It's only a matter of time before nearly people want a new desktop background and changing your wallpaper is one of the first things you lot would typically do subsequently installing a new operating system.

However, applying your own customizations to a copy of Windows 10 that hasn't been activated may not be so straightforward since Microsoft blocks access to the software'southward personalization settings without a valid product license.

While most of the operating organization tin can be used for complimentary without providing an activation primal, non having admission to the personalization menus can be annoying if you lot like having custom colors, sounds, outset menu and chore bar settings, or once again, even just your ain desktop background. Fortunately, applying a new wallpaper isn't impossible, despite some of the menu options existence blocked.

Right clicking on any prototype file around a non-activated installation of Windows 10 will still provide the option to "ready every bit desktop background," and the aforementioned can be washed by right clicking on pictures in a web browser, also as the "..." menu in the Photos app.

Other settings such as custom sounds and colors can also be practical.

If you accept a Microsoft business relationship with theme settings synced to it from an activated copy of Windows 10, those should be practical to the non-activated copy as yous log in for the starting time time.

Sync is enabled past default and includes "theme" settings (which includes wallpapers), only this feature may not merely transfer your wallpaper if that's the just thing y'all've customized on the business relationship, and in our testing the theme settings that are synced may not be the most recent.

Yous tin too download or create a themepack file (essentially a cab annal that contains a theme file and images) which can still be opened on Windows 10 non-activated. Launching the themepack will apply whatsoever settings in the theme file forth with automatically rotating through the wallpapers inside the archive, which may exist of interest because wallpaper slideshows are otherwise disabled in the personalization card.

There are some quirks with using themepacks on a non-activated Windows 10 installation of course, such as the inability to tweak i color without switching to a whole new themepack, and they change different settings so you might accept to try many new packs to finally get black text again for instance.

Yous also tin can't apply the aforementioned themepack twice or choose it again from the card afterwards applying new themepack (renaming and reapplying the aforementioned themepack sometimes works). That said, y'all can create a custom themepack file from the GUI options of an activated copy of Windows by right clicking the theme in the personalization menu and choosing "save theme for sharing" to create a themepack file.

You tin also manually modify an existing themepack or create a new one from scratch with this guide on theme file formatting from Microsoft.

Notation that yous tin excerpt the contents of a .themepack file with Windows Explorer past changing the file extension to .cab, while the software Cabpack makes it like shooting fish in a barrel to repack files into a new cab archive.

If you determine to activate your copy of Windows 10 then you aren't jumping through these extra hoops: Correct click the Start button > Organisation > Change production key or update your edition of Windows, where you volition discover a link to the Microsoft store which sells Windows 10 for $139.

The same page will also let you lot provide a production key purchased elsewhere, and it'southward worth noting that Windows 10 keys are often available for $10 or so on eBay, all the same your mileage will vary and those keys acquired on the cheap may only work for a few weeks if you're lucky.

And before you go, some wallpapers...

You can find some wallpapers in these Windows directories and TechSpot articles:

  • 5 Days of Crawly Wallpapers
  • Great Wallpaper Resources
  • C:\Windows\Web\Wallpaper
  • C:\Windows\Spider web\4K
  • C:\Windows\Web\Screen

Bonus: Disable the activation watermark

Yous can disable the watermark that is displayed on the bottom right of the desktop on a non-activated copy of Windows ten (the one that reads "Activate Windows - Go to settings to activate Windows"):

  • Enter regedit into Showtime or Run to launch the Windows Registry Editor
  • Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows NT\CurrentVersion\SoftwareProtectionPlatform\Activation
  • In the right pane of "Activation," double-click on NotificationDisabled and change the DWORD value from 0 to 1
  • Reboot your PC for the changes to take result (logging out didn't work for u.s.a.)

More Useful Tips

  • "Run equally Administrator": What Does It Mean?
  • Ways to Complimentary Upward Storage Space on Windows
  • Add together Tabs to File Explorer and Other Applications Ahead of Windows 10'due south "Sets" Characteristic
  • A Compilation of Command Prompt Tips, Tricks & Absurd Things You lot Tin can Do