Windows 7: Wallpaper quality

I realized today, when I cleaned up all the crap on my desktop, that my wallpaper was filled with jpeg-like artifacts. Funny, considering the source file is practically flawless and a png. I tested fill, fit, and stretch by pasting a screencap into Photoshop. All 3 are identical in quality (or lack thereof). I also tried saving the source file as a bmp, because maybe Windows can't handle PNG directly? No dice - just as artifacted.

How do I fix this? I want the images scaled, but without the artifacting. The source files I'm using are bigger than my desktop's resolution, btw.

Hello dondon, I have done a lot of testing with this issue, Windows 7, I know for a fact re-samples images when you right click an image and choose 'set as desktop background' even if its already a jpeg Windows 7 re-samples it and the image quality is bad.

The best I have come up with is to put the images in a folder and use that folder go to Control Panel\All Control Panel Items\Personalization\Desktop Background and where it says picture location click browse and choose your folder you made.

The best image Quality I get is when saving files in Photoshop as jpegs then moving to your new folder.

Try it!! you will see the image quality is better right away!!

Hello Anthony, and thank you for your reply.

I have the wallpaper(s) I am using saved locally. I selected it from the Desktop Background window. I tried multiple wallpapers and they all suffer noticeable quality losses when used as a background.

I tried saving it as a jpeg so I could maximize the image quality (disabled color resampling, 100 quality level; I used IrfanView because it has finer control than photoshop). Unfortunately the quality was no better than what Windows does when you give it a non-jpeg background to use.

I guess what I am asking is if I can make Windows display background images in their native format (png, for example), rather than converting to a jpeg.

How about opening them with paint then in paint save it as png?
I have had several backgrounds (jpeg) that I opened them in paint and saved it as png and worked fine for me.

They're already in png.

Sorry I missed that as I was watching the football game at the same time.

I personally use Irfanview to set my wallpaper.

Irfanview

(also look at the available plugins on the left column)

Open Irfanview. In menu at top choose Options, then Set As Wallpaper (I then use centered).

A Guy

I think you misunderstood what I was saying.

Put your images in a folder on your desktop, can be any format jpeg bmp png etc...

Now right click desktop / personalize / click desktop background...
At the top click browse, when it pops up with browse for folder, find the one on your desk top that you created.

Now your images will show on your desktop without Windows converting them to jpeg!! (original file format)

If you still have problems after doing this, then something else is amiss!!

have you tried resizing the original image to your screen resolution?