How To Change Wallpaper On Laptop Windows 7

Windows 7 is an oldie but goodie and it automatically provides you with a nice set of wallpaper images that you can use. The majority of them look good with their scenic background and soothing images but they may not suit everyone’s style. If you want a more badass look that suits your personality, then you might want to change your laptop wallpaper.

But how do you change your Windows 7 wallpaper? It’s actually quite easy, all you need to do is to right-click on your desktop and click on “Personalize” and then “Desktop Background option”. From here you can choose the image you want as your Windows 7 wallpaper.

That’s it. It’s that easy! All you need to is a few mouse clicks and you’ve already set the wallpaper for your windows 7 laptop. However, these options are very limited and you’ll only be able to choose from a limited number of pictures. So how do you add your own customer images to the list?

Choosing a Custom Image for your Wallpaper

If you’re tired of background images, then you’d probably want to use an image of your favorite movie star, your pet, or even a picture of yourself as your wallpaper. You can easily do this by adding them to the possible choices to choose from. Here’s how:

1. Right-click on your desktop, click on “Personalize”
2. Go to “Desktop Background” and click on “browse”
3. From here choose the location of the photo you want to use and it should allow you to use it as your wallpaper.
4. Click on “Save Changes” and the image should become your new wallpaper.

Another easy way to do this is without having to click on “browse” is to right-click on the image you want to use and choose the option. “Set as desktop background”

Doing this should make the image available as the possible options for your wallpaper. You might need to go back to the “Personalize” settings again if you want to edit the more things about the wallpaper itself such as the way it fits into the screen, whether you want to crop it or not, etc.

Customizing your Wallpapers

You don’t have to limit yourself by using only a single image as your wallpaper. Choosing multiple images will make it more appealing and more personal for you as well. You can even choose animated wallpapers as well which we will also cover after this one here.

Here’s how you customize your wallpapers:

1. Right-click on the desktop and go to “Personalize”. This should take you to your control panel’s personalization settings giving you a lot of options.  Look for “Desktop Background” and click on it.
2. Choose the images you want to use as your wallpaper and browse for custom wallpapers you want to add as well.
3. You can also use the “Set as background option ” which we’ve discussed previously to also add your images in as well.
4. At the bottom part of the window, you’ll find different settings on how the wallpapers should behave.

5. The settings are pretty much self-explanatory. But here’s a quick rundown on what they do. The “Change Picture Every” option will change your wallpaper after a specified amount of time which is very useful if you don’t want to see the same picture over and over.
6. Your computer picks the specified wallpapers from a list which means that they follow a certain order when chosen. If you want to completely change this order, then clicking on “Shuffle” will randomize the order that the images get chosen.
7. Lastly, the “Picture Position” option will allow you to choose how the images are seen when they appear. You can stretch the images out, crop them, and even adjust them in various ways.
8. After you’re done picking out the settings for your wallpaper, click on “Save Changes” to apply the settings immediately on your laptop.

Customizing your wallpapers will give you a more personal laptop to use. It might seem tedious to do at first but seeing a slideshow of your pet or important moments in your life is quite the experience.

Using Animated Images as Your Windows 7 Wallpaper

Multiple pictures as your wallpapers are really nice but did you know that you can take things even further? It’s possible for you to play GIFs as your wallpaper for Windows 7 which isn’t just cute but they also don’t use a lot of storage space from you as well. You can get destress yourself during work as you watch a funny or cute image playing on your background. 

Sadly, Windows 7 can’t play GIFs as their wallpaper which is a shame. This is why we recommend that you install and use an external program like Dreamscene for this.  Here’s how to play animated images or videos using Dreamscene:

1. Download and install Dreamscene. We recommend restarting your computer to ensure that the program will run successfully as well.
2. After installation, right-click on Dreamscene activator and choose the “run as administrator” option. This will give the program administrative rights which will allow your computer to play short videos as your wallpaper.
3. A window should pop up after clicking on the Dreamscene activator. Click on the switch button to turn in on.

4. Now that dream scene is turned on, you can select any DreamScene video and play it as your wallpaper. To do this, simply right-click on any Dreamscene video and set it as the wallpaper.

5. You can get DreamScene videos on their website right here.
6. You can also use gifs as DreamScene wallpapers as well, but you need to convert them into the GIF file into a WMV file. Thankfully you can use any file converter software to do this. 
7. Download the GIF file you want to use as your desktop wallpaper and use this WMV converter program to make it compatible with DreamScene.
8. Download the converted file, right-click on it and choose the option “Set as Dreamscene”
9. If you did it right, then the  WMV file should be played as your wallpaper.

Using GIF files as your wallpaper can be very tricky especially with the number of steps involved as well as the use of multiple external programs. However, they are very much worth it since you can use any GIF that you want as long as it was converted to WMV properly. 

One thing to take note of before doing this: your laptop’s battery life. Running animated videos on your desktop will take up more power than needed so if you find your laptop’s battery draining quickly than expected, then you better not use Dreamscene. 

Why Don’t I See a Personalized Option in My Windows 7 Laptop?

If you’re disappointed because you can’t see the “Personalize” option when you right-click on your desktop, then it’s probably because you’re running an older version of Windows 7. 

To be more precise, you’re running the Windows 7 Starter or Windows 7 Home edition. This version of Windows 7 lacks a lot of features which makes it really convenient to have. We recommend upgrading to a different version of Windows 7 or simply install another OS like Windows 10 or Linux. 

If you don’t want to change OS, there are multiple workarounds for this. Here’s a very reliable workaround for people who want to change their wallpaper while running Windows 7 starter and home editions. 

Are There Any Other Ways I Can Spice up My Desktop?

Yes, you can, the “Personalize” option in the control panel has a lot more options to choose from asides from. You can edit the colors, the sound, and even the screen saver of your desktop.

We recommend experimenting and trying them out!