If you are a photographer and love to showcase pictures taken by you on your computer screen, then you might have faced this issue several times. The wallpapers of the picked up from the photo folder don’t look beautiful on the desktop, especially the color saturation seems below average, and the number doesn’t appear clearly. When you resize the pictures using any photography software, open them in the Windows Picture Viewer and zoom in, they look ultra sharp. It usually happens in Windows, and most of the people are not aware that what is the solution to it. In this post, I will share how to use Lossless Wallpapers in Windows.
Let me first share why it happens. When you choose an image to set as a wallpaper on the desktop, Windows turns that into a JPEG file which causes the artifacts and reduction in image quality. Many people use high-resolution images, for example, 3840 x 2160 pixels resolution image on a 1080P screen. So that it looks good, but that’s not a permanent solution. Here we are going to inform you about a simple way which can help you to set full resolution lossless wallpapers on your desktop screen.
How to Use Lossless Wallpapers in Windows
First of all, save your high-resolution PNG or BMP file (the picture which is going to be used as a wallpaper) in the folder where Windows by default saves wallpapers. You can save these images somewhere else as well, but then you need to change the whole path of the new picture in the registry which may be a bit complicated for some users.
It is also possible that if you save those pictures somewhere else, then you or someone else may delete them by mistake or move them into another folder, so it is better to use the path given below.
C:\Users\[username]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
After saving the picture, you need to make some changes in the registry folder. The registry is the central hierarchical database of your computer that stores all the low-level settings for your Windows OS and other applications such as services, device drivers, etc. so use it carefully.
- Press Windows key and R together to bring the run box
- Type regedit in the run box and hit Enter
- Registry window will open up, extend the HKEY_CURRENT_USER hive
- Now extend Control Panel > Desktop
- Select Wallpaper
- Click on Modify
Since you have saved your picture in the default location of Wallpaper, you need to change the filename which appears at the end of the path to the new file. For example, if you have saved a new PNG file to use as wallpaper, change the path in the text box as
- C:\Users\[your name]\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Windows\Themes\newwallpaper.png
Now save the changes you have made and restart your computer. After this process, you won’t see any wallpaper with reduced quality on the desktop and the BMP or PNG image will look as clear as it looks in the Image/Photo Viewer.