Windows Vista

Windows Vista, codenamed Longhorn, is an operating system released by Microsoft in 2006.

Wallpapers
Whereas Windows XP's wallpapers predominantly came from Corbis or Microsoft themselves, most of Vista's wallpapers are pictures from Getty Images which use a rights-managed license, with a few coming from Corbis, Microsoft employees, amateur photographer Hamad Darwish and professional freelancer Michael Haber. They are mostly at 1920x1440, while the widescreen ones are at 1920x1200, which would become the resolution of wallpapers in later Windows versions.

Jenny Lam served as the creative director of Vista. During the selection process she analyzed around 50GB worth of low-resolution images. She brought in Flickr photographer Darwish and sent him on a commissioned photo shoot in Oregon, USA, feeling that photographers like him didn't have an ego problem unlike some professional photographers. Although he took around 6000 shots, only two of them made it on Vista. She also art-directed a professional photographer on a shoot in Santa Barbara and NYC, which is most likely Haber, however he only has one wallpaper in Vista. On top of that, she gave Microsoft employees an opportunity to submit their own images, while the Light Auras theme was created by Microsoft's own graphic designers.

Black and White

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Textures

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Paintings

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Vistas

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 * img24 (default)
 * img39 (Ultimate Extras-exclusive)
 * img40 (Ultimate Extras-exclusive)

Light Auras

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Widescreen

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 * img37 (Ultimate Extras-exclusive)
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Starter
Starter has an entirely different set of wallpapers. They mostly come from Getty Images, with a few coming from Corbis and SuperStock. With the exception of the widescreen wallpapers, they are at 1024x768, as Starter was intended for low resolution netbooks in developing countries.

Nature

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Vistas

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 * img730 (default)
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 * img739
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Widescreen
These are 1600x1024 unlike the other wallpapers, although prior to Release Candidate builds they were 1024x768. 1600x1024 has a 25:16 aspect ratio, which was not common on many displays.
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Sample Pictures
Vista had 15 sample pictures, compared to XP's 4. They mostly come from Getty Images and are a mixture of royalty free and rights managed. Like with Starter's wallpapers, they are at 1024x768.


 * Autumn Leaves
 * Creek
 * Desert Landscape
 * Dock
 * Forest Flowers
 * Forest
 * Frangipani Flowers
 * Garden
 * Green Sea Turtle
 * Humpback Whale
 * Oryx Antelope
 * Toco Toucan
 * Tree
 * Waterfall
 * Winter Leaves

User Account Pictures
They mostly come from Getty Images and are a mixture of royalty free and rights managed. They are at 128x128, compared to XP's 48x48.
 * guest
 * user
 * usertile2
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 * usertile6
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 * usertile11
 * usertile12

Logon background
The logon background is a green-blue aurora with a line near the bottom of it. It was most likely created by Robert Stein III and his team, who was responsible for the Light Aura wallpapers and other design elements of Vista. It is included at many different resolutions, including vertical ones.