Windows 10’s default desktop background is a bit of a mess. It’s a mix of old Windows Aero graphics and some basic images. It’s not very pretty, and it doesn’t look very modern. There are a few ways to get Windows 10’s old default desktop background back. One way is to use the “Custom Desktop Background” feature in the “Windows 10 Settings” menu. Another way is to use the “Custom Desktop Backgrounds” feature in the “Windows 10 app” settings. Both of these methods require administrator privileges. If you don’t have administrator privileges, you can’t use either of these methods to get Windows 10’s old default desktop background back.
Windows 10’s May 2019 Update features a new, brighter default desktop background. It looks great—with the new light theme. If you use Windows 10’s dark theme, you’ll probably want a darker background.
Strangely enough, Windows 10’s original desktop background has been removed from the latest version of Windows 10. You’ll have to download it from the web or copy its files from an older Windows 10 PC.
Microsoft isn’t hosting this wallpaper image anywhere we can find, but you can download it from elsewhere. We found a 4K copy of Windows 10’s original desktop wallpaper on Imgur. Different sizes—and more of Windows 10’s other default wallpapers—are also available for download. (Microsoft makes other Windows 10 wallpapers available here, but not the original Windows 10 wallpaper.)
Just right-click the image file on Imgur and save it to your computer using your browser—in Chrome, select “Save Image As.”
If you have a computer running an older version of Windows 10, you can also save a copy of the desktop wallpaper. Just head to C:\Windows\Web\4K\Wallpaper\Windows to find the background files in a variety of resolutions. The “img0_3840x2160.jpg” file is the 4K version.
Save it to OneDrive, Dropbox, Google Drive, a USB drive, a network file share, or email it to yourself—however you’d like to store it. Move it to your new PC.
WIth the image downloaded to your PC or copied from another computer, you can right-click it and select “Set as Desktop Background” to make it your system’s desktop background.
You can also head to Settings > Personalization > Background and use the “Browse” button to find the wallpaper image on your system.
You can download more free desktop backgrounds by visiting the Windows Themes section in the Microsoft Store. Of course, you can download an image from anywhere on the web and make it your desktop wallpaper, too—just make sure it’s high enough resolution or it’ll look bad when it’s stretched to fill your computer’s desktop.
RELATED: Everything New in Windows 10’s May 2019 Update, Available Now
