How To Adjust the Wallpaper or Theme on Your Google Chromebook

Updated December 09, 2019

You can customize your Chromebook's desktop by changing the wallpaper and themes. You can even choose one of your own images for the desktop background.

Instructions in this article apply to laptops running Chrome OS regardless of who made your device.

Chromebook Themes and Wallpapers

Chromebooks are lightweight laptops made primarily for productivity applications and browsing the web. In addition to a number of pre-installed wallpapers, the Chrome Web Store has tons of free themes that alter the appearance of the Google Chrome browser. While there are many models available, the Chrome OS interface is standard across all devices, so the steps for changing the wallpaper and theme is the same for all Chromebooks.

You don't need a Chromebook to customize the Chrome browser. Chrome users on Windows and Mac can also install custom themes from the Chrome Web Store.

How to Change the Wallpaper on Chromebook

To choose a different desktop background for your Chromebook:

Select the taskbar menu in the bottom-right corner of the desktop, then select the Settings gear.

You can also access your Chromebook's settings from the menu in the top-right corner of the Google Chrome browser.
Select Appearance on the left side of the Settings window, then select Wallpaper.
The Wallpaper app will display thumbnails of pre-installed images. Select the categories on the left side of the window to browse through all of your options.

Select Daily Refresh to have Chrome OS choose a random wallpaper from the category each time you start up your computer.
Select the wallpaper you want to immediately update the desktop.

Some images will display information about the photographer. Select Explore under the photographer's name to visit the owner's website.
If you prefer to use one of your own images as the desktop background, select My Images. You'll see thumbnails of all the images in your Downloads folder. Select the one you want to immediately update the desktop.

Select Center Cropped at the top of the menu to crop the image so that it fits the screen.

Select My Images to choose one of your own images as the desktop wallpaper.

How to Change Themes on Chromebook

To download and install a new theme for Google Chrome:

Select the taskbar menu in the bottom-right corner of the desktop, then select the Settings gear.
Select Appearance on the left side of the Settings window, then select Browser themes.
The Themes section of the Chrome Web Store will open in the Chrome browser. Scroll down the page to browse through hundreds of options and select the theme you want.

Select View all next to a category to see all themes in that specific category.
Select Add to Chrome. Once installed, the new theme will be applied to Chrome's interface immediately.

How to Reset the Chrome Browser Theme to the Default

If you don't like how the new theme looks, select Undo below the search bar to instantly switch back.

Select Undo below the search bar to revert back to the default theme.

You can also return the browser to its original theme at any time from your Chromebook's settings. Go to the Appearance section and select Reset to default next to Browser themes.