Printed from www.pcpro.co.uk
Posted on May 8th, 2009 by Mike Jennings
Windows 7’s deranged desktops
For the sake of comparison, take a look at the default desktop wallpapers from Ubuntu, Mac OS X and Windows Vista.
Obviously, none of these images are particularly ugly: Mac OS X looks attractive in a sort-of celestial way, and Windows Vista looks clean and modern. Ubuntu, which has received plenty of criticism for its lack of style, has a certain minimalist charm about it. Even if some people would suggest that it looks like Glastonbury after everyone’s left.
Imagine my surprise, then, when I installed the Windows 7 Release Candidate, got rid of the insipid little fish, and browsed to the gallery of default wallpapers that Microsoft has supplied.
The variety is astonishing. One looks like a bizarre, rejected Pokémon, and another is full of Tim Burton-esque dark charm. There’s even one that looks like Terry Pratchett’s Discworld, albeit after the turtle it’s based on had spent the night taking some very interesting substances.
I must admit that, despite its demonic quality – like an army of evil, face-eating Tic Tacs on an unstoppable march to minty glory – the following image is my favourite.
It does beg the question, though: what on earth possessed them to create an image like that?
Answers in the comments below, please – best one wins an Evil Face-Eating Tic Tac Toy. Maybe.
Tags: desktop, tic tacs, wallpaper, Windows 7
Follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
22 Responses to “ Windows 7’s deranged desktops ”
Leave a Reply
Categories
- About the bloggers
- Green
- Hardware
- How To
- Just in
- Microsoft Office 2010
- Newsdesk
- Online business
- Random
- Rant
- Real World Computing
- Software
- View from the Labs
- Windows 7
Authors
Archives
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
advertisement
May 8th, 2009 at 4:37 pm
Maybe some new Japanese toy?
May 8th, 2009 at 5:22 pm
Slow day in the office?
May 8th, 2009 at 10:46 pm
Well, at least they seem to be cheerful Evil manic Face-eating Tic Tacs!
May 9th, 2009 at 1:56 am
You can also have a single evil tic tac as your account picture.
May 9th, 2009 at 3:27 pm
This is obviously a photograph taken at the evil robot division prior to dispatch to all linux and Mac users.
Damn, I shouldn?t have mentioned that.
May 10th, 2009 at 9:18 am
I like the Windows Seven Glow wallpaper, got it on my both my XP and Linux Boxes. I might even like Windows 7, might give it a try once everyone else has sorted it out.
i understand that Microsoft are selling Windows 7 in a new way, they give it to you, and if it still works after a few months, you then pay for it if you want to keep it.
Can’t see Microsoft making much that, if past form is anything to go by. Still the wallpaper nicely brightens up Ubuntu, which also confuses the hell out of kids as a bonus.
May 10th, 2009 at 12:50 pm
Well it looks to me like the poor little things are in pain. It looks like one is trying to push one out of his but hole (a tic tac that is).Ouch!
May 10th, 2009 at 1:48 pm
In a bold move, MS has provided a photograph taken from deep within the development team of vista, and now the world knows the answer to the big question…. why was vista so bad?
May 10th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
The Windows 7 Fish is a “Beta Fish”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siamese_fighting_fish
Sometimes spelled “Betta”.
It is a joke by someone in the Windows 7 development team. I don’t think it will be there in the final release but there are some nice photos of different countries around the world which change to match your Windows locale.
May 10th, 2009 at 4:00 pm
It’s a Chinese post modern image. Am I mistaken is the Tic Tac on the top right holding her breasts!
May 10th, 2009 at 5:04 pm
Babies. Microsoft wants to attract the female buyer as it has alienated all the men (who if we could actually use LINUX, would do so.)
May 10th, 2009 at 9:50 pm
Looks like baby cybermen to me. But….. cybermen dont have babies, there all men. Hmmmm.
May 11th, 2009 at 9:42 am
Microsoft discovers it can be cooler than Apple, shock horror. Of course, thousands of man-hours in corporates will now be devoted to erasing those themes, and locking the system down to 1024 by 768 on a 21 inch widescreen monitor (no, this last bit is not a joke… 8-( )
May 11th, 2009 at 10:38 am
In a bold move to inspire creative thinking in it’s design team, MS has been spiking the office water dispenser.
Either that or they’ve actually hired little aliens tp replace their human workforce and these are just photos from the office night out.
May 12th, 2009 at 7:55 am
Maybe their computers have just been upgraded to Vista and consequently they’re in a state of disillusionment?
May 12th, 2009 at 8:30 am
Looks like the Microsoft R&D team to me – sadly they’ve gone a bit pale and deranged after being locked in a dark room for the so long, but at least they’re still coming up with new and fresh ideas… oh wait…
May 12th, 2009 at 9:31 am
Actually, this image has been taken by scanning tunnel microscopy, this technique allows you to see microscopic entities such as the next generation processor channels that incorporate new Applemunching nanotechnology developed by Microsoft – codenamed “Doobie Brothers”. These microscopic entities (Doobies) are designed to defeat any Apple based technology they encounter. The Doobies travel across the internet along copper wire in search of Apples and once they find one, they degrade the silicon substrate resuling in a small but noticable difference in performance, and therefore affects the user experience accordingly. A prototype version is being researched that can travel along optical fibres and wifi too (these look like tictacs with wings).
The actual external appearance is based on several studies which have demonstrated that nanotechnology can cause reactions of fear and mistrust in the general public, so when the market research team at MS conducted a survey in primary schools, they discovered that the thing people are least scared of is tic-tacs – the white minty variety is significantly less anxiety causing that other colours apparently (p<= 0.05).
This screenshot is obviously an attempt by an Apple sympathising mole in the company leaking out secrets about the Doobie project.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:22 am
Windows = life without walls. Read Terry Pratchett and see what happens when you take the walls away…they’re obviously not from this dimension.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:16 pm
And I don’t know what possessed them to make any of those frankly terrifying wallpapers. Other than to cause me disturbing nightmares, of course.
May 14th, 2009 at 10:17 pm
http://www.qwantz.com/comics/comic2-724.png
(is what I meant to embed in the above!)
June 27th, 2009 at 11:57 pm
you suck…i bite
September 28th, 2009 at 5:21 am
They’re kids doing cannonballs into pools.
Can no one else see that?