Free Wallpaper

The advent of computer wallpaper occurred in the mid-1970s with early versions developed by Xerox and Apple. The purpose at the time was to distinguish a computer’s background from the windows application. Today, wallpapers (or desktop pictures) are part of a computer user’s individual style, ranging from plain backgrounds to scanned photos to designer graphics. Online, there are any number of sites offering free wallpaper. Simply browse the collections and then right-click and save your choice.

Raster graphics or bitmaps are typically used for wallpapers today. They are often the same size as the computer’s display resolution (i.e. 1280x1024 pixels) and fill the entire space. However, with desktop functions such as “stretch,” a graphic and/or image can usually cover the entire space without much distortion. The bigger the image, the easier it is to stretch. Other options, such as “center” and “tile” can work for smaller graphics and images.

All new operating systems (OS) come pre-installed with free wallpapers. They’re usually standard graphic designs and photography and can provide a computer with instant style. Simple right-click the computer desktop and select “properties.” This will take you to the tabs that will customize the desktop, from the color palette to the wallpaper image.

The “browse” button enables the user to pull an image file from the computer’s hard drive for upload. For instance, if you’ve saved a family photo to your c: drive, you can browse for it, select it, and upload it to your computer’s desktop for a custom wallpaper.

As for finding free wallpaper online, it’s very simple. Go to any search engine and do a query. It’s best to narrow down choices with a modifying term, such as “free wallpaper animals.” Likely, the first few pages of results will be for computer desktops, but there may be some actual wallpaper for your house’s walls mixed in too.

To narrow down a query further, experiment: “free computer wallpaper animals,” “free desktop animals” or “free desktop wallpaper cats.” Specify the subject of the wallpaper as much as possible and you’ll likely find a more select list of results. There are a ton of websites offering free wallpaper for your computer. Follow the download instructions (typically the same for all sites) and you can change your desktop every day of the week.