Change Desktop On Windows 7 Starter Edition

If you’ve bought a netbook since the launch of Microsoft Windows 7, you may well find that it has come installed with Windows 7 Starter Edition, which whilst being able to run all the same programs as standard versions of Windows 7, does have some features missing, one of which is the ability to perform certain customisations to your set-up that are pretty standard on full versions. This is one of a series of articles designed to show you how to overcome those limitations and make your Netbook your own again

One of the first things many PC owners do to customise their machines is to add their own desktop background, but as any Windows 7 Starter Edition user will know, right clicking on the desktop doesn’t bring up the usual option to ‘Personalise’ the Netbook, and thus it’s not possible to change the desktop, however, we will outline a procedure below that doesn’t require the installation of any software.

The procedure we have outlined below will not completely replace your desktop wallpaper, but will allow you place one or more pictures over the top of the pre-installed wallpaper.

Firstly, select a picture that you want to use as your picture, and place it on its own, in a folder, in a known location.

Next right click on a blank area of the desktop to display the Context Menu shown below and select Gadgets

Now double click the Slide Show gadget to place it on your desktop, and then close all open Windows

Use the spanner icon to navigate to the file you wish to use as your desktop background

The Gadget will be too small for what you want, so simply hover your mouse over the right side of the gadget, and click the middle ‘screen re-size’ button to change the image to its maximum size of 320 x 240 pixels.

If you are feeling really brave of course the ultimate solution is to buy a Windows 8 upgrade like this one from Amazon and re-gain complete control over your device – just make sure you visit the Microsoft Windows 8 upgrade advisor page first to make sure your machine compatible.