Have a Dual Monitor Setup? Download Free Panoramic Themes for Windows
If you have a dual monitor set up and would like to change up the scenery, check out free panoramic themes from Microsoft. There’s a a lot of great ones to choose from.
Having a dual-screen setup in Windows is great if you have a lot of work to do in different programs and multitasking. But you might also want to use the extra screen real estate to show off eye candy.
Microsoft offers several free Panoramic Themes that are optimized to work with dual monitor setups. For example, the desktop background scenes stretch across both monitors. Windows Themes also include rotating backgrounds, window colors, and a new sound scheme.
You have the ability to control how the desktop background behaves too. First, Right-click the Desktop, then Personalize > Desktop Background.
Then you can select only the backgrounds you want to display and control how long each one is displayed for.
Some themes include new desktop icons. If you don’t want your icons to change, right-click the Desktop and go to Personalize > Change Desktop Icons and uncheck “Allow Themes to Change Desktop Icons” and click OK.
Microsoft offers many free themes that work on Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows RT. And if you’re still rocking Windows 7, check out our article on how to access its hidden international Themes.
Download Free Panoramic Themes for Windows
16 Comments
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Tony
Hi I like this will it work on 3 monitors ?
Starlytte
Hi Brian,
Am I missing something or do they not offer the dual monitor themes for Win7? It seems like you’ve got to have Win8 to get these =(
Brian Burgess
They should work with Windows 7 too. I haven’t tried one, but according to the fine print on the site they work with both.
Eddy Tse
The fine print at the bottom of the site did say the panoramic themes are for Windows 8 only. “Themes in the Windows 8 theme format (such as panoramic themes) can only be used in Windows 8”
Brian Burgess
oops your’e right, I misread it, Panoramic only work on Win8
Lucie
My desktop theme does not have matching pictures in other words the picture does not stretch out onto my two monitors as if I were viewing one horizontal picture. I have Windows 8 and I love the free themes. Help.
Sean
You know, it seems to me that as long as Windows 7 has been out, somebody somewhere especially Microsoft, (should ever choose to pick up an article of customer service) would have written a compatibility patch or something. It’s my understanding that 7 uses the extension *.themepack and 8 uses *.deskthemepack… See where I’m going with this? If they can take a handful of various word versions and make them compatable with each other among a zillion other things. They wouldn’t have have to worry about people like me pirating their next operating system just so I can sleep better at night, because over the years I (like most) dropped alot of coin on MS products. Held my head high, when Google came up out of nowhere and surpassed us, Then Apple gets gets their act together and jumps to the leader of the pack for the rest of my lifetime I’m sure. But then one day my computer gets a bug and crashes.Ok it happens, take the good with the bad etc.So I bought a new hard drive, got things stitched back up and called Microsoft and said “hey old buddy, I just got a transplant and need Xp re installed real quick. The same xp that was installed when bought, is there a place on the website I can just download it? since the 2 discs just have drivers & application fluff that you can get online by accident. And your “system restore” disk doesn’t restore anything” (Since I didn’t ‘Buy it seprately’) I asured him that I have the key, same computer and probably even a reciept if I were to dig. I mean Irregardless of a warrenty or the weather. I just kinda want wants mine please? Kinda like when someone looses there car keys and goes to the dealership for another one while they laugh about it over a beer? But I guess not! After the laughter died down I was told that MS gives licenses to the manufacturer now, “so go bug Dell while I continue to stare at the wall and wonder why everyone in silicon valley that don’t even comb their hair or wear clothes that match are stepping right over us without even a smirk anymore, like we’re just in the way…..I’ll bet they don’t even know I solved the rubik’s cube in 24 minutes!”.Well anyway I’d better go walk around the campus and look important….. tee-hee, I wonder who Ballmer’s yelling at right now.
So I hang up the phone with Dell telling me in broken English that for $100+ he’ll ship the dinasaur program, Right out!. kō’ī samasyā nahīṁ. . 4-6 weeks….I respectfully declined, feeling confused and numb, as if my wife had just told me our son was not MY son and so, I started walking the dirty downtown streets (Kirkland:) and was introduced to the kids that you couldn’t roll your eyes hard enough at. And Ithey showed me file sharing, torrents and yes… cracks….my palms still get sweaty when I say it. The only thing I remember of that night was one of those kids said something to the effect of.. “Hey man, don’t you know it’s ok to leave your parents house when you’re 18? Go make em proud…..” Here show ’em this. It’s technically a phone, but really it’s a beautiful girl us nerds can talk to anytime, her name is Suri…It’s Persian. See that guy over there. He met her once, said she looks like a princess with crystal green eyes that glow in the dark…. here, say something to her………………SK
Ellie
I have an issue when i download it ask me for what program I want to use to open the file
Mark Moffett
Put the file in the themes folder then double click it.
C:UsersyourmaneAppDataLocalMicrosoftWindowsThemes
Alex
I have done the instruction step by step and change the desktop on Win 7. But the display image on both computer is the same.
Any idea to make a panaromic background?
thanks
Jazz
the same thing, trying to find a workaround
Stephen
For Window 10, it was successful for dual screen expanding by PERSONALIZATION >BACKGROUND >CHOOSE A FIT and select SPAN option.
Anthony Benedetto
It kind of worked on my 3 screens but it also made it larger so it was half of screen.
Asmara
For Windows 7, I accidentally found the solution for dual screen display. After installing the panaromic deskthemepack, go to Personalization > Desktop Background and choose “Tile” under Picture Position. Hope this help.
Jeanette
That didn’t really work for me. I have Windows 7 and 3 monitors. Each one contains the full image when I select Tile or any other picture position.
Darek
Hi,
I have issues with opening the panoramic themes on Windows 10. It is asking me which app should it open it with.
I have tried to solve it by putting the theme pack to the themes folder and double clicked on i tbut didn’t work
What should I do?