Windows vista user accounts pictures

From Windows Wallpaper Wiki

For pre-release wallpapers and pictures, see Longhorn.

Windows Vista, codenamed Longhorn, is an operating system released by Microsoft on November 8, 2006 to manufacturing, and to general availability on January 30, 2007. It is the successor to Windows XP. Although Vista introduced many technological and visual improvements, it was poorly received due to its performance on most computers at the time, although its design and aesthetic, including the wallpapers, were well received. It was succeeded by Windows 7 in October of 2009.

The wallpaper set is the same across all editions, except Starter which has a unique wallpaper set, with no wallpapers shared between the other editions. Sample pictures and user account pictures are also the same across all editions, including Starter.

Wallpapers

Whereas Windows XP’s wallpapers predominantly came from Corbis and Microsoft themselves, most of Vista’s wallpapers are licensed stock photos from Getty Images which use a rights-managed license, with a few also originating from Corbis, Microsoft employees, amateur photographer Hamad Darwish and one from professional freelancer Michael Haber. They are mostly at 1920×1440, while the widescreen ones are at 1920×1200, which would become the resolution of wallpapers in later Windows versions. It is worth noting that the widescreen wallpapers appear to have been cropped from their 1920×1440 counterparts, as opposed to recropping the original image.

Jenny Lam served as the creative director of Vista. During the selection process she analyzed around 50GB worth of low-resolution images.^[1] She brought in Flickr photographer Darwish and sent him on a commissioned photo shoot in Oregon, USA.^[2] Although he took around 6000 shots, only two of them made it on Vista.^[3] She also art-directed a professional photographer on a shoot in Santa Barbara and New York City,^[1] 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.

The wallpapers are split into six categories:

• Black and White: Consisting of monochrome photos.
• Textures: Consisting of close-up shots.
• Paintings: Self-descriptive.
• Vistas: Consisting of travel/landscape photos.
• Light Auras: Consisting of subtle designs.
• Widescreen: A selection of 1920×1200 versions of wallpapers in the Textures and Vistas categories.

Windows Vista Ultimate previously allowed you to download a pack named Ultimate Extras, which features additional games, language packs, sound schemes, wallpapers and other extra features not shipped with Vista. It installs five new wallpapers, including an extra Hamad Darwish wallpaper, as well as four branding wallpapers. It also installs DreamScene, a utility that allows users to use GIFs and videos as wallpapers, along with 14 video wallpapers to use with it.

In July 2020, Microsoft discontinued SHA-1 based endpoints for updates, meaning that updates for Vista can no longer be downloaded, including Ultimate Extras. However, it can still be manually installed, although it seems that the CAB the static wallpapers came in has not been archived.

DreamScene

The DreamScene wallpapers were released in four different packs.

Starter

Like with Windows XP Starter Edition, Vista Starter has an entirely different set of wallpapers, split into three categories: Vistas, Nature and Widescreen. Whereas XP Starter Edition features a selection of regional wallpapers for each region, all regions of Vista Starter feature the same wallpaper set. Most of these were licensed from Getty Images, with a few coming from Corbis and one from SuperStock. With the exception of the widescreen wallpapers which are at 1600×1024, they are at 1024×768, as Starter was intended for low spec computers in developing countries. Widescreen wallpapers are also distinct from other categories, unlike other editions of Windows Vista.

All of these have proper descriptive names hidden within the metadata.

Sample pictures

Windows Vista has fifteen sample pictures, compared to how XP only has four. Most of them were licensed from Getty Images and use a mixture of royalty free and rights-managed licenses. Like with Starter’s wallpapers, they are at 1024×768. The metadata also provides descriptions of each photo and ratings. Dates are also included although most of them are likely inaccurate.

User account pictures

With the exceptions of guest and user, most of Windows Vista’s user account pictures come from Getty Images and use a mixture of royalty free and rights-managed licenses. They are at 128×128, compared to XP’s 48×48. Some of these feature recolored backgrounds compared to the original stock photos, similar to XP’s and 7’s.

Other backgrounds

Logon

The logon background in all editions, with the exception of Starter, is a green-blue aurora with a line near the bottom of it. It was most likely created by Robert Stein and other members of the design team, who were responsible for the Light Aura wallpapers and other design elements of Vista. It is included at many different resolutions, from 1024×768 to 1920×1200, including vertical ones.

The logon background in Windows Vista Starter simply consists of #1D5F7A color, which is also the case for Server 2008 and for Remote Desktop connections made to both operating systems.

• The logon background in all editions except Starter.

• The logon background in Starter.

OOBE

The OOBE background features shared elements with the logon background, and it is possible that it is based on an early or alternate version of it. It appears to use a part of the said background, although two light beams on the left are slightly different and the flare branding element is missing, while the aurora has a more simplistic color scheme.

• The OOBE background.

• A comparison between the logon and OOBE backgrounds.

Setup

Windows Vista is the first version of Windows with a fully graphical setup sequence, thus it features a background in BMP format named background_cli, which is located in \support\migwiz\. In the RTM release, Windows PE 2.0 uses a background that is based on a portion of the logon background that appears in builds 5270 to 5342. The background used for the installation process and the initial setup window is based on a portion of the logon background used in the RTM release. Service Pack 1 and 2, which features PE 2.1 instead of 2.0, uses the OOBE background for both the preinstallation environment and the installation process. The background in the initial setup window remains the same as before.

• The RTM setup background, also used in the setup window.

• The Windows PE 2.0 background.

• The Windows PE 2.1 and SP1/SP2 setup background; identical to the OOBE background.

Other images

Welcome Scan image

A higher res version of the Garden sample picture is included with the Windows Fax and Scan program. Upon launching the program, it is stored in the Scanned Documents folder, located in the Documents folder. The version used in Windows 7 onwards is merely the same version as the sample picture, which is 1024×768; this is likely to save space.

Picture Puzzle

The Picture Puzzle gadget includes 11 selectable images at a resolution of 108×108; their names are simply the numbers corresponding to the order they appear in. Most of these are cropped versions of sample pictures, while one is based on the img20 wallpaper and a few are unique to this widget. Another image, daisies, is included in the same folder, but is not used as a selectable image and is likely a placeholder, being at 130×130 instead.

The gadget and its images also appear in Windows 7, and gadgets were removed altogether in Windows 8.

Trivia

• In Windows Vista Starter, aero.theme still points to using img24 despite not being included in the edition, resulting in the solid black color as the wallpaper. When logging on to a new user account for the first time, img724 is still set as default.

References

External links

• Windows Vista and 7 HD Wallpaper Pack, a pack that features Starter wallpapers and sample pictures in higher resolution, along with other content

Download: drive.google.com/file/d/1L5wb0…

(PLEASE read the notes BEFORE commenting about missing user account pictures)

This is a pack of many Windows user account pictures at high resolutions, rather than 48×48 or 128×128! User account pictures from Windows XP, Vista and 7 are included, and a few other stock photos that were taken by Windows photographers. It doesn’t have them all, but it still has quite a lot considering their rarity.

If you aren’t aware, Microsoft licensed most of their user account pictures from stock photo sites such as Corbis and Getty Images. I have used a certain downloader tool to retrieve many of these at higher resolutions, and in some cases I even got some directly from old royalty free stock photo CDs. As stock photo sites sometimes take photos down, not all of them are present in this pack, such as palm tree or skateboarder, but I have been trying my best to find them. Also, if you’re going to submit any of your finds to this pack, please be aware that I do not accept upscaled user account pictures, as I feel they have less value than the original images. You can always try contacting the original photographers for full res versions, although be prepared to spend a bit of money.

Included:
Windows XP: airplane, astronaut, ball, beach, car, cat, chess, dog, drip, duck, fish, guest, guitar, kick, lift-off, red flower, snowflake (17/24)
Windows Vista: usertile2 to 12 (11/13)
Windows 7: usertile10, 11, 13-16, 20-23, 25-28, 30, 32-34, 37-39, 41, 42, 44 (26/37)

If you are unsure about anything, read the notes in each folder. These clarify reasons why user account pictures may either look different from expected or why some may be missing.

Further links:
The original files of some Windows wallpapers: archive.org/details/theorigina…
Windows Wallpaper Wiki: windowswallpaper.miraheze.org/…