How to Change Desktop Background on Windows 10

By Hally | Last Updated September 11, 2025

Changing your desktop background (wallpaper) in Windows 10 lets you personalize your PC—whether you'd like a single picture, a solid color, or a rotating slideshow. Here are the main steps to do it, plus options if you run into issues.

Steps to change desktop background on Windows 10:

Step 1: Right-click desktop, and select Personalize on the context menu.

Step 2: On the left sidebar, click Background. Under Background, choose from Picture, Solid Color, Slideshow and Windows spotlight.

Option 1: Set a picture as your background

If you prefer a single picture as your desktop background, just choose Picture from the drop-down menu. After that, you can hit the Browse button to choose your picture.

Besides, you can decide how the image fills your screen (Fill, Fit, Stretch, Tile, Center, Span) in Choose a fit section.

Option 2: Set Solid color as your desktop background

If you choose Solid color as the background, you can pick the color or add your custom color.

Option 3: Create a slideshow as desktop background

For the slideshow option, you can choose albums of your slideshow by clicking the Browse option. After that, you can choose how often the picture change and whether to shuffle them or not.

Option 4: Choose Windows spotlight as the desktop image

The Windows spotlight will automatically update your desktop background every day with a new image from the world. In other words, you can get a unique working experience every day.

Cannot Change the Desktop Background—What to Do

If you find the Set as desktop background option greyed out or cannot change the desktop background, it is also caused by the group policy restrictions. You can fix the issue with below steps.

Step 1: Access the Local Group Policy Editor.

Step 2: Find and open the setting named "Prevent changing desktop background".

FYR, in User Configuration/Administrative Templates/Control Panel/Personalization, you can locate the setting. And then open it with double clicks.

Step 3: Have this setting disabled.

Choose Disabled and tap OK in the setting's window.

Tip: If you make this setting non-configured, you can realize the same aim. That is, select Not Configured and click OK in the above window.

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