Windows XP

For pre-release wallpapers and pictures, see Whistler.

Windows XP
Year of release	2001
Default wallpaper	Bliss
Included image types	Wallpapers Sample pictures User account pictures
Notable artists	Charles O'Rear Mark Karrass
Agencies used	Corbis PhotoDisc
Preceded by	Windows 2000 (1999) Windows Me (2000)
Succeeded by	Windows Vista (2006)

Windows XP, codenamed Whistler, is an operating system released by Microsoft in 2001. It is the successor to Windows 2000 and Me, being the first version of Windows NT intended for both businesses and home users. It includes a set of wallpapers, and for the first time, multiple sample pictures and user account pictures too. Its default wallpaper is Bliss, which has become one of the world's most viewed photos as a result of XP's success. Other notable wallpapers include Red moon desert, taken by Bliss' photographer Charles O'Rear, Autumn, which was the subject of a 2007 Vanity Fair article and the branding wallpaper.

Windows XP was succeeded by Windows Vista in 2006, after years of being in development.

Wallpapers

Rob Girling served as the design manager of Windows XP. His team carried out user research, which found that there was a common preference for landscape wallpapers. Jen Shetterly was the product design lead of XP, and was involved with curating and naming the wallpapers; she advocated for Microsoft to use Bliss as the default wallpaper, as an evolution to Windows 95's clouds branding motif. Incidentally, it also fits the color scheme of the default Luna visual style. While many of these wallpapers are nature-oriented, she has stated that this was not an intentional theme. According to Girling, he also also planned for the Professional edition to use a photo of an office building as the default wallpaper, but this idea was rejected by higher ups, likely because Microsoft extensively used Bliss to market XP.

The photographic wallpapers were licensed from Corbis and used a mix of royalty free and rights managed licenses, while Bliss was bought out from Corbis and Charles O'Rear, transferring the intellectual property to Microsoft, and as a result it can no longer be licensed by any companies for usage. With the exception of Vortec space, the non-photographic wallpapers were created by two designers, including Microsoft designer Greg Melander and a short-term contracted designer, while the branding wallpaper is based on a Windows flag render by XP's creative director Horace Luke.

Like with Windows 2000, the wallpapers are at a rather low resolution of 800x600, lower than most displays common during this period. Downloadable wallpapers would later be released, often provided in higher resolutions, while XP's successor Windows Vista features wallpapers in 1920x1440 and 1920x1200. XP also includes tile wallpapers in BMP format. These were reused from Windows 2000, which were in turn reused from Windows NT 4.0, so they are not listed here.

	Name	Original filename	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	Ascent	NBA076	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass
	Autumn	CB040538	Corbis	Corbis	Peter Burian
	Azul	60131	Corbis	Westlight	Bill Ross
	Bliss	71810	Corbis	Westlight	Charles O'Rear	Default wallpaper, also used as the branding image to represent Windows XP in general
	Crystal	desktop9	N/A	Microsoft	Greg Melander
	Follow	57025	Corbis	Westlight	Warren Morgan	Known as Follow me during builds 2419 to 2464
	Friend	OC001023	Corbis	Corbis	Chris Carroll
	Home	la_casa	Corbis	Westlight	Greg Nikas
	Moon flower	imagery_1	Corbis (original image)	contracted by Microsoft Corbis (original image)	unknown Richard Hamilton Smith (original image)	Heavily altered from the original image
	Peace	abstract_1	N/A	contracted by Microsoft	unknown
	Power	low_art1	N/A	contracted by Microsoft	unknown
	Purple flower	FE001040	Corbis	Corbis	Andy Small
	Radiance	RR015686	Corbis	Starlight Photo Agency	Roger Ressmeyer
	Red moon desert	OR006712	Corbis	Corbis	Charles O'Rear	Default wallpaper during builds 2423 to 2464
	Ripple	blue1	N/A	Microsoft	Greg Melander
	Stonehenge	RR009372	Corbis	Starlight Photo Agency	Roger Ressmeyer
	Tulips	AX001448	Corbis	Westlight	Bill Ross
	Vortec space	60054	Corbis	Westlight	Digital Art (Tim Alt)
	Wind	11050	Corbis	Westlight	Jeff Vanuga
	Windows XP	unknown	N/A	Microsoft	Horace Luke REZN8 (flag render)	Logo varies depending on edition, with the total of 12 different variations for both client and server editions; Default wallpaper of builds 2485 to 2532
(see more variations in the article)

Media Center Edition-exclusive

As Media Center Edition came with many features of Microsoft Plus! for Windows XP, its wallpapers were also included alongside the standard set, albeit with new names that reference what is depicted in the wallpaper. Most of these wallpapers appear to have been taken from Getty Images, although some were presumably taken down many years ago, leaving their origins unclear. Unlike with most of XP's wallpapers, these appear to have went under noticeable edits from the original images, such as altered saturation and brightness.

	Name	Original filename	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	Aquarium	AQUA_1_FINAL	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Stephen Frink	Default wallpaper of the Aquarium theme
	DaVinci	comp-a3.4.1_no_arch	N/A	unknown	unknown	Default wallpaper of the da Vinci theme
	Energy Bliss	unknown	N/A	Microsoft	unknown (based on Charles O'Rear's Bliss)	Default wallpaper of Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005
	Ocean	AQUA5	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Kim Westerskov
	Space	SPACE6	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown (credited on Getty to InterNetwork Media)	Default wallpaper of the Space theme
	Spring	NATURE3b	Getty Images	The Image Bank	unknown	Default wallpaper of the Nature theme
	StarTracks	SPACE7 BLUE	unknown	unknown	unknown
	Stream	NATURE4	unknown	unknown	unknown
	Windows XP	WinXPFS	N/A	contracted(?) by Microsoft	unknown

Starter Edition

Starter Edition was only released in developing countries such as Latin American countries, Russia and various Asian and African countries. Each localized version of Starter Edition has around three to six wallpapers depicting national landmarks, and does not include the standard wallpaper set found in other versions of Windows XP. Most of these were licensed from Corbis and Getty Images and use a rights managed license, with a few being royalty free.

Similar to the Home and Professional editions of Windows XP, these wallpapers have a resolution of 800x600 (with the exception of one being 801x600, likely by accident). Unlike these two editions, however, Windows XP Starter Edition includes wallpapers in the Bitmap (.bmp) file format instead of the JPEG (.jpg) file format. The practice of having regional wallpapers would be used again by Microsoft for Windows 7, where 20 countries received two themes (built-in and downloadable) consisting of six wallpapers each.

The default wallpaper is SE_neutral_wallpaper, which is completely unrelated to the default wallpaper used in most other editions. Also, due to the rarity of Windows XP Starter Edition in several countries, not all wallpapers are available or even known so they cannot be listed here.

	Name	Region	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	Atacama_Licancabur	Chile	Getty Images	The Image Bank	Pete Turner
	Auyantepui_Canaima	Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela	Getty Images	The Image Bank	Thomas Schmitt
	Bengal_Tiger	India	Corbis	Gallo Images	unknown (credited on Getty to Gallo Images)
	Bodrum_CastleStPeter	Turkey	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Robert Frerck
	Borobudur	Indonesia	Corbis	Eye Ubiquitous	John Dakers
	Calzada_de_los_Muertos	Mexico	Corbis	Westlight	Randy Faris
	Cameron	Malaysia	Getty Images	Getty Images	Walter Bibikow
	Canal_de_Panama	Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Will & Deni McIntyre
	Cerros_Torre_y_Fitz_Roy	Argentina	Corbis	Corbis	Theo Allofs
	Colonia	Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay	Corbis	Corbis	Jan Butchofsky
	Dunagiri	India	Corbis	Corbis	Christophe Boisvieux	Later reused as the default wallpaper of Windows Starter 2007
	Ephesus_Hadrian	Turkey	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Robert Frerck
	Floriano_Falls	Brazil	Getty Images	Getty Images	Stephen Simpson
N/A	Hinh ve 1	Vietnam	unknown	unknown	unknown	Has not surfaced yet; appearance currently unknown
	Isla_Providencia	Colombia	Corbis	Corbis	Macduff Everton	At 801x600 instead of 800x600
	Isla_Saona	Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama	Corbis	Corbis	Richard Beckel
	Jakarta	Indonesia	Getty Images	Getty Images	Keith MacGregor
	Kuala_Lumpur_Blue	Malaysia	Corbis	Corbis	unknown (credited on Getty to Casa Productions)
	Kuala_Lumpur_Purple	Malaysia	Getty Images	The Image Bank	Peter Adams
	Lake_Bratan	Indonesia	Corbis	Corbis	Paul Russell
	Machu_Picchu	Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela	Getty Images	Getty Images	unknown (credited on Getty to itself)	Appears to be flipped horizontally in one screenshot, likely of a pre-release version
	Mahabalipuram	India	Corbis	Corbis	Charles & Josette Lenars
N/A	Mau	Vietnam	unknown	unknown	unknown	Has not surfaced yet; appearance currently unknown
N/A	Những chiếc thuyền	Vietnam	unknown	unknown	unknown	Has not surfaced yet; appearance currently unknown
	Obelisco	Argentina	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Robert Frerck	Advertisements are blurred out, likely due to copyright issues
	Ouro_Preto_Minas_Gerais	Brazil	Getty Images	Getty Images	Fernando Bueno
	PLAZA INDEPENDENCIA, MONTEVIDEO, URUGUAY (not the filename)	Uruguay	Getty Images	The Image Bank	Thomas Schmitt	Has not surfaced yet; filename currently unknown, so image provided is a fan edited version This was most likely exclusive to a pre-release version
	Pamukkale	Turkey	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	David C Tomlinson
	Parque_Nacional_los_Glaciares	Argentina	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass
	Peter_the_Great	Russia	Corbis	Corbis	Steve Raymer
	Piramide_del_Sol	Mexico	Corbis	Westlight	Randy Faris
	Puerta_del_Reloj_Cartagena	Colombia	Corbis	Corbis	Jan Butchofsky
	Rano_Raraku	Chile	Getty Images	Getty Images	Walter Bibikow
	Rara_Avis_Preserve	Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, Panama	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Stuart Westmorland
	Rio_de_Paraguay	Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay	Corbis	Corbis	Buddy Mays
	Royal Palace at Dusk (not the filename)	Thailand	Corbis	Corbis	Jeremy Horner	Has not surfaced yet; filename currently unknown, so image provided is of the original photo
	Russia, Moscow, Red Square, St. Basil's cathedral at dusk (not the filename)	Russia	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	David Sutherland	Has not surfaced yet; filename currently unknown, so image provided is a fan edited version This was most likely exclusive to a pre-release version
	San_Agustin	Colombia	Corbis	Corbis	Diego Lezama Orezzoli
	Santiago	Chile	Getty Images	Getty Images	Walter Bibikow
	SE_neutral_wallpaper	Generic	N/A	Microsoft	unknown
	St_Basils_and_Kremlin	Russia	Corbis	Corbis	Galen Rowell
	Sugarloaf_Mountain	Brazil	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Ary Diesendruck
	Taj_Mahal	India	Corbis	Corbis	Jim Zuckerman
	Templo_del_Inca_Isla_del_Sol	Bolivia, Paraguay, Uruguay	Corbis	Corbis	Alison Wright
	Thung lũng Mai Châu	Vietnam	Getty Images	The Image Bank	unknown	Has not surfaced yet; image provided is a fan edited version
	Tulum	Mexico	Corbis	Corbis	Danny Lehman
	Vịnh Hạ Long	Vietnam	Getty Images	Iconica	Frans Lemmens	Has not surfaced yet; image provided is of the original photo
	winter_village	Russia	Getty Images	Tony Stone Images	Demetrio Carrasco
	Zuleta	Ecuador, Peru, Venezuela	Corbis	Corbis	Pablo Corral Vega

Windows Embedded Standard and POSReady 2009

In 2008, Microsoft released Windows Embedded Standard and Embedded POSReady 2009, both versions are based on Windows XP Service Pack 3. Both versions feature three wallpapers: one with no logo, one with a small logo and one with a large logo.

• 
  Background without logo.
• 
  Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 background with large logo.
• 
  Windows Embedded POSReady 2009 background with small logo.

Sample pictures

Compared to Windows 2000 and Me which featured one sample picture, XP features a selection of four. All four of these are royalty free Corbis images, three of which were available from royalty free CDs, with the other one seemingly being online only. Like with the wallpapers, all of these images have a resolution of 800x600.

	Name	Original filename	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	Blue hills	Untitled-1	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass
	Sunset	Untitled-2	Corbis	Corbis	Mick Roessler
	Water lilies	Untitled-1	Corbis	Corbis	unknown
	Winter	Untitled-1	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass	Known as "Winter forest" in builds 2474 to 2485

Media Center Edition-exclusive

Windows XP Media Center Edition adds five new sample pictures to accompany the standard selection, which are also royalty free Corbis images. These retain the aspect ratios of the original images (usually around 3:2); similarly, a few Windows 7 Beta pictures do this as well. Rather than using 800x600 like the original four sample pictures, they appear at various 3:2-ish resolutions, all 1280px wide.

	Name	Original filename	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist
	At the Arch	LND034	Corbis	Corbis	unknown
	Big Wave	ACT018	Corbis	Corbis	unknown
	Fish	CB057816	Corbis	Corbis	unknown
	Freestyle	RF5468942	Corbis	image100	unknown (credited on Getty to Corbis/VCG)
	Overlooking Rio	unknown	Corbis	Corbis	Reed Kaestner

User account pictures

Windows XP is the first released version of Windows to include selectable user account pictures in 48x48 to represent the user, although the cancelled version Neptune also features a selection of pictures. According to Rob Girling, no user research was carried out unlike with the wallpapers; the team attempted to pick a selection of "globally minded" images by avoiding any political or racial ideas, but in hindsight he feels they only half-succeeded with this.

A mix of royalty free Corbis images and PhotoDisc images, including a few rights managed Corbis images comprise the Windows XP user account picture choices. A few of them appear to have edited background colors from the original images, possibly to create more contrast between the background and object. Many of these also appear in several versions of Windows Live Messenger, albeit at a slightly higher resolution of 96x96.

	Name	Licensed from	Originates from	Photographer/artist	Notes
	airplane	Corbis	Corbis	Clark Dunbar
	astronaut	unknown	NASA	Robert L. Gibson
	ball	Corbis	Westlight	Michael Neveux
	beach	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Colin Paterson
	butterfly	Corbis	Westlight	Kurt Stier
	car	Corbis	Corbis	Lawrence Manning
	cat	Corbis	Corbis	Aaron Horowitz
	chess	Corbis	Corbis	Mark Karrass	Background in original image was blue; recolored to red
	dirt bike	Corbis	Corbis	Ben Blankenburg
	dog	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Duncan Smith
	drip	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Don Farrall
	duck	Corbis	Corbis	Lawrence Manning
	fish	Corbis	Westlight	Warren Morgan
	frog	unknown	unknown	unknown
	guest	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Christopher Conrad (credited to C Squared Studios on Getty)
	guitar	Corbis	Corbis	Bob Jacobson	Background in original image was blue; recolored to grey The guitar has added drop shadow
	horses	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown
	kick	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Lawrence M. Sawyer (credited to J&L Images on Getty)
	lift-off	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown (credited to Stocktrek on Getty)
	palm tree	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Ingo Jezierski
	pink flower	unknown	unknown	unknown	Known as flower in builds 2419 to 2463
	red flower	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	Arthur S. Aubry
	skater	PhotoDisc	PhotoDisc	unknown (credited to GeoStock on Getty)	Background in original image was blue; recolored to green
	snowflake	Corbis	Westlight	Jim Zuckerman

External links

• Windows XP HD Wallpaper Pack