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Home » Windows Tips & Tricks » Complete Guide: Customize Window 10 Desktop Icons, Backgrounds, and Screensaver

Complete Guide: Customize Window 10 Desktop Icons, Backgrounds, and Screensaver

By FRANCES ZHANG

Given the current situation regarding COVID-19 rapid spreading worldwide, more and more people are working at home. Imagine when you are working on a laptop, the desktop icons are either too hard to find or too big that take up too much space on your screen, or the default blue wallpaper is so boring but you have to stare at it all day? Customizing desktop settings could be essential also fun and cool at the same time. Here I will show you how to customize your desktops icons, desktop backgrounds, screensavers in a few steps.

Customize your desktop icons in Windows 10

On your computer, icons like This PC, Internet or Network, Recycle Bin, User Folder and many others are called "desktop icons". These icons are one of many built-in icons from the Windows system, if you don’t like the one you are using now you can change it by accessing to Control Panel>Personalize>Desktop Icon Settings. Choose another icon or "Browse" on your computer and find your preferred one. Of course, you can easily "Restore Default" if you don’t like it anymore.
change Windows desktop icons

Customize Folder Icon, Customize Shortcut Icon in Windows 10

Sometimes we can also change a Folder icon to make our desktop more organized and make the files easier to be found. To change a folder icon, you can right-click the folder and then click "Properties" > "Customize" > "Change Icon". To change a shortcut icon, right-click on the shortcut, then click "Properties" > "Shortcut" > "Change Icon", do the same like customize a desktop icon. It’s quite easy, right?

Customize the size of your desktop icons in Windows 10

It only takes you 3 steps to change the size of icons: Right-click on any empty space on your desktop > Click "View" from the contextual menu > Select which size you want to your icon to be viewed: Large icons,Medium icons (default one), or Small icons
change Windows desktop icons size

Customize your desktop background in Windows 10

I think customizing desktop background is the coolest and easiest thing you can do to make your laptop unique and creative. From Lock Screen to Background and Themes, you can easily change it to your own preference like photos from family album, friends reunion or breathtaking view from travel, and enjoy the moment at every time when you start your computer. With that said, let’s explore how to make that happen.

How to customize the desktop background using the right-click menu?

The fast way to customize the desktop background – using right-click menu. Just browse to find the picture that you want to use as your background wallpaper, and then right click on it, on the contextual menu click "Set as desktop background", then you are done!
set your own desktop background picture

How to customize the desktop background and Lock Screen with Windows 10 built-in features?

If you want to use multiple images as background or set how they fill your desktop, you’ll need to access Windows 10 customization centers. Here is how to do that: Click on the Windows icon at the left corner of your screen, then click Settings icon, then Personalization, you’ll see different settings like:
customize the desktop background and Lock Screen 1

On the right side of the Background section, you can choose one single picture or single color as your background wallpaper. If you want to use more than one image as wallpapers for your Windows 10 desktop, you should select "Slideshow", which will allow you to choose multiple images from one of your albums as the slideshow. Then you can set the time how often you want to change the image, and set how you’d like the image to be adjusted by clicking "Choose a fit. There are many options like Fill, Fit, Stretch, Tile, Center, Span.
customize the desktop background and Lock Screen 2

On the same settings page, you can customize Lock Screen and Themes for your desktop too. It’s easy and quite straightforward to personalize your desktop background from Windows’ own settings, and you can change it anytime anywhere as you like.

Wallpaper apps and software recommendation

There are some wallpaper software and apps provide lots of high-resolution and best-looking photos. MyerSplash Photos is an Windows 10 app of them, with beautiful UI, fluent animations, high-resolution photos. It's open-source and download photos from Unsplash.
MyerSplash cover

Another tool we recommend you have a try is Splashify. Splashify is user-friendly and very easy to use. It allows users to choose desktop wallpapers from a range of HD background images and set them as your desktop background in a single click. There are about 3K+ new images uploaded every month. Just select one photo you love and click the apply button then you’ll have a beautiful desktop wallpaper. Besides, you can use different wallpapers on multiple displays or use the same background for each display for seamless switching.
Splashify cover

How to customize desktop theme in Windows 10?

Almost every month Microsoft releases a series of 4K themes to help users customize their desktop. All these themes are full of 4k wallpapers and can be downloaded free from the official Microsoft Store. Check this February’s new theme about beautiful spring flowers here.
Sunflowers PREMIUM

Meanwhile another quick way to personalize your desktop theme is install Theme Pack files from other suppliers. Theme Packs are essentially CAB files which contains resources such as wallpapers, sounds, etc. to help users customize Windows themes. Themepack.me is one of the biggest sites for people to find unique and high-quality themes. There are thousands of themes and each theme is classified in certain categories such as games, nature, movies, holidays and anything you can think of. And it’s free to download. Take a try!
themepack screenshot

More tips here:
How to Sync Windows 10 Themes on Your Computers?
Download Microsoft New 4K Themes for Windows 10 for Free

How to add dynamic wallpaper in Windows 10?

Well there are also plenty of tools which can help you add dynamic effects to your wallpapers in Windows 10. WinDynamicDesktop uses your location to determine the times of sunrise and sunset, and change your desktop wallpaper in the background based on the time of day. You can also download themes created by the community or import from other sites.
dynamic wallpaper More tips here:
How to Get Live Wallpaper and Animated Backgrounds for Windows 10

How to customize the desktop background using professional software like Rainmeter?

Some people may prefer taking advantage of professional softwares like Rainmeter to customize desktop background in Windows 10. Rainmeter is an open source and powerful desktop customization tool which allows you to create and design your own unique skins on your desktop. You can add any element you like on it, such as date, time, music, shortcuts, your favorite albums. Here are some examples:
themes by Rainmeter 1


themes by Rainmeter 2

Pretty cool, right? Well you can download Rainmeter from its official website rainmeter.net, and browse to find many tricks and tips about how to use this tool on Rainmeter Community. If you still wonder how to start use this tool, check this tutorial on YouTube:

Final words

Customizing desktop in Windows 10 is not limited to one way. There’s no reason to stick to the same old design like everyone else use. It can be easy and fun to customize it to suit your own preference at any time. Explore your imagination!

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