People Are Just Realising How That Windows 10 Desktop Background Was Made, And I Can Never See It The Same Again

My first laptop ran Windows 10, which users and critics really seemed to enjoy. 

It was pretty simple to use, it looked nice, and it had that eerie but calming blue window pane as its default desktop background.

Like a lot of people, I always thought that iconic image was made by CGI thanks to its crisp, otherworldly look. 

But scrolling on Instagram yesterday led me to an unexpected discovery: the famous image is not what I thought. 

“Today I learned: This was a PHOTO (and not a computer-generated image),” the X that the Instagram meme account had screenshotted reads.

How did they photograph that?!

I had the same question, but thankfully, the Internet has answers. 

It turns out that the instalation behind the desktop background was created by designer Bradley Munkowitz, who also goes by GMUNK. 

GMUNK has a section on his site and a video on YouTube which explains how he and his team put the piece together.

“We built the actual Windows logos and brought them to life through our use of inventive camera angles and evocative volumetric lighting,” he explained. 

“We took a piece of black cardboard and cut the Windows logo into it: four squares, each like a window in their own right,” the artist added. “We then executed the same cut through a piece of acrylic and matched the two surfaces perfectly, creating a clear rim around the insides of the logo to catch light blooms and specular hits.” 

Then, they projected light into the holes in the boards, going a little off-centre to give the “window” its clear light source. 

If that all sounds a bit technical, his video is really illustrative. They basically shot a load of lasers through a real window pane, got a lot of different angles, and made a composite product from the 3,000 or so shots they took. 

If you’re surprised, you’re not alone

”I’m gonna be real, I would never have believed that wasn’t CG if it weren’t for those behind-the-scenes pics,” an Instagram user commented. 

“The Windows landscape/clouds background is also a 100% unedited photo. Pure, natural beauty,” another said (the hill is real and the photo is largely untouched, though Microsoft has admitted to darkening the green colour of the grass).