How to Add Background and Colors to Get Started in Windows 10

Microsoft wants users to want to be more productive with the Windows 10 operating system upgrade. It’s also aiming for an OS upgrade that finally frees users from all the hoops they had to jump through before. Music, videos, games and apps in one place. Built-in virus scanning, easy system restores, and mandatory software updates are all part of the package that home users also get. But you can’t love an operating system that is cold and dictated by a company. For users to love Windows 10, Microsoft needed to offer better background, theme and customization options.

The company delivered. While parts of Windows 8.1 may seem clinical and barely customizable, Windows 10 has plenty of options and toggles. Don’t like the Start Menu and want the Start Screen back? You can create it by flipping a switch. Not a big fan of clear glass effects? You can also turn them off. Backgrounds are back and you don’t have to choose two very different requests or find a setting to match them.

Here’s how to add a background and customize Windows 10.

Change Your Background in Windows 10

Go to the Desktop with a mouse and right click anywhere. If you have a touch device, place your finger anywhere on the screen and hold it there until a square box appears. Both mouse and touch users must choose from the drop-down menu.

Choose the background you want included with Windows 10 or choose your own image to showcase. Click one of the images at the bottom of the drop-down menu to use a recently added image as the background.

By default, changing your background in Windows 10 will change the accent color of Windows 10. You can disable this from the Colors menu on the left and choose a specific color if you want. Use the drop-down menu to change how the picture stretches on your screen.

Colors

The accent colors you choose have always been important in Windows. For example, choosing an accent color in Windows 7 added a different tint to the window frames. Windows 10 takes colors to their logical conclusion. Essentially, Windows 10 uses colors to allow you to add personality to your entire PC.

Tap or click the icon on the left.

By default, all switches in the Colors menu are on. Automatically, choose an accent color, it takes your background and picks a highlight from it. Turn it off to choose your own background.

Besides these, you can disable hover coloring for the Start menu, Taskbar, and Action Center with the second switch on this screen. Turning this off gives you a quiet black Windows 10 experience.

Finally, you can disable transparency if you’re not a fan of seeing your background behind the Start Menu and Taskbar.

Lock screen

Lock screen allows you to add some personalities and your favorite apps to the lock screen on your PC. This is especially useful if you need a glance at what’s going on on your computer.

Tap or click on the left.

Tap or click the recent photos you want to use, like backgrounds, or choose your own images.

Tap or click the drop-down menu to switch between a slideshow or a single image. Slideshows will actually pull images from Microsoft’s OneDrive service. This is the same service that has apps on iPhone, Android and Windows Phone.

Beneath all this is a way to pin apps to your lock screen. Microsoft provides users with seven slots for the apps they want to receive updates without unlocking their computer. App developers need to add support for this to their apps, but it’s really handy for checking mail or getting updates on your next appointment.

start

Finally, select to customize the Start Screen/Start menu, which is new in Windows 10. From here you can add new folders to it, get a list of your most used apps, or switch between the Start Screen and the Start Menu.

If you are using the start menu and need more space, just add it. The Start menu can be fully resized when Tablet Mode is turned off. Move your mouse cursor to the edge of the Start Menu to make it bigger or smaller.

For now, making any theme changes in Windows 10 seems to stay on your personal PC. When you go to another computer with Windows 10, you will have to make all the changes again.