Desktop wallpapers – remember them?

They used to be up until recently the pinnacle of self-expression with your computer. I used to be desktop wallpaper mad and would spent hours on websites such as Wallbase (now Wallhalla) and DeviantArt slowly building up a collection. Making use of built-in or third-party wallpaper changers I would flaunt my collection on my college laptop and home PC.

Over the years and working in various corporate environments I have slowly lost interest in this past-time. I don’t seem to be alone, many of my co-workers will either choose just one wallpaper and stick with it until a routine OS re-install or profile recreation clears it back to the Windows/Macintosh/Linux default picture. Either way I reminisce about the days when I used to be so passionate about wallpapers and used to scrape old wallpapers from all kinds of recovery media and operating systems.

On that last point I present to you a possibly very long gallery of wallpapers that I have found on various CD-ROM’s over the years that I feel are indicative of computer culture of yesteryear.

Now don’t get upset when some of these images are 800 x 600, 1024 x 768 or other odd non-HD resolutions – however I will always choose to post the best quality image wherever possible.

Wallpapers are sorted loosely into categories below.

Nature and Landscapes

Movies

Shrek 2

OEM

Video Games