Finished setting up multiple monitors but still stuck with the same wallpaper? Wouldn’t it be refreshing if you could set a new background for each monitor?
So, how do you do it?
In this article, we will go through various ways to put different backgrounds on each monitor.
How to Put Different Backgrounds on Each Monitor
You can either tweak the Personalization settings or use the File Explorer to set a separate background on each monitor. Alternatively, you can use third-party applications to customize the settings even further.
Using the Personalization Settings
This method explains how to use the default settings in Windows to set separate wallpapers for each of your monitors. You can follow these steps to do exactly that.
- Press the Windows + I key to open the Settings app.
- Navigate to Personalization > Background.
- Under the Background field, click to expand the dropdown and set it to Picture.
- Now, under the Choose your picture field, right-click on the picture. Or, you can click on Browse to navigate to a location where you have saved your pictures and choose one.
- Under the Choose a fit field, click to expand the dropdown and choose an option to display wallpapers on the monitors according to your preference. This saves you from checking if the resolution of the images matches exactly with the corresponding monitors.
- After you have a list of images to choose from, right-click on the images and choose the “Set for monitor 1” or “Set for monitor 2” option for each monitor. If you have more than two monitors then choose the options accordingly.
Using the File Explorer
If you do not want to change your background settings, you can use this method to set different backgrounds for your monitors. Here’s how you do it.
- First of all, navigate to the location where your pictures are saved.
- Select the pictures you want to set as background.
- Right-click on multiple images and select the “Set as desktop background” option. You can click on two images for dual monitors, three for triple monitor setup, and so on.
- Now, you have a different background on each monitor. If you want to switch the background image, then you can right-click on an empty space on the Desktop and select the Next desktop background option.
Even though you can quickly set separate backgrounds using this method, you have limited control over the backgrounds set for your secondary monitors. Also, your image resolution must match the resolution of the monitors. Therefore, you would need to use a third-party alternative if you want to have more control over them.
Using a Third-party Alternative
The Windows default personalization settings provides limited features compared to third-party software when it comes to customizing the backgrounds at an advanced level.
Using third-party software such as DisplayFusion, John’s Background Switcher, you can unlock additional features like setting images from the web directly, multi-monitor taskbars, Windows management, and lock/unlock mouse cursor to the current monitor and so much more.
Frequently Asked Questions
How Do I Use a Large Image to Spread Across All My Monitors?
If you want the same large image to spread across your monitors, you can do it as follows:
- Open the Settings app and navigate to Personalization > Background.
- Under the Choose your picture field, click on the Browse button to locate your image.
- Now, under the Choose a fit field, select the Span option.
How Can I Change the Images Automatically After a Certain Time?
For this, you have to create a slideshow of images. Go to the Background settings and under the Background field, choose the Slideshow option. Also, group all the images that you want to display in the same folder and click on Browse and navigate to that location.
You can set the time interval for the images to change automatically under the Change picture every field option.
