The first use of a distinguishable background in conjunction with overlapping windows was in an experimental office system, Officetalk, developed in 1975 at Xerox PARC on the Alto. Prior to that, the white backgrounds to overlapping windows (for example, in Smalltalk) could be difficult to distinguish from window interiors.

Many screen resolutions are proportional in a 4:3 ratio, so an image scaled to fit in a different-sized screen will still be the correct shape, although that scaling may impact quality. Common wallpaper resolutions are 800x600, 1024x768, 1280x1024 and 1600x1200.Users with widescreen (16:9 or 16:10) monitors have different aspect ratio requirements for wallpaper, although images designed for standard (4:3)

In Personal Use

Wallpapers used usually fall into one of the following categories: automobiles, models and celebrities, scenery, abstract art, movies, pets, family, symmetry, and personal photos.