Windows xp wallpaper name

Одними из самых известных обоев, несомненно, является стандартное изображение Windows XP, на котором запечатлён блаженно расслабляющий вид зелёных холмов и более синее, чем синее небо. Эти обои — вероятно, одно из самых просматриваемых изображений всех времён — метко названы «Безмятежность». Поищите в Google изображения по слову «безмятежность», и первым результатом будут обои Windows.

Но у голландских пользователей Windows изображение названо «Ирландия», что ошибочно заставило многих поверить, что именно там была сделана фотография.

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Вы когда-нибудь останавливались, чтобы задаться вопросом, где и кем была сделана эта фотография? На самом деле, изображение настолько чёткое, что вы, возможно, предполагали, что оно вообще ненастоящее.

Человеком за камерой был американский фотограф Чарльз О’Риэр. Не позвольте его имени заставить вас подумать, что фотография была сделана всё-таки в Ирландии. Безмятежность, как выяснилось, находится в Калифорнии. В округе Сонома, если быть точным.

Фотография была сделана в 1996 году — за годы до выпуска Windows XP и перед тем, как этот район был преобразован в виноградник. Фотография, сделанная уже 10 лет спустя с той же точки, с которой была запечатлена «Безмятежность», демонстрирует неутешительно тоскливый вид:

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

С тех пор изображение можно обнаружить в самых неожиданных местах. О’Риэр сам видел изображение в окне ресторана тайской деревни и на фоне телеинтервью с венесуэльским президентом.

Сколько же О’Риэр получил за то, что считается одной из самых знаменитых фотографий всех времён? Соглашение о неразглашении информации не позволяет ему раскрыть реальные цифры, но, согласно Napa Valley Register, О’Риэр заявил, что сумма была «исключительной» и уступившей лишь фотографу, запечатлевшему тогдашнего президента Билла Клинтона в объятиях с Моникой Левински.

Самым удивительным фактом является то, что, как утверждает О’Риэр, сделанное фотоаппаратом среднего формата, это изображение не подвергалось цифровой обработке.

В любом случае, сегодняшняя реальность очень далека от идиллического изображения, от которого отказались в Windows Vista.

Ян Виллем ван Вессел нашёл точные координаты местоположения, и благодаря Google Street View, вы можете посмотреть панораму этого района и точно узнать, как он теперь выглядит:

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

За точкой, за которой стоял О’Риэр, можно увидеть больше виноградников:

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

А по левой и правой сторонам ни что иное, как бесконечные шоссе:

Картинка с сайта: habr.com

Если хотите посмотреть сами, просто зайдите в «Карты Google» и введите координаты 38.248966, -122.410269.

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

From Windows Wallpaper Wiki

For pre-release wallpapers and pictures, see Whistler.

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, and is also the first time Windows having a picture as the default desktop wallpaper. 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.^[1] 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.^[2]

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.^[2]

Like with Windows 2000, the wallpapers are at a rather low resolution of 800×600, 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 1920×1440 and 1920×1200. 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.

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.

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 800×600 (with the exception of one being 801×600, 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.

Windows Embedded Standard and POSReady 2009

In late 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

Windows XP features a selection of four sample pictures. 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 800×600.

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 800×600 like the original four sample pictures, they appear at various 3:2-ish resolutions, all 1280px wide.

User account pictures

Windows XP is the first released version of Windows to include selectable user account pictures in 48×48 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.^[2]

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 96×96.

References

External links

• Windows XP HD Wallpaper Pack