Questions tagged [desktop-customization]
Tweaking the look and feel of the operating system's desktop. All OSes welcome.
560
questions
262
votes
12
answers
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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 ...
84
votes
11
answers
341k
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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 ...
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 ...
56
votes
5
answers
294k
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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....
37
votes
8
answers
485k
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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 ...
35
votes
7
answers
83k
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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 ...
33
votes
7
answers
299k
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 ...
32
votes
3
answers
32k
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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 ...
27
votes
6
answers
21k
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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, ...
26
votes
2
answers
469k
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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 ...
25
votes
2
answers
86k
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 ...
22
votes
10
answers
168k
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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 ...
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 ...
19
votes
3
answers
16k
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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 ...
19
votes
7
answers
52k
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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.)...
18
votes
3
answers
64k
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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 ...
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 ...
17
votes
9
answers
149k
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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 ...
17
votes
10
answers
44k
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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 ...
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 ...
16
votes
3
answers
73k
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?
15
votes
6
answers
23k
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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 ...
15
votes
2
answers
58k
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 ...
15
votes
3
answers
24k
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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 ...
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 ...
14
votes
3
answers
12k
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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.
...
13
votes
3
answers
19k
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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.
13
votes
5
answers
48k
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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 ...
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 ...
12
votes
5
answers
136k
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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 ...
12
votes
3
answers
6k
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 ...
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 ...
11
votes
5
answers
70k
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 ...
11
votes
7
answers
54k
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 ...
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 ...
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 ...
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?
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 ...
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 ...
10
votes
3
answers
28k
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 ...
10
votes
5
answers
54k
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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?
10
votes
2
answers
25k
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 ...
9
votes
4
answers
45k
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 ...
9
votes
5
answers
41k
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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?
9
votes
3
answers
16k
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 ...
9
votes
4
answers
18k
views
Android Live Wallpapers for Windows 7?
Is it possible to have Android live wallpapers on Windows 7?
9
votes
1
answer
15k
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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 ...
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
...
8
votes
4
answers
41k
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 ...
8
votes
2
answers
17k
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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 ...