Windows 7 is an operating system developed by Microsoft. Windows 7 was released to manufacturing on July 22, 2009, and to the public on October 22, 2009. It is the successor of Windows Vista. Unlike Windows Vista, which was widely criticized for its performance, Windows 7 was more positively received and widely adopted. It was followed by Windows 8 in 2012.
For Windows 7's wallpapers, Microsoft licensed rights-managed images from Getty Images and Corbis, as with previous versions. Images were also licensed from other sources, such as SIME/4Corners Images, Photolibrary, and individual photographers' PhotoShelters. While Windows 7 continues the tradition of using photography, two new themes consisting of illustrations were added to give Windows 7 "a little bit of personality", according to Steven Sinofsky. The illustrators were found through the agency 72 and Sunny.[1] They also worked with photographer Will Austin, who directly assisted Microsoft with selecting six wallpapers from his stock collection, as it wanted to incorporate photos from Seattle in Windows 7's themes, the city where its headquarters are located in.[2][3] Austin described Windows 7's wallpapers as "a great example of Microsoft's commitment to the user experience".
While Windows Vista included a small set of 16:10 widescreen wallpapers, this is the first Windows version where all of the wallpapers are 1920x1200, as widescreen displays were more widespread by 2009. It is also the first version where the wallpapers are included as part of themes; while Vista's wallpapers were split into categories, 7 sorts the wallpapers by themes instead, where selecting the theme will have the corresponding set of wallpapers being used as a slideshow.
The default wallpaper is Harmony, created by Chuck Anderson and Erik Attkisson. Whereas Windows XP and Vista Starter editions have unique wallpaper sets, Windows 7 only has one wallpaper for its Starter edition, which is an edited version of the default wallpaper seen in other editions; the wallpaper can no longer be changed in Windows 7 Starter as well. Windows 7 Home Basic features the same wallpaper set as all higher editions but only has Windows and Landscapes categories.
Image Name Category Licensed from Originates from Photographer/artist Notes img0 (Harmony) Windows N/A commissioned by Microsoft Chuck Anderson and Erik Attkisson Default wallpaperThe version featured in Starter is different, featuring a white logo and less details; it is also the only available wallpaper
img1 Nature Corbis zefa Pete Leonard img2 Nature Corbis Corbis Mark Bolton img3 Nature Rob Tilley's PhotoShelter Rob Tilley's PhotoShelter Rob Tilley img4 Nature Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img5 Nature Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img6 Nature Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img7 Landscapes Getty Images Getty Images Martin Rügner img8 Landscapes Getty Images Minden Pictures Carr Clifton img9 Landscapes Getty Images Minden Pictures Tim Fitzharris img10 Landscapes Photolibrary Photolibrary Stuart Westmorland img11 Landscapes SIME/4Corners Images SIME/4Corners Images Giovanni Simeone img12 Landscapes Getty Images Getty Images Cornelia Doerr img13 Architecture Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img14 Architecture Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img15 Architecture Corbis zefa Gregor Schuster img16 Architecture Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin's PhotoShelter Will Austin img17 Architecture Getty Images Getty Images Andreas Stirnberg A building has been removed, while the cloud has been moved img18 Architecture Corbis Arcaid Images John Gollings Buildings have been blurred out img19 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Yuko Kondo img20 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Katharina Leuzinger img21 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Osmand Nosse img22 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Klaus Haapaniemi img23 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Red Nose Studios img24 Characters N/A commissioned by Microsoft Punga img25 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Pomme Chan img26 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Kustaa Saksi img27 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Nanospore img28 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Adhemas Batista img29 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Kai and Sunny img30 Scenes N/A commissioned by Microsoft Hvass HannibalWindows 7 features regional themes for 20 countries, similar to Windows XP Starter Edition featuring 3-6 wallpapers for each country. The team behind these themes licensed images from a wide range of stock photo agencies, including Getty Images, Corbis, SIME/4Corners Images, Masterfile, age fotostock, and JupiterImages (which was acquired by Getty during Windows 7's development). Jennifer Shepherd, who produced the regional themes, also hosted a worldwide photo contest where Microsoft employees worldwide were able to submit photos that represent their country. Employees of each country voted on the best wallpapers for their theme, including both stock photos and winning images from the contest.[4] These themes aren't implemented as part of a language pack, but rather manually added to the OS image (e.g. a user performed a clean installation with the image in the English language and if they install the Korean language pack later, they won't get the regional themes as if they performed a clean installation from the Korean language's image), in details:
Vanilla Windows 7 image in language Regional themes included English- Australia
- Canada
- South Africa
- United Kingdom
- United States
- China
- Taiwan
- Netherlands
- Canada
- France
- Germany
- Italy
- Japan
- Poland
- Russia
- Spain
- Mexico
- Korea
- Turkey
- Brazil
The existence of the alleged preinstalled India theme has been mentioned in a post on the official Windows Experience Blog in 2010.[4] However, this isn't included in any vanilla Windows 7 images released by Microsoft to obtain separately, but is preinstalled by certain OEMs (Original equipment manufacturers), such as Acer with Gateway NV57H58u (2011).[5]
As well as built-in themes for each of the 20 countries, the team also produced downloadable themes of the same countries that were available from Microsoft's site after Windows 7 was released. The team produced a total of 40 themes, two for each country, totaling 240 regional wallpapers. 20 of these are included in Windows 7, while the other 20 were available for download as soon as Windows 7 was released. From Windows 7 onwards, themes have the wallpapers set as a slideshow, while XP-era themes had one default wallpaper often with a few extra options.
To get a regional theme to display in the Personalization Control Panel:
- Close any opening Personalization Control Panel, if any.
- From Control Panel:
- If you're viewing as Category: Navigate to Clock, Language, and Region → Region and Language.
- If you're viewing as Large/small icons: Click Region and Language.
- Go to the Location tab, choose any region listed below (depending on the language version, for example: the English version came with regional themes for Australia, Canada, South Africa, United Kingdom, and United States), and click Apply.
- Open the Personalization Control Panel and check if the regional theme shows up in the "Aero Themes" section.
Windows 7 has eight sample pictures. Half of them are royalty free Corbis images; the other half were taken by Microsoft employees. Like with Windows Vista's sample pictures, they are all at a resolution of 1024x768.
Image Name Rating Licensed from Originates from Photographer Notes Chrysanthemum 4 Stars Corbis Corbis unknown (credited on Corbis to DLILLC) Desert 3 Stars Corbis Corbis Ron Chapple Appears at 1280x960 in Release Candidate builds. Hydrangeas 3 Stars N/A Microsoft Amish Patel Jellyfish 5 Stars N/A Microsoft Hang Quan Koala 4 Stars Corbis image100 unknown (credited on Corbis to image100) Lighthouse 5 Stars N/A Microsoft Tom Alphin Penguins 4 Stars Corbis Corbis unknown (credited on Corbis to DLILLC) Tulips 4 Stars N/A Microsoft David NadalinMost of Windows 7's user account pictures come from Getty Images and use a mixture of royalty free and rights-managed licenses, with a few coming from Corbis, hired artists that worked on Windows 7's wallpapers, and one Microsoft employee. As with Vista's, they are at 128x128.
Image Name Licensed from Originates from Photographer/artist Notes guest N/A Microsoft/Iconfactory unknown Reused from Vista user N/A Microsoft/Iconfactory unknown usertile10 Getty Images PhotoDisc Donovan Reese usertile11 Corbis Corbis unknown (credited on Corbis to Spirit Value RF) usertile12 N/A commissioned by Microsoft Punga usertile13 Getty Images Getty Images Steven Errico usertile14 Getty Images Getty Images Tetsuo Morita usertile15 Getty Images PhotoAlto Laurent Hamels usertile16 Getty Images Getty Images GK Hart/Vikki Hart usertile17 Getty Images Getty Images Dave Zubraski usertile18 Getty Images Getty Images Marco Simoni usertile19 N/A commissioned by Microsoft Adhemas Bastista usertile20 Getty Images Aurora Whit Richardson usertile21 Getty Images Getty Images Rob Atkins usertile22 Getty Images Digital Vision unknown (credited on Getty to Digital Zoo) usertile23 Getty Images Getty Images Jeffrey Hamilton usertile24 Getty Images Johner unknown (credited on Getty to Johner) usertile25 Getty Images Getty Images Jeffrey Coolidge usertile26 Getty Images Getty Images Livia Corona usertile27 Getty Images PhotoDisc Ryan McVay usertile28 Getty Images Getty Images Joseph Clark usertile29 N/A Microsoft Gary Spradling usertile30 Corbis Corbis David Selman usertile31 Getty Images robertharding Robert Harding usertile32 Getty Images imagewerks unknown (credited on Getty to imagewerks) usertile33 Getty Images Getty Images Georgette Douwma usertile34 Getty Images robertharding James Hager usertile35 N/A commissioned by Microsoft Kat Leuzinger usertile36 Getty Images robertharding Sakis Papadopoulos usertile37 Getty Images Getty Images Vincenzo Lombardo The version used in Windows 7 has a light blue background and grass in front of the soccer ball added usertile38 Getty Images Getty Images Martin Child usertile39 Getty Images Getty Images Jeffrey Coolidge usertile40 Getty Images unknown Alberto Coto usertile41 Getty Images Getty Images Martin Child usertile42 Getty Images SuperStock/Purestock James Urbach usertile43 Getty Images WIN-Initiative unknown (credited on Getty to WIN-Initiative) usertile44 Getty Images Tony Stone Images Chad EhlersThe logon background is based on the default desktop wallpaper, being designed by Chuck Anderson and Erik Attkisson too. The image itself is pretty minimalistic ― it depicts a sky blue background with several stripes and grass blades on it, and a bird near the leaves of one of the plants. This background is also used for the post-install OOBE. Like with Windows Vista's logon background, it is included in a range of resolutions ranging from 1024x768 to 1920x1200.
The logon background on Remote Desktop connections made to Windows 7 simply consists of #1D5F7A color, which is identical to:
- Normal use in Windows Vista Starter and Server 2008;
- Remote Desktop connections made to Windows Vista and Server 2008.
The Embedded versions feature a completely different logon background, consisting of a dark blue radial gradient, and a line of rounded squares placed in line across the background. It is very similar to the branding wallpapers featured in the Embedded 2009 versions of Windows XP, albeit with duller shades of blue and more opaque squares. Like in regular Windows 7 editions, this background is also used for post-install OOBE and is included in various resolutions.
Image Name Licensed from Originates from Photographer/artist Notes (logon) N/A commissioned by Microsoft Chuck Anderson and Erik Attkisson (Remote Desktop logon) N/A Reused from Windows Vista and Server 2008 (embedded logon) N/AThe setup background is in BMP format and 1024x768, like with Windows Vista. It can be seen during installation and in the recovery boot menu. It can be found in various places on the Windows 7 DVD as background_cli (i.e. in the sources folder). It looks very similar to the logon background, although featuring a darker blue background color, white clouds added on top, and some lines near the center shortened or made more transparent.
The Embedded versions also feature a different setup background. It is very similar to the logon background, although the line of squares is slightly further down (due to resolution) and the colors are in a slightly different order. It can be found on the Windows 7 DVD as background_emb.
The Picture Puzzle gadget includes 11 selectable images at a resolution of 108x108; their names are simply the numbers corresponding to the order they appear in. The set is otherwise identical to the set used in Windows Vista. Gadgets would also be removed in Windows 8.
Image Name Licensed from Originates from Photographer/artist Notes 1 Getty Images Getty Images Kevin Schafer Cropped version of Windows Vista's sample picture Toco Toucan 2 Getty Images Getty Images Jeff Hunter Cropped version of Windows Vista's sample picture Green Sea Turtle 3 Getty Images Digital Vision Natphotos Cropped image of Windows Vista's sample picture Garden 4 N/A Microsoft/Iconfactory unknown 5 Getty Images Getty Images Kevin Forest Cropped version of Windows Vista's sample picture Frangipani Flowers 6 Getty Images CSA Images unknown (credited on Getty to CSA Images) Smaller version of Windows Vista's usertile2 7 unknown unknown unknown 8 Getty Images The Image Bank GK Hart/Vikki Hart Resized version of Windows Vista's usertile3 9 Getty Images Getty Images Angelo Cavalli Cropped version of Windows Vista's sample picture Dock 10 N/A commissioned by Microsoft Michael Haber Cropped image of Windows Vista's img20 11 N/A Microsoft (presumed) unknown daisies unknown unknown unknown Unused- Including all of the built-in regional wallpapers, Windows 7 has a total of 151 wallpapers, the highest number of wallpapers built into a version of Windows. If the downloadable regional ones that were made available upon 7's release are also included, the count goes up to 271.
- Windows Vista and 7 HD Wallpaper Pack