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. 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.

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.

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. The metadata also provides descriptions of each photo and ratings. Dates are also included although they may be inaccurate.

User Account Pictures
They mostly come from Getty Images and use a mixture of royalty free and rights managed licenses. They are at 128x128, compared to XP's 48x48.

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.