A light-flooded window against a blue background – millions of people see this picture when they start up their Windows PC. What many do not know: The famous picture is a photo. We tell the story behind the Windows 10 wallpaper.
Photo series with 15 pictures
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With the green field Microsoft its operating system Windows XP a monument. Hardly any other photo has been viewed so often for decades. But since 2015, a new image has adorned the start screen on millions of computers running the current Microsoft operating system Windows 10 is installed. And there is always more of that.
Windows 10 is already the most used operating system worldwide. According to Microsoft, it runs on more than 900 million devices. The number is likely to rise rapidly as Microsoft ends support for the still widely used predecessor Windows 7, Home users with a Windows 7 PC should therefore switch urgently. A detailed guide to this you’ll find here.
The picture was not taken on a computer
If you reinstall Windows 10 on your computer, you will be greeted by a blue start screen with a light-flooded window. Some never change this background (how you customize the desktop to your liking, we show here). But very few people know the background of the famous wallpaper.
The work chosen by Microsoft is entitled “Hero”. It shows the Windows logo like a floating window in a dark room. Blue light shines through the window from behind, small clouds of smoke are visible. What many do not know: The futuristic image was not created on the computer. Rather, it’s a handmade recording that took a lot of time and patience. The PC was only used at the end of the fine work.
Real scene set up
The designer Gmunk (Bradley G. Munkowitz) designed the desktop background. He worked on the title sequence for the 2010 futuristic Hollywood production “Tron: Legacy” and obviously anchored creative elements in the new Windows look.
In the following video, Microsoft shows how the scene for “Hero” was set up and also lets the designer have his say.
Gmunk cut four rectangles out of a black disc and covered the inner edges with a layer of acrylic. The cut pane was irradiated with a laser and so the acrylic paint glowed blue. Swirling smoke and additional lasers refined the look.
Ten pictures were taken with a special 50 megapixel camera and combined to form a final picture. This created a special depth effect that makes the work appear like digital graphics.
Note: This article was first published in 2015, the year Windows 10 was released, and is now on the occasion of the support shutdown of Windows 7 updated.
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