Making Wallpaper

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Printing your pictures on paper isn't the only way to use your Paint creations. You can also use them as Windows wallpaper—the background for your desktop. If you already have a Paint image saved on your computer's hard disk, you can use the Display Properties dialog box to choose it as your wallpaper. However, there's an easier way to use the current Paint image as wallpaper without using the Display Properties dialog box at all.

NOTE

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You can use a Paint image as your desktop wallpaper only if you're not displaying Web content on your desktop. To disable Web content so you can display wallpaper, right-click the desktop, point to Active Desktop, and clear the check mark from Show Web Content. If there's no check mark next to Show Web Content, simply click anywhere else to close the shortcut menu; your desktop is ready to be wallpapered.

Before you can use a Paint image as wallpaper, you must save it. Once the image is saved, choose Set As Wallpaper (Tiled) or Set As Wallpaper (Centered) from the File menu. The Tiled option displays as many copies of the picture as required to fill the screen. Centered uses one copy of the image—centered on the screen.

SEE ALSO

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For information about using the Display Properties dialog box to apply wallpaper, see "Using Wallpaper."

As soon as you choose one of the Set As Wallpaper commands, the image immediately becomes your wallpaper, although you won't be able to see it if Paint is maximized or if your desktop is covered with other programs.

TIP

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Before you use a Set As Wallpaper command, you might want to move the wallpaper file to the folder in which your other wallpaper files are stored. This makes the file easier to find in case you ever change to another wallpaper file and then want to switch back. The default folder for wallpaper files is %SystemRoot%, which is C:\Winnt on most systems.