After you buy 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. Whether 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 on Windows, doing so in ChromeOS is quite easy. So without further ado, here's how to change the wallpaper on your Chromebook.

How to set a custom wallpaper on a Chromebook

If you found an image you really like, you can dive deeper into ChromeOS settings and tweak it to change it over to something other than the default image. We suggest finding the custom image you want to save from the web through Chrome. Once you find it, you can download it by right-clicking it and choosing Save image as.

  1. Open the ChromeOS settings app by searching for it from the launcher (click the lower-left corner of your screen.)
  2. In the sidebar of the settings app, choose Device.
  3. Look for the Personalization category in the middle of the app.
    The personalize screen in the ChromeOS settings app under device
  4. Click where it says Set your wallpaper and style.
  5. On top where it says Wallpaper and Screen saver choose the Wallpaper option.
    Choosing a new wallpaper in the ChromeOS settings app
  6. Choose My images and pick it from the option.
    Choosing a custom image in the ChromeOS Wallpapers app for a wallpaper
  7. The custom image you downloaded will be applied.

If you're having trouble picking the custom wallpaper this way, you can simply open the ChromeOS Files app, and navigate to where the image is saved. Then, right-click it and choose Set as Wallpaper.

How to set a pre-installed Chromebook wallpaper

While most people might prefer setting a custom wallpaper on a Chromebook, Google also offers a collection of pre-installed wallpapers with different themes. You'll see these once your Chromebook is connected to the internet. This is easier to set, as you don't need to download any images of your own. Here's how you can choose one of those.

  1. Open the ChromeOS settings app by searching for it from the launcher (click the lower-left corner of your screen.)
  2. In the sidebar of the settings app, choose Device.
  3. Look for the Personalization category in the middle of the app.
    The personalize screen in the ChromeOS settings app under device
  4. Click where it says Set your wallpaper and style.
  5. On top where it says Wallpaper and Screen saver, choose the Wallpaper option.
  6. Look for the various categories offered by Google. Choose one that fits your needs.
    The various themed wallpapers in the ChromeOS settings app

Out of all the ways to set the wallpaper on a Chromebook, the pre-installed options are my favorite. There are so many different themes, from Cityscapes to Landscapes, Heritage, Colors, and more. You even can click the Change Daily option and the wallpaper will change each day to a different item from the wallpaper collection.

How to make sure your wallpaper is being synced

Finally, we have an important note. Even though you selected your wallpaper, if you own multiple Chromebooks, you're going to want to make sure that it is properly syncing.

  1. Open the ChromeOS settings app by searching for it from the launcher (click the lower-left corner of your screen.)
  2. In the sidebar of the settings app, choose Device.
  3. Scroll down to Accounts.
  4. Choose Sync and Google Services.
  5. Choose Manage what you Sync.
    The sync settings on ChromeOS with toggle switches turned on
  6. Make sure the toggle for Wallpaper is set.

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. Remember that there are other ways to personalize your Chromebook, too. You can rearrange apps on the shelf and launcher on your Chromebook, for example.