Making this simple Windows change helps me stay inspired when life is overwhelming

• Find stunning wallpapers
• Save the wallpapers to a convenient location
• Change Windows background settings
• An alternative solution

I spend most of my week sitting in front of my monitor and prefer to customize my desktop to keep things exciting and reduce stress. Default wallpapers are boring, and I can’t stand looking at them every day when I have other options available to me.

My Windows 11 desktop changes throughout the day with stunning and inspirational wallpapers. I get a taste of my dream vacations with serene beaches and forests, or explore the galaxy with pictures of planets or spaceships. Sometimes I just sit back and admire nature while gazing at tigers, crocodiles and other majestic creatures.

The Windows wallpaper slideshow setting improves my mood and here’s how you can use it to brighten up your day too. It just takes a few easy steps to set it up, and then you won’t need to touch it again.

Find stunning wallpapers

Limitless options to choose from

The first step to customizing my desktop is finding wallpapers that appeal to me. I use the Backiee Wallpaper Studio app because it’s free and contains thousands of high-quality wallpapers sorted into categories so I can easily find what I’m looking for.

I use the Backiee Wallpaper Studio app because it’s free and contains thousands of high-quality wallpapers.

I usually browse through categories, like Nature, Space, and Sport to find images that excite me. I also enjoy exploring the editorial selection and checking out images of different countries until I find something that catches my eye.

Everyone has different tastes, and you might be happier with other wallpaper types. You can try adding pictures of your family and friends from your photo library, or downloading wallpapers of your favorite movies or music artists, using sites, like 4Kwallpapers.com. There are no wrong choices and the goal is to find wallpapers that make you happy.

Save the wallpapers to a convenient location

Sort them into your preferred categories

After finding the wallpapers I like, I save them to a convenient location on my PC. Most sites and apps will display the dimensions and resolution of the images I want to save, and I choose the options which best match my screen size. Download options will vary depending on the source, with some letting me choose the folder I want to save to and others defaulting to the Windows Downloads folder.

After finding the wallpapers I like, I save them to a convenient location on my PC.

After downloading, I usually prefer to categorize my saved wallpapers in different folders to keep movies, nature, and space separate from each other. What you do depends on what you prefer, and it’s fine if you’d like to lump them all together in one, or create your own categories.

Change Windows background settings

Set your preferences

The next step is to change the Windows wallpaper settings. I do this by right-clicking on my desktop and clicking on Personalize, then Background. The Personalize your background setting is usually set to Picture by default and I change it to Slideshow to view different desktop wallpapers throughout the day.

The option to Choose a picture album for a slideshow will open, and I click on Browse to map my desired folder. I then navigate to the folder with my desired wallpapers and click on Choose this folder. Windows will then display wallpapers from the selected folder and switch between them at set intervals.

Windows will then display wallpapers from the selected folder and switch between them at set intervals.

To set my preferred interval, I click on the dropdown menu beside the Change picture every option and choose one hour. You may have a different preference and can also choose between one, ten, and thirty minutes, six hours, or one day. The slideshow will display the images in a set sequence, but I like to turn on the Shuffle the picture order setting to make it random instead.

An alternative solution

Easy preset slideshow

I use Windows 11’s built-in Spotlight option if I’m feeling lazy or just don’t have the time to save individual wallpapers. It’s the easiest way to activate slideshow desktop wallpapers, but I don’t get to control which images are displayed or their frequency. There’s still a breathtaking range of nature and wildlife images which are far more exciting than the default options.

I use Windows 11’s built-in Spotlight option if I’m feeling lazy or just don’t have the time to save individual wallpapers.

Activating Windows Spotlight wallpapers is similar to the custom slideshow. I right-click on the desktop and click on Personalize. I then click on Background and choose Windows Spotlight in the Personalize your background menu.