How to Set a Different Wallpaper On Each Monitor In Windows 10
Setting a unique background on each of your multiple monitors was a simple trick in Windows 8, but the menu is buried to the point of being invisible in Windows 10. But it’s still there if you know where to look.
New: Set a Wallpaper in the Settings App
Since we originally published this article, Microsoft added a better solution to Windows 10.
To change desktop backgrounds individually for each monitor, head to Settings > Personalization > Background. Under Choose Your Picture, right-click a background image and select “Set for monitor 1,” “Set for monitor 2,” or whichever other monitor you want to use it on.
To add additional images to this list, click “Browse” and select a wallpaper you want to use. Windows will set it as your default on all desktops. Right-click the wallpaper icons and choose which monitor you want to use each on.
When to Use This Trick (and When to Use Third Party Tools)
First and foremost, we want to make the best use of your time–both in reading this tutorial and down the road when you’re using our advice to mix up your wallpapers. With that in mind, consider the following two scenarios.
Scenario one: You infrequently change your desktop wallpaper, but you would really like to have a different background on each monitor. In this scenario, the solution in this article (which is quick and uses Windows’ built-in setting) is a perfect one as it’s light on system resources.
Scenario two: if you want to use multiple and different wallpapers on each of your monitors, and you want a high degree of control over that, then the standard wallpaper options in Windows 10 probably won’t cut it. If you’re a wallpaper junkie or really need fine-tooth control over the backgrounds, then we strongly recommend the venerable (and still quite useful) John’s Background Switcher (free) or the Swiss Army Knife of multimonitor management, DisplayFusion (the features relevant to wallpaper management are available in the free version).