Chrome OS isn’t the most option-packed operating system around, but there are some things you can do to make your Chromebook’s desktop look and work the way you want.
Ready?
Customize your Chromebook’s wallpaper
First, let’s tackle your desktop’s basic appearance:
- Right-click anywhere on your Chromebook’s desktop and select Set wallpaper from the menu that appears.
- Click on one of Google’s categories to see a selection of preset images, or click the My Images option to choose an image from your own local storage.
- If you want your wallpaper to change to a new image every day, click the Change Daily button that’s available at the top of any of Google’s category pages. (That option, unfortunately, isn’t currently available with your own images.)
Customize your browser’s background
You can also personalize the page that comes up every time you open a new tab in your browser:
- Open a new tab in Chrome and click the Customize Chrome button (or the pencil icon) in the browser’s lower right corner.
- Select Background to choose an image from Google’s collection or Upload from device to pick an image from your own local storage, then follow the prompts to find and confirm the image you want.
- Select Color and theme to change the look of the border of your browser and its background. You can choose from a number of preset themes, or click on the circle with the dropper icon, and you can choose custom colors.
Select a color and theme, or customize your own.
Customize your Chromebook’s shelf
Last but not least, take control of the Chrome OS shelf — the dock-like row of shortcuts at the bottom of your screen. Start by selecting exactly what icons appear in that area:
- Open your app drawer (by clicking the circle icon in the lower-left corner of the screen and then clicking the upward-facing arrow on the partial drawer that appears). Right-click any item in the list and select Pin to shelf.
- If you want to add a website, open the site, click the three-dot menu icon in Chrome’s upper right corner, and then select More tools, followed by Create shortcut.
You can also pin a website shortcut to your shelf.
If you want the site to open in an app-like window, without the usual browser elements on top, click the Open as window option in the Create shortcut? pop-up window that appears. Then click the blue Create button.
“Open as window” lets you open the site in an app-like window.- Drag and drop any of the icons in the shelf to change their position.
- Have you decided that you don’t want the icon in your shelf after all? Right-click on the icon and select Unpin.
And one final pair of possibilities: If you want your shelf to appear on the left or right side of your screen instead of at the bottom, right-click anywhere inside it, select Shelf position, then select Left or Right. And if you want your shelf to remain hidden by default and appear only when you mouse over it, right-click the shelf and select the Autohide shelf option.
You can move the shelf to either side of your screen.Update May 27th, 2022, 9:30AM ET: This article was originally published on October 12th, 2019, and has been updated to account for slight changes in the OS.
After you end up buying a new Chromebook or even a new laptop one of the first steps to customizing it and making it your own is changing the wallpaper. Either if you're a student with a Chromebook, a parent, a teacher, or someone in business, changing the wallpaper will give your new device a little more personality, just like downloading your favorite Android apps and keeping bookmarks in Chrome. Similar to the process of changing the wallpaper in Windows, doing so in ChromeOS is quite easy.
Of course, you'll need to find your favorite wallpaper first, either a stock one from the ChromeOS settings app or one downloaded from the internet. Then you can dive deeper into ChromeOS settings and tweak it to change it over to something other than the default image. And, once you do, it will sync up to your Google Account (if you signed into your Chromebook with one) so the next time you buy and use another Chromebook with that same account, you'll be ready with your favorite wallpaper. So without further ado, here's how to change the wallpaper on your Chromebook.
What you'll need
A Chromebook with the latest version of ChromeOS - In this guide, we'll be using the latest version of ChromeOS. If you have a Chromebook with an older version of the operating system, the steps we have in this guide might not apply to you as Google recently changed the method of changing the wallpaper in ChromeOS.
Access to the ChromeOS settings app - You'll have to get into the ChromeOS settings app to change your wallpaper. Most accounts should have access to this page without issue. If you don't have access, ask your IT admin, teacher, or parent for access to change these settings.
Your favorite wallpaper download from the internet or the settings app - Naturally, you can change the wallpaper on your Chromebook to one of the images you see in the settings app, or one that you downloaded. If you want to download a new wallpaper, we suggest you check out Wallpaperhub.app, it has a lot of great images. You can download and save a wallpaper or any image by right-clicking it and choosing to Save image as . . .and then saving it to the Downloads folder. Note that on some Chromebooks you'll have to hold the ALT key and then right-click.
(Optional) A Wallpaper downloaded from an Android app - We advise against it since this might not always work, but you also can use an Android app from the Google Play Store to help you find and download a wallpaper and apply it automatically. Some of our favorite Android apps for wallpapers can be seen below. Just click the link to download the app, launch it, and choose a wallpaper that fits your screen by following the in-app instructions. Again, these apps are catered for Android and not ChromeOS, so they might not help you automatically apply the wallpaper you downloaded, and might just save it to your device. If that's the case, proceed with the other steps in our guide.
Step 1: Go to the ChromeOS Settings app
Granted that you've downloaded and saved your favorite wallpaper, to begin the process of changing your wallpaper on a Chromebook, you'll have to go to the settings app. You can get to it by clicking the ChromeOS launcher to the left of your screen, and typing in Settings to search for it. You also can click on the area with the time on the right side of the system tray at the bottom of your screen and then click the cogs at the top right to get to the settings app.
- In the sidebar of the settings app, choose Device.
- Look for the Personalization category in the middle of the app.
- Click where it says Set your wallpaper and style.
After you click this link, you'll get a popup window with options to change the wallpaper. Our next step will dive even deeper into what you can do on this page.
Step 2: Change your wallpaper to a pre-available image from Google
With the wallpaper settings window open, you can now change your wallpaper in ChromeOS. It's a straightforward process if you're swapping out to one of the pre-available images. Here's how you can complete the process of changing your wallpaper on a Chromebook to a pre-available image. Do note, though, these images will only appear if you're connected to the internet. If you don't see them, connect to the internet first.
- On top where it says Wallpaper and Screen saver choose the Wallpaper option. Click the right-facing arrow next to it, or on the image itself.
- Look at the various categories of wallpapers. These range from things like Cityscapes, Landscapes, and more. Find a category that suits your needs. Then click the wallpaper you want, and it will automatically be applied to your Chromebook for you.
- If you want a daily wallpaper, click the Change daily option and the wallpaper will change each day to a different item from the wallpaper collection.
Again, this section is for a pre-available wallpaper. If you want to swap out to a wallpaper of your own, check out the next steps below.
Step 3: (Optional) Change your wallpaper to your own image
We talked about how you can change your wallpaper to an image that's pre-available for you on your Chromebook, but now we'll explain how you can swap it out to one of your own. It's a very different process.
- Navigate to your downloads folder in ChromeOS where you saved or have the image you want to use as wallpaper. You can do this by searching for launching the Files app in the ChromeOS launcher from the left of the screen to get there.
- Right-click on the image you want to set as your wallpaper (on some Chromebooks you'll have to hold the ALT key to right-click.)
- Choose the Set as wallpaper option in the menu.
Conclusion
That's it! Your wallpaper will now be set. Your Chromebook should now feel a little bit more customized! All it took were a few clicks in the ChromeOS settings app. We hope you found our guide helpful.