Windows 8

Windows 8
Year of release	2012
Default wallpaper	img0
Included image types	Wallpapers
Agencies used	Getty Images SuperStock
Preceded by	Windows 7 (2009)
Succeeded by	Windows 8.1 (2013)

For pre-release wallpapers and pictures, see Windows 8 Previews.

Windows 8 is an operating system released by Microsoft in 2012. It is the successor to Windows 7, and was followed by Windows 8.1 the following year. It introduced a new interface called the start screen, controversially replacing the start menu.

Wallpapers

Most of Windows 8's wallpapers were submitted by Microsoft employees as part of an internal contest, according to employee Bala Sivakumar who took img4.

It is the first Windows version since XP that does not credit the authors in the metadata; subsequent versions of Windows do not feature metadata credits either, although wallpapers from downloadable themes continue to do so. As a result of the images being produced in-house without the photographers being credited, it is unknown who took what, with the exception of img4 which appears on Sivakumar's Flickr. The Flowers theme would later reappear in 8.1 and 10 (although removed in 11), while the Earth theme would be replaced by the Lines and colors theme in 8.1, and the Windows 10 theme in 10.

	Name	Category	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	img0	Windows	Microsoft	unknown	Default wallpaper
	img1	Earth	Microsoft	unknown
	img2	Earth	Microsoft	unknown
	img3	Earth	Microsoft	unknown
	img4	Earth	Microsoft	Bala Sivakumar
	img5	Earth	Microsoft	unknown	Panoramic
	img6	Earth	Microsoft	unknown
	img7	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown
	img8	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown
	img9	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown	Panoramic
	img10	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown
	img11	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown
	img12	Flowers	Microsoft	unknown

Lock screen wallpapers

Windows 8 came with a few built-in lock screen wallpapers, some of which came from Getty Images, while the others were created by Microsoft themselves, including graphic designer Marius Bauer, who worked as a freelance designer on the team for four months. Most of these would reappear in 8.1.

At UX WEEK 2012, Jensen Harris, from the Windows design team, revealed that each of the lockscreen backgrounds was a reference to a design principle, as a sort of internal easter egg: img102 stood for "Authentically digital", img103 for "Fast and fluid", img104 for "Do more with less", and img105 for "Pride in craftsmanship", while img101's beehive symbolized the team's internal motto "Win as one".

	Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	img100	N/A	Microsoft	Marius Bauer	Default lock screen wallpaper.
	img101	SuperStock	Mauritius	Mark Jonsson
	img102	N/A	unknown	unknown
	img103	Getty Images	Getty Images	Celine Ramoni Lee
	img104	Getty Images	Getty Images	Kaz Chiba
	img105	Getty Images	Getty Images	Adam Gault

User account pictures

Windows 8 has only two user account pictures used for default accounts and guest account respectively, both of which are identical. It is the first Windows version after Windows 2000 that does not come with a selection of pre-loaded user account pictures that the user can choose from.

Both pictures have resolutions of 448x448, higher than the previous 128x128; they were reused in Windows 8.1. Also included are PNG versions of both of the pictures and resized versions of the user picture, probably used by Metro applications.

	Name	Originates from	Photographer/artist
	guest user	Microsoft	unknown

Picture Password

You can see this image in the Picture Password setup tutorial when setting it for the first time:

	Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	12345	N/A	Microsoft	Bernard Hymmen	Also appears in Windows 8.1 to 11

Setup background

As with previous version, the setup background is named background_cli. Since recovery menu was redone and does not use any background, it can only be seen during installation. It can be found in the /sources/ folder inside of Windows 8's DVD. The background itself consists of simply #180052, the default accent color. The same background appears in Windows 8.1, 10 and 11.