Custom Wallpaper

Enabling a custom wallpaper

1. Open the Manager window (double-click the tray icon, or launch WorkTop from the Start menu).
2. Find the desktop you want to customize, click the three-dot menu on its card and choose Wallpaper....
3. Turn on Custom wallpaper.
4. Click Choose… and pick an image file. Or open Windows Settings (make sure that you are switched to the aforementioned desktop) and change your wallpaper as you normally would. WorkTop will capture the new wallpaper and save it for that desktop.

From now on, whenever you switch to this desktop, WorkTop will apply its saved wallpaper. When you switch away, your regular system wallpaper is restored.

Changing the wallpaper later

To update a desktop's wallpaper, just switch to that desktop and change your wallpaper through Windows Settings. WorkTop detects the change and updates the saved wallpaper automatically. There is no need to re-enable the feature.

Removing a custom wallpaper

To stop using a custom wallpaper for a desktop, open Wallpaper... from the three-dot menu on its card and turn off Custom wallpaper. The desktop will revert to using your regular system wallpaper.

A different wallpaper on each monitor

With more than one monitor connected, a desktop can show a different image on each monitor. With virtual desktop linking on, this needs WorkTop manages wallpapers.

1. Click the three-dot menu on the desktop's card and choose Wallpaper....
2. Switch to Per monitor.
3. Click Choose… next to a monitor and pick an image file. Repeat for each monitor you want to set.

A monitor without an image of its own shows the wallpaper chosen under All monitors. Clear removes a monitor's image. To choose one wallpaper for all monitors again, clear the monitor images first.

While a desktop has per-monitor images, wallpaper changes made in Windows Settings are not saved for that desktop. Clearing its last per-monitor image returns it to the normal behavior.

The picture fit, such as Fill or Fit, is a single Windows setting for all monitors. Windows applies it to each monitor's own shape, so a portrait image on a portrait monitor fills the screen.

How it works

WorkTop tracks two things: a base wallpaper (your regular system wallpaper, shared by all desktops without a custom one) and individual wallpaper paths for desktops that have the feature enabled.

When you switch desktops, WorkTop checks whether the target desktop has a custom wallpaper. If it does, that wallpaper is applied. If not, the base wallpaper is restored. This all happens automatically as part of the desktop switch.

Wallpaper with virtual desktop linking

When Virtual desktop linking is turned on, Settings also shows WorkTop manages wallpapers, which controls whether WorkTop or Windows sets the background.

With WorkTop manages wallpapers turned on, WorkTop applies each desktop's wallpaper on every switch, and the background Windows keeps for the linked virtual desktop is overwritten by it. With it turned off, Windows manages the background of each virtual desktop and a desktop's custom wallpaper has no effect. To give a virtual desktop its own background in that mode, open Task View, right-click the virtual desktop and click Choose background.

While linking is on, assign a desktop's wallpaper by opening Wallpaper... from its card menu in the Manager, clicking Choose… and picking an image file. Changing the background through Windows Settings does not assign it to the desktop.

With WorkTop manages wallpapers and two-way linking both on, WorkTop removes the backgrounds set in Windows for your virtual desktops, which can make your screen flash for a moment.

Turning WorkTop manages wallpapers off can leave linked virtual desktops without a background of their own. Choose one for each in Task View.