There’s a whole range of Christmas desktop wallpapers available… in both Windows and Mac formats. Here’s an example of the ‘winter beauty‘ screensaver below:

free Christmas desktop wallpaper

How to get your free Christmas desktop wallpaper? It’s easy – firstly just choose a screensaver you like, then click the ‘download now’ button. After that, run the file to begin installation, or download and save the installation file!

See a complete range of free desktop wallpapers here

So, you have a brand new, shiny laptop your parents gave you for college. You have already installed all the software you need for writing papers, surfing the net, listening to your MP3s, etc.

But you’d like to add that little something that will identify your laptop from all the others as soon as you turn it on. The most effective way is to place a Desktop Wallpaper.

In choosing a desktop wallpaper for your computer, keep in mind the following:

1. It should be an image you would like to see everyday.
2. Someone else might see it (parents, classmates, etc.) so keep it strictly GP.
3. It shouldn’t be too big a file otherwise it will make your computer’s loading time slower.
4. Choose an image that can stand to be blown up to 800×600 pixels or bigger. Low resolution images may not look good.

If you want to create a one-of-a-kind, original desktop wallpaper for your computer, here are some tips:

1. Start with a high resolution picture or image 700 pixels high.
2. Avoid screen captures from videos that are not DVD quality. Enlarging low resolution pictures is not a good idea as image degradation is noticeable.
3. Try getting free images from Media Miner and Google Image Search.
4. If your image has artifacts (small uneven squares of color) try cleaning them off first. If you can get a good clean image, better.
5. Choose colors that go well together. A desktop wallpaper is really a work of art and should be treated as such.
6. Do not overly compress your image when saving it. A 1024×768 pixel image is generally 100kb.
7. Be prepared to spend a lot of time creating your wallpaper. If you know how to use Photoshop, experiment with various filters and effects.
8. The purpose of desktop wallpapers is to not only to beautify your desktop, it is also a reflection of your personality. A simple, clean background reflects a well organized mind.

You have finished making your image and you now want to know how to place it on your desktop. Here are some simple steps you can follow;

Step 1: Find a large version of a photo you wish to use. TIP: Download or take a photo at the highest resolution available.

Step 2: TIP: If you have Windows Vista, its super easy. Just right click the image file and pick PREVIEW. This is the process we will use here.

Step 3: From Vista’s gallery window, Click FIX and then CROP.

Step 4: Set the proportion drop-down list to 16×9 for your widescreen monitor. Now drag the stretch the box to make the image look nice. Click Apply.

Step 5: Here’s your final image. Save it to “My Pictures” as a .jpg.

Step 6: Right-click your open desktop and click Personalize.

Step 7: Click Desktop background.

Step 8: Pick your image, pick the fill or stretch option and click OK.

There are many sites on the net that offer free desktop wallpapers. The choices are virtually endless. You just need to download and install.

F Stewart is an IT Professional. He launched CollegiateWallpapers.com to allow college students, alumni, and fans to feature their favorite teams on their websites. Visit www.CollegiateWallpapers.com for more information.

How To Change Your Desktop Wallpaper
Written by Greg Melton.

It’s time to make your PC a little more personal. Explore your desktop wallpaper options. You can save almost any image as desktop wallpaper. Windows lets you assign the images in a couple of different ways. The most common method is to select a graphic from the list of pre-installed wallpaper images or a bitmap image of your choice. Another method is to enable Active Desktop.

Display Properties:
Here’s how to change your pre-installed wallpaper image to another pre-installed image or bitmap file.

1. Point your cursor to an empty space on the desktop.

2. Right-click and choose Properties.

3. Go to the Background tab.

4. Choose a bitmap image wallpaper. Your choices are denoted with an icon that resembles a folded piece of paper with art supplies in a jar.

5. You can also browse for the image on your hard drive. Make sure to choose a bitmap image to avoid enabling Active Desktop.

6. Decide how you want to display the image.

7. Press Apply and OK.

Saving images off the Web:
When you’re surfing the Net you may come across an image you want to use as your desktop wallpaper. Right-click the image and choose Set as Background. Windows will convert the image to a bitmap and add it to your list of pre-installed wallpaper images.

Active Desktop:
What if you want to use an HTML or Shockwave Flash document as wallpaper? Microsoft developed Active Desktop to let you use those non-bitmap documents. Active Desktop sits on top of your regular desktop and functions like an Internet browser. Consequently, you can have separate background images in Active Desktop and your Display Properties at the same time.

Here’s how to enable Active Desktop:

1. Point your cursor to an empty space on the desktop.

2. Right-click and select Active Desktop.

3. Select View as Webpage.

When you want to disable Active Desktop, just unselect the View as Webpage option. When you turn off Active Desktop, your previously selected desktop wallpaper appears.

To use a non-bitmap image such as a JPEG or GIF as desktop wallpaper, go back into your Display Properties and browse to the file you want to use on your hard drive. A couple of options may also appear in the list of available wallpaper images. Active Desktop wallpaper usually has a browser icon next to it. Select the image you want to use, and press Apply and OK.

Desktop wallpaper photos originated because I am an enthusiastic photographer and lover of technology and good design. I like the idea of using images with computers… and especially, desktop wallpaper fascinates me. It’s the potential of what can be… what you can create with images and share with hundreds of other people out there…

What will happen with this desktop wallpaper photos site is that it’ll be a reference point for some of the coolest wallpapers out there. You can contribute your own too, so that should be fun. We’ll also look into not only showing the nicest desktop wallpapers, but learning how to create them too…

If you’re ready, let’s go…

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