Knowing how to change a Chromebook’s wallpaper is a useful skill, especially if you’ve got tired of the default images and just fancy a change.
Handily though, the process for swapping out a background image isn’t too taxing, and before you know it, we’ll have you refreshing your wallpaper in no time at all.
Hardware used
- Acer Chromebook 514
- ChromeOS
The Short Version
- Download an image
- Open the launcher
- Go into Downloads & locate the image
- Right-click & set as wallpaper
Step
1Download an image
The first stage of changing a Chromebook’s wallpaper is naturally to find an image you’d like to set as your wallpaper. It can be of anything you like, but just make sure the image is of a decent-enough resolution so when it’s stretched across your desktop, you can still make out details and the image doesn’t look pixelated.
You can usually find decent high-quality, hi-res images on Google Images and on royalty-free image sites such as Unsplash, or of course, use any pictures you’ve taken yourself.
Step
2Open the launcher
Once you’ve got a picture downloaded or you’ve got one saved on your Chromebook, then it’s a case of opening the ChromeOS launcher. To do so, head to the bottom-left of the screen where a Circle icon resides. Click it and you’ll open the launcher.
Step
3Go into Downloads & locate the image
If you’ve downloaded an image from the internet, it makes sense it’ll be in the Downloads folder, or if not, it’s a case of going into the launcher and locating where you’ve saved the images.
Step
4Right-click and set as wallpaper
Once you’ve located the image you’d like to use for wallpaper, then it’s a case of right-clicking it, which will bring up a contextual menu where you can decide what to do with the picture:
Click on the ‘Set wallpaper’ option and your background should change to the new image.
It’s of course worth noting you don’t have to go out of the way to download an image from the web, and you can use any of Google’s pre-installed Chromebook wallpapers. To use one of these, right-click on the desktop and press ‘Set wallpaper’.
You’ll then be greeted with a selection of images you can use as wallpapers. Simply click the image you want, and it’ll set as your wallpaper.
FAQs
Can your Chromebook wallpaper have sound?
No, you can only set an image for your Chromebook wallpaper.
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After you end up buying a new Chromebook or even a new laptop one of the first steps to customizing it and making it your own is changing the wallpaper. Either if you're a student with a Chromebook, a parent, a teacher, or someone in business, changing the wallpaper will give your new device a little more personality, just like downloading your favorite Android apps and keeping bookmarks in Chrome. Similar to the process of changing the wallpaper in Windows, doing so in ChromeOS is quite easy.
Of course, you'll need to find your favorite wallpaper first, either a stock one from the ChromeOS settings app or one downloaded from the internet. Then you can dive deeper into ChromeOS settings and tweak it to change it over to something other than the default image. And, once you do, it will sync up to your Google Account (if you signed into your Chromebook with one) so the next time you buy and use another Chromebook with that same account, you'll be ready with your favorite wallpaper. So without further ado, here's how to change the wallpaper on your Chromebook.
What you'll need
A Chromebook with the latest version of ChromeOS - In this guide, we'll be using the latest version of ChromeOS. If you have a Chromebook with an older version of the operating system, the steps we have in this guide might not apply to you as Google recently changed the method of changing the wallpaper in ChromeOS.
Access to the ChromeOS settings app - You'll have to get into the ChromeOS settings app to change your wallpaper. Most accounts should have access to this page without issue. If you don't have access, ask your IT admin, teacher, or parent for access to change these settings.
Your favorite wallpaper download from the internet or the settings app - Naturally, you can change the wallpaper on your Chromebook to one of the images you see in the settings app, or one that you downloaded. If you want to download a new wallpaper, we suggest you check out Wallpaperhub.app, it has a lot of great images. You can download and save a wallpaper or any image by right-clicking it and choosing to Save image as . . .and then saving it to the Downloads folder. Note that on some Chromebooks you'll have to hold the ALT key and then right-click.
(Optional) A Wallpaper downloaded from an Android app - We advise against it since this might not always work, but you also can use an Android app from the Google Play Store to help you find and download a wallpaper and apply it automatically. Some of our favorite Android apps for wallpapers can be seen below. Just click the link to download the app, launch it, and choose a wallpaper that fits your screen by following the in-app instructions. Again, these apps are catered for Android and not ChromeOS, so they might not help you automatically apply the wallpaper you downloaded, and might just save it to your device. If that's the case, proceed with the other steps in our guide.
Step 1: Go to the ChromeOS Settings app
Granted that you've downloaded and saved your favorite wallpaper, to begin the process of changing your wallpaper on a Chromebook, you'll have to go to the settings app. You can get to it by clicking the ChromeOS launcher to the left of your screen, and typing in Settings to search for it. You also can click on the area with the time on the right side of the system tray at the bottom of your screen and then click the cogs at the top right to get to the settings app.
- In the sidebar of the settings app, choose Device.
- Look for the Personalization category in the middle of the app.
- Click where it says Set your wallpaper and style.
After you click this link, you'll get a popup window with options to change the wallpaper. Our next step will dive even deeper into what you can do on this page.
Step 2: Change your wallpaper to a pre-available image from Google
With the wallpaper settings window open, you can now change your wallpaper in ChromeOS. It's a straightforward process if you're swapping out to one of the pre-available images. Here's how you can complete the process of changing your wallpaper on a Chromebook to a pre-available image. Do note, though, these images will only appear if you're connected to the internet. If you don't see them, connect to the internet first.
- On top where it says Wallpaper and Screen saver choose the Wallpaper option. Click the right-facing arrow next to it, or on the image itself.
- Look at the various categories of wallpapers. These range from things like Cityscapes, Landscapes, and more. Find a category that suits your needs. Then click the wallpaper you want, and it will automatically be applied to your Chromebook for you.
- If you want a daily wallpaper, click the Change daily option and the wallpaper will change each day to a different item from the wallpaper collection.
Again, this section is for a pre-available wallpaper. If you want to swap out to a wallpaper of your own, check out the next steps below.
Step 3: (Optional) Change your wallpaper to your own image
We talked about how you can change your wallpaper to an image that's pre-available for you on your Chromebook, but now we'll explain how you can swap it out to one of your own. It's a very different process.
- Navigate to your downloads folder in ChromeOS where you saved or have the image you want to use as wallpaper. You can do this by searching for launching the Files app in the ChromeOS launcher from the left of the screen to get there.
- Right-click on the image you want to set as your wallpaper (on some Chromebooks you'll have to hold the ALT key to right-click.)
- Choose the Set as wallpaper option in the menu.
Conclusion
That's it! Your wallpaper will now be set. Your Chromebook should now feel a little bit more customized! All it took were a few clicks in the ChromeOS settings app. We hope you found our guide helpful.