Changing the Wallpaper and Theme on Your Google Chromebook

How to change the Google background on Chromebook

by
Scott Orgera
Scott Orgera
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Scott Orgera is a former writer who covering tech since 2007. He has 25+ years experience as a programmer and QA leader, and holds several Microsoft certifications.
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Scott Orgera
Updated on August 07, 2020

If you know how to change your Chromebook's wallpaper and themes, you can customize the desktop and Google Chrome. You can even choose one of your images for the Chromebook background.

Instructions in this article apply to laptops with Chrome OS, regardless of who made the device.

Chromebook Themes and Wallpapers

Chromebooks are lightweight laptops made primarily for productivity applications and browsing the web. In addition to several pre-installed wallpapers, the Chrome Web Store has tons of free themes that alter the appearance of the Google browser. While many models are 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 Google Chrome theme. You can also create Chrome themes.

How to Change the Wallpaper on Chromebook

To choose a different desktop background for your Chromebook:

  1. Select the taskbar menu in the lower-right corner of the desktop, then select the Settings gear to open the Chromebook settings.

    You can also access the Chromebook settings from the menu in the upper-right corner of the Google Chrome browser.

    The Settings button on a Chromebook

  2. Go to the left pane of the Settings window and select Personalization.

    The Personalization heading in Chromebook settings

  3. Select Wallpaper.

    The Wallpaper heading

  4. The Wallpaper app displays thumbnails of pre-installed images. Select the categories in the left pane to browse through the options.

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

    Select the categories on the left side of the Chrome OS Wallpaper app window.

  5. Select the wallpaper you want to update the desktop immediately.

    Some images display information about the photographer. Select Explore under the photographer's name to visit the owner's website.

    Select the wallpaper you want to immediately update the desktop.

  6. If you prefer to use one of your 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 update the desktop immediately.

    Select Center Cropped at the top of the menu to crop the image to fit the screen.

    The My Images heading

How to Change Themes on Chromebook

To download and install a new theme for Google Chrome:

  1. Open Google Chrome, select the three dots in the upper-right corner, then select Settings from the drop-down menu.

    Chrome with the Settings command highlighted

  2. In the left pane of the Settings window, select Appearance.

    The Appearance heading

  3. Select Browser themes.

    The Browser Themes section in Chrome settings

  4. The Themes section of the Chrome Web Store opens 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 the themes in that specific category.

    Select the Chromebook theme you want from the Chrome Web Store.

  5. Select Add to Chrome. Once installed, the new theme is applied to the Chrome interface immediately.

    The Add to Chrome button

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 switch to the previous theme.

The Undo button

You can also return the browser to its original theme from the Google Chrome settings. Go to the Appearance section and select Reset to default next to Browser themes.

The Reset to default button