Windows 10 basics: how to customize your screen 1

Windows 10 basics: how to customize your screen

If you’ve bought a new laptop, one of the first things you’ll probably want to do is customize its appearance. Windows has many options for customizing what you see when you turn on your device. You can choose a lock screen, use a photo or other image as your wallpaper, and choose a theme.

It’s pretty simple and easy to do once you access your personalization settings. To do this:

  • Click the start button
  • Click the gear icon to open the settings
  • Choose “Personalization”

From here, you can make various design changes to your PC’s interface.

change your wallpaper

  • Click “Background” in the left bar

background page

Here you can change your wallpaper or set a slideshow instead.

  • Use the drop-down menu under “Background” in the main windows to choose to use an image, slideshow, or solid color as the wallpaper.
  • If you want to choose a picture as your wallpaper, click “Picture”. Windows gives you some of its own photo options under “Choose your picture”.
  • If you prefer to use one of your own photos, click the “Browse” button. Select an image and click “Choose image”.
  • Click the drop-down menu under “Choose a fit” to change the format of the photo. There are several different ways to use the image – fill the area, for example center it on the screen or create a tiling effect.
  • When you choose a fit, you will see your new wallpaper behind the Settings window; Feel free to experiment to see what works best for you (and your photo).
  • You can also choose a background color if the image does not fill the entire screen. Scroll down to “Choose your background color” and choose a color. (If the image takes up the entire screen, you won’t see that option.)

Fitting options for an image background

Adjust the sizing for your background.

  • If you prefer to skip setting a picture as your background, you can choose a color instead. Select “Solid color” from the Background drop-down menu, and then choose a color from the tiles under “Choose your background color”. You can also choose a custom color.

Background page, but with solid color options

Click a tile to set it as your background color.

  • Finally, you can select “Slideshow” from the drop-down menu under “Background”. To choose which images appear in your slideshow, click “Browse” under “Select albums for your slideshow”, select a folder, then click “Select this folder”.

Slideshow options for the background

The slideshow will play the photos in the folder you selected.

  • You can then choose from additional settings, such as how often the slideshow changes images, switching between shuffle transitions, whether the slideshow plays on battery power, and how the image should fit on the screen. You can also choose a background color for situations where the image does not fill the screen.

Additional background slideshow settings

Use these transitions and options to change your background slideshow settings.

To set the lock screen

  • Select “Lock screen” from the left sidebar

lock screen page

Here you can set what you see when your device is locked.

  • Open the drop-down menu under “Background”. You will have three options: “Windows spotlight”, “Picture” and “Slide show”.

Lock screen popup menu

Use the drop-down menu to customize your lock screen.

  • Select “Picture” to use a static image as your lock screen. Next, choose an image from the options under “Choose your image”.
  • As with your wallpaper, you can also use your own photo for the lock screen by clicking “Browse” using the popup window to navigate to the image you want, then “Choose image”.
  • Click “Slideshow” to set a slideshow to play when your device is locked. You will see a section called “Choose albums for your slideshow” showing the folders the slideshow will play the images in. To remove a folder, click on it and then click “Remove”. To add another folder, click the “Add folder” button, navigate to the folder you want to select, and then click “Select this folder”.

Lock screen slideshow options

You can add or remove folders for your slide show.

  • Below that you will see “Advanced slideshow settings”. Click it to adjust settings such as when to turn off your screen, whether to lock the screen when the device is idle, and whether to play a slide show when your Windows is running on battery power.

Advanced slideshow settings

Use the toggles to set your preferences for the slide show.

  • The third lock screen option is “Windows spotlight”. This feature will give you a photo for your lock screen. You can indicate whether you like the photo and your feedback will be used to customize which photos follow.

Lock screen app options

You can allow one app to display a detailed status and other apps to display a brief status on the lock screen.

  • No matter which lock screen option you choose, you can set which apps appear on that screen. Click the icon under “Choose an app to show detailed status on lock screen” and select an app from the drop-down menu. Below that, you can select additional apps that will show a less verbose status on the lock screen.

Dropdown options for apps

Click on the tile and choose an app from the drop-down menu.

Choose an accent color:

  • Click on “Colors” in the left sidebar
  • Click the drop-down menu under “Choose your color”. Here you can choose between Light and Dark modes. If you choose “Custom”, you can choose Light or Dark mode separately for Windows and your apps.

Color settings

You can assign dark mode separately for your device and applications.

  • Whichever you choose, you can scroll down to the “Choose your accent color” section and choose a color from the tiles there, or choose a custom color by clicking the + sign below.

Highlight color settings

Choose a color from the tiles or add a custom color.

how to use themes

Themes are a pack of wallpapers, sounds, and colors that you can use to customize your device. You can choose a theme that came with your system or get more from the Microsoft Store.

  • You can find “Themes” in the left sidebar and you will see your current theme in a window above the main area.
  • If you want, you can click on “Background”, “Color”, “Sounds” and “Mouse cursor” to adjust each of these features individually.

Custom theme settings

You can save the theme you created or choose a different theme.

  • Scroll down to “Change theme” to see others to choose from. As before, you will see the results of the changes in the window at the top of the page, and you can individually adjust the background, color, sounds and cursor. There is also a link to the Microsoft Store where you can find additional themes to play with.
  • Click “Save theme” to save the custom theme you created.

Themes menu

Use the buttons at the top to customize a built-in theme.

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