If you’re looking to add a personal touch to your home or work Chromebook by changing its wallpaper to an image that’s more ‘you’, then you need only follow our instructions to learn how. For any other queries you may have, see our FAQs at the bottom of the page.
Note: If your Chromebook belongs to an employer or educator (i.e. your school) you may not be able to change your wallpaper. If not, we recommend contacting your Chromebook administrator for further help.
Table of Contents
Change your Chromebook desktop wallpaper with an image from Chrome
- Open your Chromebook and sign-in
- Right-click on your desktop, and from the pop-up menu, select ‘Set wallpaper’
- Choose one of the images you like best, and click on it, or select the box which says ‘Surprise me’ to have your wallpaper set with a random image from Chrome
Change your Chromebook desktop wallpaper to your own image
- Turn on your Chromebook and sign-in
- If you haven’t already, find and download the image you want as your wallpaper (or if its an image you made or took on another device, then upload it to your Chromebook)
- Locate the image in ‘Files’
- Right-click the image you want as your wallpaper, and select ‘Set wallpaper’
Note: If it’s one of your own images you’re using, ensure that it is either a .jpg or .png file
Change your Chromebook’s screensaver wallpaper
- Turn on your Chromebook and sign-in
- Click the clock in the bottom-right, and from the pop-up menu, select ‘Settings’
- From the sidebar, navigate through Personalisation > Screensaver
- First, if it isn’t on already, turn screensaver on by toggling the appropriate option
- To choose a particular image, or an entire album of images (for Chromebook to shuffle through like a slideshow) select Art Gallery or Google Photos as appropriate
- Locate the image or album and click on it to set it as your Chromebook’s screensaver
And there you have it, whether you’re using your own images, or those provided by Google Chrome, you can quickly and easily change your wallpaper on both your desktop and screensaver. For anything else, see the FAQs below.
Frequently asked questions
What is a Google Chromebook?
A Google Chromebook is a type of laptop or tablet which is developed specifically by Google, to be used exclusively with Google products and software, and which holds minimal hardware memory, tending instead to store all data, files, and user information on the Google Cloud, instead. As such, a Google Chromebook can sometimes operate in a manner which you might be unfamiliar with, given that it is unique compared to Windows PCs or Apple Macs.
Do I have to set a wallpaper?
No. Google Chromebooks will come preset to display standard, default wallpapers, which may either remain static, or change on a daily (hourly, weekly, monthly) basis, depending on their factory settings. You only have to set or change your Google Chromebook wallpaper if you want to.
How do I choose the best image for my wallpaper?
Resolution matters. The bigger the image, and the better, crisper quality, the better it is going to be for use as a Chromebook wallpaper. However, dimension is also important. If you’re not comfortable or familiar with dimension ratios (16:9 being fairly standard screen dimensions in video and cinema, for example), then don’t worry. Just think about the shape of your screen when you’re choosing a wallpaper. Your Chromebook is landscape, so a portrait image (though it can still be used – the rest of your screen filling out with block colour or repetitions of the image) is not likely to look good or work well.
Can I remove my wallpaper if I no longer like it?
Yes, of course. If you’ve changed your wallpaper and are now bored of it, or you bought your Chromebook second hand and have found it with a wallpaper you don’t like, you can always go back into the Chromebook’s appearance settings by following the tutorial above, and returning those settings to default. Chrome will then select preset images to be used as your wallpaper.
