Set Your Own Image As Background In The Windows 8 Photos App


The Metro-styled Photos app in Windows 8 uses a picture of a butterfly as a default background. You can change this to any image you like, but the process isn’t as obvious as it could be. Here’s how to do it.

Heading into the Settings for the app (which is where I’d expect to, um, change a setting like the background image) doesn’t work. Instead, follow this process:

  • In the Photos app, browse to the picture you want (whether that’s in your Pictures folder or in your SkyDrive storage).
  • Double-click on the image so you’re viewing it full-screen.
  • Right-click (or use Windows key-Z) to bring up the app bar.
  • Click on ‘Set as’, and choose ‘App background’.

This is an example of a process that works much more smoothly with touch screens than on regular PCs, which reinforces my general conviction that Microsoft just isn’t taking anything other than touch seriously in Windows 8.


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