own image to use for the background,
- 01:55 you want to set your own colors you can then use these options below to do that.
- 02:00 Now we are going to choose one of these themes in a moment, but
- 02:03 let me just show you the individual items first of all.
- 02:06 The first thing here is Background.
- 02:09 So, this is where we can personalize our background wallpaper and
- 02:12 you can see some of the images that are available in Windows 11.
- 02:16 And some of these are really nice, I have this first one selected but if we choose
- 02:22 maybe this one just here and then I'm just going to minimize this a little bit.
- 02:28 You can kind of see what that looks like.
- 02:30 So these are definitely very nice to use as your background wallpapers.
- 02:35 Now notice here, I have picture selected.
- 02:38 We have a few different other options in here, but
- 02:41 we're going to leave on picture for the time being because if we don't want to
- 02:44 use one of the in-built backgrounds, we can upload our own picture.
- 02:48 So maybe you want to have a picture of your children or
- 02:51 maybe a holiday destination you recently visited or maybe your pet.
- 02:57 Well, if we want to do that we can choose our own photo in the section below.
- 03:01 Now I have a dog that I've had for
- 03:03 about 18 months now that I'm absolutely obsessed with.
- 03:07 And so in general I like to have her picture on my phone and
- 03:11 all of my devices because she is my baby.
- 03:13 So what I can do is I can click on Browse photos and
- 03:17 then as long as I have a photo saved off I can use that as my background.
- 03:22 So I'm going to go down to my downloads folder and
- 03:24 there she is, I'm going to use this one just here.
- 03:28 Let's choose the picture, you can see it adds it to recent images and
- 03:33 then I can choose a fill of my desktop.
- 03:36 So currently it's set to fill, but we do have a few other options.
- 03:40 Now in order for you to see this correctly again I'm just going to minimize this and
- 03:44 I'm actually going to drag the corners of this window in to make it a lot smaller.
- 03:48 So you can see here there she is my lovely dog Tilly and
- 03:51 currently that image is filling the entire desktop because I have it set to fill.
- 03:57 But if I choose Fit, it's going to fit the image to the desktop.
- 04:02 And when we choose Fit, I can see the whole image as it was originally
- 04:06 without it being zoomed in to fill the entire desktop or
- 04:10 having anything cut off of the image.
- 04:13 And you will find that depending on what image you're using sometimes depending
- 04:17 on the size of the image, if you've got it filling the entire desktop it might appear
- 04:22 a bit blurred or distorted.
- 04:23 So it's always good to have a little play around with these different options so
- 04:26 you get it just correct.
- 04:27 So if I choose stretch it's going to stretch it out that looks very distorted,
- 04:31 I can tile it now because this image is so
- 04:33 large you can just see the end of the first picture here.
- 04:37 And it's just going to repeat that picture in a tile formation.
- 04:40 If the image was smaller,
- 04:42 it would look a lot more like a wall full of different tiles.
- 04:45 We have Center, so that's going to center the image,
- 04:48 this option kind of cuts off part of the image which isn't so great and
- 04:53 then we have span which zooms in very slightly.
- 04:55 Now if I go back to Fill I actually think that one looks pretty good.
- 05:00 So what I'm trying to say here is if you do use your own image, have a little play
- 05:04 around with some of these fit options so that your image isn't distorted,
- 05:08 because that can look pretty hideous depending on the image.
- 05:12 So those are the options we have when it comes to choosing a picture, but
- 05:16 we do have some other options in here.
- 05:18 Maybe you're quite the minimalist and
- 05:20 you would rather just have a solid color in the background.
- 05:22 So I can choose a color from the palette or
- 05:25 I can choose a customized color in the view colors menu.
- 05:28 So let's choose let's go for it OrCAD if I select this is just going to give me
- 05:33 a solid fill color in the background and
- 05:36 some people prefer that they find it less distracting.
- 05:40 We can also use a slideshow option and what this basically allows us to do is
- 05:45 select a file folder that contains a number of different images and
- 05:49 the image will cycle around in a slideshow.
- 05:52 Let's just pull this up and go back to let's go to this PC and
- 05:58 Pictures maybe I have a folder in here let's very quickly create
- 06:04 one called Tilly and then I fill this folder with 10 images of my dog.
- 06:10 What I could do in slideshow view is I can click Browse,
- 06:15 I can then choose the folder, say choose this folder.
- 06:20 And then it's going to cycle through and change the background every so often.
- 06:25 And you can see here it says change picture every 30 minutes.
- 06:29 So it will cycle through all of those images and I can modify how often
- 06:32 the image changes, so I could have it changing every minute if I wanted to.
- 06:37 I have other settings in here like shuffled picture order,
- 06:40 let the slideshow run even if on battery power things like that.
- 06:44 So that is your slideshow option.
- 06:46 And then finally we have a pretty cool one called Windows spotlight and what this
- 06:51 will do is that a new image will be sent to you by Microsoft every single day.
- 06:56 So your background image will change according to whatever image Microsoft
- 07:00 has chosen to send out that day, so you can see what we currently have today.
- 07:05 If I log into my PC tomorrow,
- 07:06 it's going to be something completely different.
- 07:09 So if you're somebody who likes variety, that can be quite a nice option as well.
- 07:13 So that is our background.
- 07:15 If we go back to personalization, there's also some other things we can customize.
- 07:19 For example, colors, we can choose an overall mode so
- 07:22 currently I have light mode selected, but if I choose dark mode it means that all
- 07:27 of my windows are going to change this dark color as opposed to light.
- 07:31 We can also adjust our transparency effects.
- 07:35 So, if you take a look at the taskbar you can see the mine is a little
- 07:39 bit transparent,
- 07:40 if I was to toggle this off it's going to be more of a solid fill color.
- 07:44 We can then choose that accent colors and
- 07:46 accent colors are little flashes of color that appear throughout windows 11.
- 07:51 And a good example would be again down in the taskbar.
- 07:55 Notice that underneath the Settings icon, for example, we have a little line.
- 07:59 And in general, you'll see a line under your taskbar icons when you have that
- 08:04 application open, that little line is an accent color.
- 08:08 So I can change the color by selecting anything from this palette.
- 08:11 So if I change it to pink.
- 08:13 Notice the line underneath the Settings icon has now changed to pink.
- 08:17 Now let's jump back to personalization and just finish off by talking about themes.
- 08:22 As I said,
- 08:23 a theme will apply a background accent colors transparencies all in one go.
- 08:28 So if I choose this one just here,
- 08:30 you can now see it's changed my accent colors to this kind of brown color.
- 08:35 This one uses the light theme, so we haven't had much of a change there.
- 08:39 But if I minimize back down you can see my background has also been changed.
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