Windows xp bliss location

Bliss, originally titled Bucolic Green Hills, is the default wallpaper of Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system. It is a photograph of green rolling hills and daytime sky with cirrus clouds. Charles O’Rear, a former National Geographic photographer, took the photo in January 1998 near the Napa–Sonoma county line, California, after a phylloxera infestation forced vineyards to be cleared from the hill years prior. He used the Mamiya RZ67 camera and Fujifilm’s Velvia film to create the photograph; O’Rear remarked that he did not enhance or manipulate the photograph.

Initially a stock photo available through his photo agency Westlight that was acquired by Bill Gates’ Corbis in 1998, Microsoft obtained full rights of the photograph in 2000 and then used it to promote Windows XP. Bliss received positive reception from reviewers and has been speculated to be the most viewed photograph in history by Microsoft and journalists. Microsoft has reused the photograph in several promotions since the release of Windows XP. Photographers have attempted to re-create the iconic image, but the rolling hill has since become a vineyard again.

The photograph depicts a lush green rolling hill with cirrus clouds during a daytime sky, with mountains far in the background.^[1][2] It was taken by Charles O’Rear, a former National Geographic photographer and resident of St. Helena, California, in the Napa Valley region north of San Francisco, while on his way to visit his girlfriend in January 1998.^[3][4][5] He drove along the Sonoma Highway, California State Route 121 intersecting 12, when he noticed the hill, which had been cleared of vineyards after a phylloxera infestation years prior.^[3][6][7] O’Rear came to a stop in southern Sonoma County,^[8] near the Napa–Sonoma county line and pulled off the road.^[3][9]

O’Rear recalled that he was alert for a photo opportunity the day he took the photograph, considering that a storm had passed over and winter rains left the hills green.^{[1][10]: 1:10} «There it was! My God, the grass is perfect! It’s green! The sun is out; there’s some clouds,» he remembered thinking.^[10]: 1:24 He took four shots and got back into his truck.^{[9][10]: 2:10}

O’Rear used a Mamiya RZ67 medium-format camera on a tripod and Fujifilm’s Velvia color film that saturated green and blue colors.^{[7][10]: 2:29 [11]} He credited the combination and said that if he had shot with 35 mm film, it would not have had an identical result.^[10]: 2:40 O’Rear later recollected that he had previously attempted to capture the Napa Valley hills with the Kodachrome 64 film, but was dissatisfied due to the unsaturated greens.^[12] Despite being widely believed that the photograph was manipulated or created with software such as Adobe Photoshop, O’Rear said that he did not digitally enhance or manipulate the photograph in any way.^[1][2][13]

After creating the photograph, O’Rear made it available as a stock photo through Westlight, a photo agency he co-founded.^[3][4][14] Westlight was bought by Seattle-based Corbis in May 1998, who digitized its best-selling images.^[15][16] By the time of its acquisition, Westlight was estimated to have been one of the largest stock photo companies in the United States.^[15] He also submitted a vertical shot, which was available at the same time.^[17] The photograph was originally titled Bucolic Green Hills.^[11][18]

In 2000, Microsoft’s Windows XP development team contacted O’Rear through Corbis,^[10]: 3:50 which he believes they used instead of their larger competitor Getty Images, also based in Seattle, because the former company was owned by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.^[3][6][19] «I have no idea what [they] were looking for,» he recalled. «Were they looking for an image that was peaceful? Were they looking for an image that had no tension?»^[10]: 2:54 He said that he was unsure how Microsoft found the photograph.^[12] Microsoft chose the image because «it illustrates the experiences Microsoft strives to provide customers (freedom, possibility, calmness, warmth, etc.)» and the ideas of Windows XP.^{[20][21]: 816} Another image of O’Rear’s, known as Red Moon Desert in Windows XP, was also considered to be the default wallpaper, but was changed due to testers comparing it to buttocks.^[22][23]

Microsoft said they wanted not just to license the image for use as Windows XP’s default wallpaper, but to buy all the rights to it.^{[10]: 3:37 [24]} They offered O’Rear what he says is the second-largest payment ever made to a photographer for a single image; however, he signed a confidentiality agreement and cannot disclose the exact amount.^[7][13][25] It has been reported to be «in the low six figures.»^[3] O’Rear needed to send Microsoft the original film and sign the paperwork; however, when couriers and delivery services became aware of the value of the shipment, they declined since it was higher than their insurance would cover. Instead, Microsoft bought O’Rear a plane ticket and he personally delivered it to their offices in Seattle.^{[3][10]: 3:57} «I don’t think the engineers or anybody at Microsoft had any idea it would have the success it had,» he said.^[10]: 4:40 After the rights to the photograph were bought by Microsoft, it was renamed Bliss and was chosen as the default wallpaper of the Luna visual style,^[2][26] the default graphical user interface of Windows XP.^[27] The image was used extensively by Microsoft for promoting Windows XP and their $200 million advertising campaign.^[2][28]

Since the origins of Bliss were not widely known after the release of Windows XP, there had been considerable speculation about where the landscape was. Some guesses have included locations in France, Ireland, Switzerland, New Zealand, Germany, and southeast Washington.^[13][28][29] Dutch users believed the photograph was shot in Ireland since the image was named «Ireland» in the Dutch release of the software.^[30] O’Rear said that Microsoft also questioned him about the authenticity of the photograph several years after the release of Windows XP, with the developers saying that «most of us think it was Photoshopped.»^[6][12] O’Rear is adamant that, other than Corbis’ minor alterations to the digitized version, he did nothing to it in the darkroom, contrasting it with Ansel Adams’ Monolith:

I didn’t «create» this. I just happened to be there at the right moment and documented it. If you are Ansel Adams and you take a particular picture of Half Dome and want the light a certain way, you manipulate the light. He was famous for going into the darkroom and burning and dodging. Well, this is none of that.^[13]

The photograph was positively received.^[21]: 818 David Clark of the British magazine Amateur Photographer commented on the aesthetic qualities of Bliss, saying that «critics might argue that the image is bland and lacks a point of interest, while supporters would say that its evocation of a bright, clear day in a beautiful landscape is itself the subject.» He described the landscape as having surreal features and speculated that it was chosen by Microsoft because of its appeal and landscape.^[2] Writing for Digital Camera World, Hannah Rooke said that Bliss became a metaphor for peace, nostalgia, and natural charm.^[4] Wayne Freedman of ABC7 called it the contemporary version of Adams’s Monolith photograph.^[9] Observing the sky in the photograph, cultural anthropologist Katrien Pype referred to it as «almost perfect.»^[31]

In a journal, Pedagogical University of Kraków professor Marcin Kania referred to Bliss as «one of the most recognizable contemporary landscape photographs.»^[32] Jacob Ridley of PC Gamer described Bliss as the «wallpaper that defines [all] Windows wallpapers,»^[23] while Adrienne Vogt of Bustle said that the photograph became omnipresent with Microsoft.^[33] Writing for Sonoma Magazine, Meg McConahey added that a cult following emerged around the photograph.^[34] Shortly before Microsoft retired Windows XP in April 2014,^[3][35] news about the Bliss photograph escalated in popularity.^[21]: 816

Due to the market success of Windows XP over the next decade,^[2] Microsoft and some journalists speculated that it might be the most viewed photograph in history.^{[3][10]: 0:02 [25][26]} Cynthia Sweeney of Napa Valley Register estimated that the photograph has been seen by billions of people,^[3] while O’Rear estimated that Bliss has been seen on a billion computers worldwide, based on the number of copies of Windows XP sold since then.^[13] Regarding the one-billion estimation, he said that it is «an educated guess rather than a fully-accounted-for statistic.»^[26] Calum Russell of Far Out Magazine said the claim that Bliss is the most viewed photograph in history cannot be exactly proven.^[36]

After the release of Windows XP, Microsoft used Bliss in several promotions. In December 2001, a screensaver featuring Bliss was released,^[37] while in July 2021, a modified version of the photograph was added to Microsoft Teams as a background. They wrote that the modified version «shifted the shadows, softened the clouds, and added some dandelions.»^[38] Microsoft later released a 4K resolution rendering of the background on their Microsoft Design website in June 2023.^[39] A limited-edition holiday sweater featuring Bliss was made available by Microsoft in November 2023 at the Xbox Gear Shop.^[40] The sales of the sweater were donated to The Nature Conservancy to combat climate change.^[41]

O’Rear conceded that despite all the other photographs he took for National Geographic, he will probably be remembered most for Bliss.^[13] «Anybody now from age 15 on for the rest of their life will remember this photograph,» he said in 2014.^[10]: 5:33 O’Rear framed a photograph of Bliss in his home.^[42] After the release of Windows 7 in 2009, O’Rear said that if asked, he would have provided more photographs to Microsoft.^[13] Prior to Microsoft retiring Windows XP in 2014, O’Rear was interviewed by them about the history of the photograph.^[1][35] In the interview, he said that he had hoped Microsoft would have contacted him for a Windows 8 wallpaper photograph.^[10]: 8:26 In a separate interview for The Sydney Morning Herald, O’Rear said that he regretted the deal he negotiated with Microsoft and wished that he had opted for a «fraction of a cent for every time it’s seen» deal instead.^[43]

Before the photograph was bought by Microsoft in 2000, the hill returned to its previous state as a home to vineyards.^[4][44] Despite this, photographers have tried re-creating Bliss.^[36] The Goldin+Senneby duo visited the site in Sonoma Valley in November 2006, where Bliss was taken, re-photographing the same view now full of grapevines.^{[7][21]: 832} Their work, titled After Microsoft, was created when the Luna theme was replaced by Aero in Windows Vista and also discussed the history of the photograph and its legacy after the phasing out of Windows XP’s default theme.^[45][46] The duo said that they were attracted to the Bliss location due to it being «a backdrop to our lives in the front of the screen, as a kind of collective subconscious.»^[7] Their work was exhibited at the gallery La Vitrine in Paris in 2007.^[44] Art historian Julian Myers-Szupinska said that with the return of vineyards, the Goldin+Senneby Bliss re-creation «loses its shine.»^[21]: 832

• List of photographs considered the most important
• Frutiger Aero – Design style and Internet aesthetic

• Media related to Bliss at Wikimedia Commons
• Official website of Charles O’Rear

This is the location where the photograph for the iconic «Bliss» Windows XP wallpaper was taken.

It is situated on Highway 121 in Sonoma County, California, roughly 1.5 miles east of a small community called Schellville.

To find the exact location, you can use the coordinates that we have listed in the directions section below.

A man named Charles O’Rear snapped the photograph in January 1996 while he was driving westward along Highway 121 towards his girlfriend’s house.

Картинка с сайта: oddstops.com

That day, a storm had passed over northern California. Knowing that the weather conditions might provide him with a good photo opportunity, O’Rear took his camera with him and remained on the lookout for the perfect shot.

When he reached this section of the highway near Schellville, he noticed the bright green hill on his right and decided to pull over.

Картинка с сайта: oddstops.com

As he jumped out of his vehicle and grabbed his tripod, he had no way of knowing that he was about to take one of the most recognizable images in human history. Nor did the passersby who saw him standing on the side of the road.

Initially, O’Rear made it available online as a stock photo. However, in 2000, Microsoft contacted him and offered to buy all of the rights to his image for a six-figure sum.

The cost of buying the photo was so high that couriers refused to deliver the original film due to insurance reasons. Consequently, O’Rear had to fly to Microsoft’s headquarters and hand-deliver it himself.

After buying the image, Microsoft named it «Bliss» and used it as the default wallpaper for Windows XP—a critically acclaimed operating system that sold 17 million copies in the first two months after its release.

Between 2001 and 2006, more than 400 million copies of Windows XP were sold.

This means that people all over the world have viewed O’Rear’s photo billions of times.

Photos

Photos of the site and other related images.

Bliss: Then and now

Картинка с сайта: oddstops.com

The photograph for the «Bliss» wallpaper was taken in January 1996. The Google Street View image at the bottom is from April 2021—roughly 25 years later.

As you can see, the hill looks noticeably different these days due to the presence of vines.

Back in 1996, it was bare because the vines had recently been removed due to an infestation of insects called grape phylloxera, which feed on the roots and leaves.

Bliss, originally known as Bucolic Green Hills, is the default wallpaper of Windows XP, fully bought from Corbis by Microsoft for use as XP’s main branding image. It depicts a green hill in Sonoma County, California, United States, just after the rain had went off. It was taken by Charles O’Rear in January 1996 while visiting his girlfriend. O’Rear also took XP’s Red moon desert wallpaper, along with Highway Winding Through Countryside, which was used in an MSN Explorer 7 demo.

With Bliss being the default wallpaper of Windows XP and the subject of many memes, it is easily the most well known Windows wallpaper of all time, and it has been seen by millions of people all over the world. It also appears on a card in cards.dll, where it is cropped to just the clouds. Several edits have been produced over the years, as well as shots of green hills inspired by this one.

History[]

Background[]

Charles O’Rear was visiting his girlfriend Daphne Irwin in January 1996. He stopped by the side of Sonoma Highway (California State Route 12 and 121) to take a few pictures of the hills with his Mamiya RZ67 medium-format camera, including the picture that would become Bliss. During this time the hill appeared to be greener than usual as a storm had just passed and there had been other frequent winter rains. Along with that, the vineyards had been removed from the field sometime years earlier due to a phylloxera infection; both factors combined made it the perfect opportunity for him to take a memorable, dream-like photo.

He would submit it to the Westlight stock photo agency (which he co-founded with Craig Aurness, who took the XP Beta sample picture Surfer) under the name of Bucolic Green Hills (with an ID of 71810), along with a vertical variant (ID of 71811). In 1998, Bill Gates-owned Corbis would buy Westlight, incorporating their photos into their evergrowing stock photo library. Corbis scanned best-selling images and added them to the online database,^[1] meaning several companies have licensed Bliss in the past, although there are not many known examples of its previous usage.

Inclusion in Windows XP[]

Rob Girling, the design manager of Windows XP, carried out user research, and 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.

In 2000, Microsoft contacted O’Rear via Corbis about purchasing the photo. With Bliss, Microsoft went a step further than merely licensing it: they bought the full rights to the image meaning no company would ever be able to license the photo from Corbis again, as the image was often used as part of XP’s marketing and the Luna theme is modelled around its color scheme. It was purchased for an undisclosed amount of money in the low six figures; O’Rear cannot reveal the exact amount without violating a non disclosure agreement. He did not receive the full cost as Corbis handled the sale. As a result of its Microsoft acquisition, it was permanently removed from Corbis’ website and has never been available on Getty Images or other sites that Corbis cross-licensed photos to. The vertical shot was also included in the acquisition, as O’Rear cannot release it due to his agreement with Microsoft.

As Microsoft had now become the image’s owner, O’Rear had to send them the original film along with paperwork. As the cost was so high, delivery services refused to send it, so Microsoft had to buy O’Rear a flight to their offices, where he delivered the film in person. Several Microsoft employees asked him for 10×8-inches (25.4×20.32 cm) prints of Bliss. Despite this, the version used in XP is identical to the version that was for sale on Corbis, rather than using a rescanned version by Microsoft.^[2]

Another photo taken by O’Rear, Red moon desert, appeared as the default wallpaper in several pre-release builds, most likely as a decoy. It is still likely that Bliss was always intended to be the default wallpaper, as it appeared with Luna for the first time in build 2415. The Windows XP branding wallpaper also briefly replaced Bliss as the default wallpaper during development.

Authenticity and myths[]

The authenticity of Bliss has frequently come under scrutiny, while various myths and misconceptions surrounding the wallpaper have developed. For many years, the location of Bliss was unknown to the general public. There was a wide range of guesses as to where it was taken, including France, England, Switzerland, the North Otago region of New Zealand, southeastern of the US state of Washington, Ireland, and the Alentejo region of Portugal; the latter two are a result of the Dutch version of Windows XP naming it «Ierland» (which is the name of Ireland in Dutch) and the Portuguese (Portugal) version of XP naming it «Alentejo» respectively. Many users have speculated it is not even a real photo at all, simply being a digital composite comprising multiple photos.

Alleged edits by O’Rear, Westlight and Corbis[]

O’Rear himself has repeatedly claimed in interviews that the photo is entirely unedited, which has been met with skepticism. The image appears on the CD Corbis Images Creative Freedom 3, which consists of 10,000+ low res images that can be browsed using portfolio software. The description mentions «This image is potentially a composite of several images, combined to enhance its conceptual appeal.», which is found in the description of several other digital composite images, including Azul. While the use of the term «potentially» makes this more ambiguous to confirm, the presence of the description here means that it is highly likely to be a digital composite, possibly a combination of separate hill and sky photos along with further additional editing. The colors of the sky and hill in O’Rear’s other shots of the same hill are also drastically different from those of Bliss, which would not make sense if they were taken during the same photo shoot, unless they were further touched up. O’Rear has also created several other digital composites, including other photos that depict grassy plains or hills.

In 2016, an uncropped version of Bliss appeared in a Toronto Star article. The metadata states it was provided directly by Microsoft; it is likely a new scan or print, featuring darker colors. This version features elements that are not fully present in the Corbis version. It is unclear if it was retouched, if the colors had faded over time or if this represents an earlier version before it went under further post-processing by O’Rear or Westlight. There are also older scans that show the missing elements from the Corbis version but feature the same colors.

Alleged edits by Microsoft[]

Microsoft are often falsely believed to have cropped the hill on the left and added extra saturation, however the former may have been done by Corbis when they digitized best-selling Westlight images, while the image was already saturated to begin with, either due to pre-existing edits or using the Velvia film. The original 4510×3627 TIF from Corbis has also surfaced as it was available from Fujifilm’s site. It is likely the exact same copy that Microsoft purchased from Corbis, as it contains Corbis metadata and uses the Corbis RGB format (which has a rather problematic color space, resulting in some programs making it look brighter than it actually is). Like with other wallpapers included in Windows XP, the only edits Microsoft done to the image after purchasing it from Corbis were cropping and resizing it to 4:3 in 800×600, and compressing it as a JPEG.

Greg Melander, who was the lead visual designer for Windows XP, and designed the Crystal and Ripple wallpapers, claimed in 2011 to have «raised the saturation levels, adjusted a few flowers in the foreground, took out a few clouds in the sky and adjusted the mountain the far distance».^[3] However, the version of Bliss used in XP does not include these edits. Bliss (along with five other wallpapers) was added by build 2419 and did not undergo any further visual changes; Melander joined Microsoft in February 2001, a month after these wallpapers were added to XP. A version of Bliss with missing clouds and subtle color changes can be seen in some of XP’s marketing material;^[4] this may have been the version that Melander described. It is not clear if this version was intended to be used as the default wallpaper, or if it was only created for marketing usage.

Legacy[]

Due to it being the default wallpaper of XP, along with the image used to market the operating system, Bliss has become iconic. It is known to be one of the most viewed photos of all time, as a result of XP’s success and many people not bothering to change the wallpaper. David Clark of British magazine commented on Bliss that «it’s attractive, easy on the eye and doesn’t detract from other items that might be on the screen are all contributing factors.» He believes it was chosen as «it’s an unusually inviting image of a verdant landscape and one that promotes a sense of wellbeing in desk-bound computer users.»^[5] In an interview with O’Rear in 2010, regarding Bliss, he stated: «I didn’t ‘create’ this. I just happened to be there at the right moment and documented it. If you are Ansel Adams and you take a particular picture of Half Dome and want the light a certain way, you manipulate the light. He was famous for going into the dark room and burning and dodging. Well, this is none of that.» He also believes it will be mentioned in his obituary.^[6]

As the default wallpaper of Windows XP, Bliss has become iconic in online culture. Several meme edits of Bliss have been made, along with tribute photos inspired by the original. It also has the most detailed backstory out of Windows wallpapers as a whole, as a result of both its popularity and the circumstances that led to it being shot to begin with.

Bliss also holds sentimental value for O’Rear, due to it both being his most successful image and it being taken while visiting his girlfriend. When O’Rear gave Microsoft his phone number, he hoped that they would call him to take a photo for Windows 8. This did not happen, and it is unlikely Microsoft will ever do so for later versions of Windows. With Windows 10, Microsoft hired photographers Steve McCurry and Chad Copeland instead, while Windows 11 features photorealistic CGI works by various design studios such as Six N. Five.

Variations[]

O’Rear’s alternate shots[]

The shot of Bliss that appears in XP is not the only shot O’Rear took while at the hill, and there are at least three other shots from the same photoshoot. There is a vertical shot with a slightly darker sky, which was also submitted to Westlight and appears on the CD Corbis Westlight Creative Freedom. It appears that Microsoft have bought the rights to this too, as O’Rear has stated he cannot release it nor has it been made available on other stock photo sites. There are two other shots which are exclusive to O’Rear’s PhotoShelter and were never available from Westlight, Corbis, or other sites. One is a horizontal shot with a darker sky and grass along with different clouds, while there is another vertical shot available too.

Microsoft edits[]

Throughout the years, Microsoft has created several edited versions of Bliss. Shortly after XP’s release, it released a screensaver version of Bliss with different, animated clouds. Only the top of the hill is present, as the rest has been cropped off. Windows Mobile 2003’s default wallpaper is also a heavily cropped version featuring new clouds and a Windows flag in the bottom right. Windows Mobile 2003 Second Edition also includes a theme titled Bliss, which includes a lower res, more cropped version of Bliss with an added Windows flag, along with removing some clouds and making it brighter.

The downloadable Christmas Theme 2003 also contains two wallpapers titled Snowman and Xmas Tree, both of which feature a cropped, snowy version of Bliss with a snowman and a Christmas tree on them respectively. Similarly, in 2020 Microsoft shared a tweet showing four brightened versions of Bliss with a snow overlay added to them. A white cutout is also added on top of the hill, and progressively gets less transparent in each image.^[7]

A version of Bliss with a Texas Longhorn bull humorously added to the center of the image appears in Longhorn build 5001. It is likely that the bull photo was simply sourced from a photo on the internet. As very few builds in the 50xx range have been leaked, it is unknown how long this version of Bliss was used for.

A version of Bliss also appears in Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005, under the name of Energy Bliss. It is based on the original, but with a noticeably different sky and clouds, and several light effects have been added, giving it a more modern, digital look. It has also been cropped to only include the top of the hill, like with the screensaver version. It is at 1600×1200, compared to the 800×600 used by XP’s wallpapers.

Shots inspired by Bliss[]

Over the years, various people have visited the location and took photos of the hill now, as a result of Bliss’ popularity, along with taking shots of other similar hills. Simon Goldin of the Swedish photographic duo Goldin+Senneby would take a picture of the hill in November 2006 titled «After Microsoft», showing that the view is now covered in grapevines again,^[8] as the phylloxera infection that led to them being removed was several years ago at this point. Another example of these photos is one by James Smith on Alamy, taken in October 2016. In 2021, YouTuber Andrew Levitt travelled to the Palouse, USA with friends to capture a series of photos very similar to Bliss, as well as to Bliss’ location; these photos were released as wallpapers on his Patreon.

Microsoft New Zealand[]

In 2004, Microsoft New Zealand released a New Zealand-oriented version of the Bliss wallpaper with several sheep present. It was taken near Oamaru, North Otago, New Zealand by an unnamed international tourist; Jeroen Jordens of Morcomm Systems, who accompanied the tourist, recognized the strong similarity to Bliss and sent it to Microsoft New Zealand, who made it available for download and later as part of the Royale theme along with New Bliss and an unrelated wallpaper titled Bluff. It appears the lighting was altered to give it a brighter appearance. Edited versions of the wallpaper, including winter and Queen’s birthday themed versions, were also released for download.

Microsoft New Zealand’s downloadable Royale theme, released in 2005, uses a wallpaper titled New Bliss, rather than using Energy Bliss. It originated from DeviantArt as an edited photo titled «Grassy» posted by judge, which itself is edited from americanpsycho’s «Where Are You Going». According to judge, it was used without permission and he attempted to email Microsoft regarding this, but got no reply. This wallpaper has falsely been spread on the internet as being a Longhorn wallpaper titled Aero Bliss, due to its inclusion in unofficial Longhorn transformation and wallpaper packs.

Official CGI recreations[]

In 2021, Microsoft included a version of Bliss created with what seems to be CGI artificial fur, in the Microsoft Pride 2021 wallpaper pack. Later that year, Six N. Five were commissioned by Microsoft to create a wallpaper pack related to Windows nostalgia called Nostalgic Celebrations, including a photorealistic CGI landscape inspired by Bliss, as well as wallpapers featuring Solitaire, Clippy and Paint. These wallpapers are in 4089×2726, although 1080p versions for use as Microsoft Teams backgrounds were also released.

Trivia[]

• As a result of Bliss’ popularity, numerous edits have been made to the wallpaper for various purposes, including various attempts to adapt it for widescreen displays, which involve either stretching or cropping the original image.
• Due to being the default wallpaper, it is frequently referred to as simply “the Windows XP wallpaper”.
• In 2020, a Redditor posted a picture of a Russian geography textbook featuring Bliss with lights on it. The version of Bliss featured is the original, without Corbis’ cropping. It is possible this could be an instance of Bliss being licensed during 1996-98.

References[]

In January 1998, National Geographic photographer Charles O’Rear was driving down Highway 121 through Sonoma to see his girlfriend in San Francisco just as he’d done plenty of times before. But this time the view caught his eye. The grass was especially green after a winter shower, which had passed to reveal a blue sky dotted by fluffy white clouds. He stopped his car and shot the scene with his medium-format camera.

O’Rear used Fujifilm’s Velvia (said to rival Kodachrome), a film often used by nature photographers, which created the image’s saturated tones. He says the image was completely untouched when he uploaded it to Corbis, a stock photo site founded by Bill Gates.

In 2000, Microsoft called to see if they could use his picture for its new operating system. O’Rear sold all the rights for an undisclosed sum—but a sum large enough that no one was willing to insure the images to be shipped. O’Rear flew to Seattle and delivered them in person. Since the release of Windows XP in 2001, the image has graced the screens of over a billion computers all over the world. 

Now people come to photograph the same spot, creating seasonal updates of the iconic image, but countless unwittingly drive by the idyllic scene everyday, possibly even on their way to computers adorned by the very hill pocked with wildflowers.

It’s actually: Sonoma, California. The original Windows XP desktop image, known commonly to the tech world as ‘Bliss,’ was taken in 1996 on a road that cuts through California’s wine country (the photographer claims the photo wasn’t digitally enhanced at all). Grapevines have since been planted on the iconic hillside.

1. Where was the XP background picture taken?
2. Where are Windows desktop pictures taken?
3. Where is the Microsoft Background Hill?
4. Who Shot Windows XP wallpaper?
5. What is the most-viewed photo in history?
6. Is the Windows 10 wallpaper real?
7. Where are Windows screensavers saved?
8. Where are the Windows 10 Lock screen pictures?
9. Where does Windows 10 store background images?
10. Where was the original Windows background taken?
11. How much did Microsoft buy bliss for?
12. What came after Windows XP?

Where was the XP background picture taken?

It is a virtually unedited photograph of a green hill and blue sky with clouds in the Los Carneros American Viticultural Area of California’s Wine Country. Charles O’Rear took the photo in January 1996 and Microsoft bought the rights in 2000.

Where are Windows desktop pictures taken?

The desktop background image location for Windows 10 is “C:\Windows\Web”. Open the File Explorer and go to the C: drive, and then double-click Windows followed by the Web folder. There you can find several subfolders: 4K, Screen and Wallpaper.

Where is the Microsoft Background Hill?

«Bliss» hill, located in Sonoma, Calif. off Hwy 12, is the subject of one of the world’s most viewed photos: Windows XP’s default desktop wallpaper. «Bliss» hill, located in Sonoma, Calif. off Hwy 12, is the subject of one of the world’s most viewed photos: Windows XP’s default desktop wallpaper.

Who Shot Windows XP wallpaper?

‘Bliss’, the photograph shot by photographer Charles O’Rear for Microsoft, was used as the default wallpaper on Windows XP. The photo became the most-viewed image in the world with nearly 1 billion people viewing it.

What is the most-viewed photo in history?

Not many know Charles O’Rear is the man behind Bliss, the photograph considered by many as the most-viewed picture in the history of the world. O’Rear clicked Bliss 21 years ago and it was used by Microsoft as the default background for its Windows XP operating system.

Is the Windows 10 wallpaper real?

Like every other version of Windows, Microsoft has created a special desktop wallpaper for Windows 10. … The software company used camera mapping techniques, lasers, and projectors to create the new hero image that will be used on millions of PCs that ship with Windows 10.

Where are Windows screensavers saved?

There are three folders on your hard drive that Windows will automatically scan for the presence of screensavers whenever you open the Screen Saver Settings panel: C:\Windows. C:\Windows\system32. C:\Windows\SysWOW64 (on 64-bit versions of Windows)

Where are the Windows 10 Lock screen pictures?

The quickly changing background and lock screen images can be found in this folder: C:\Users\USERNAME\AppData\Local\Packages\Microsoft. Windows. … The images are not recognisable as such when you open the folder: If you see no such files, make sure that your Windows File Explorer shows hidden items.

Where does Windows 10 store background images?

Windows 10’s default desktop wallpapers are stored in C:\Windows\Web. This folder usually contains subfolders named after different wallpaper themes (such as “Flowers” or “Windows”) or resolutions (“4K”).

Where was the original Windows background taken?

It’s actually: Sonoma, California. The original Windows XP desktop image, known commonly to the tech world as ‘Bliss,’ was taken in 1996 on a road that cuts through California’s wine country (the photographer claims the photo wasn’t digitally enhanced at all). Grapevines have since been planted on the iconic hillside.

How much did Microsoft buy bliss for?

“Bliss” by Charles O’Rear. Microsoft then selected O’Rear’s photo out of thousands of images in their stock library to illustrate the philosophy of Windows XP, and the company paid O’Rear an undisclosed sum that’s known to be over $100,000.

What came after Windows XP?

Windows XP lasted longer as Microsoft’s flagship operating system than any other version of Windows, from October 25, 2001 to January 30, 2007 when it was succeeded by Windows Vista.