Microsoft Releases Anniversary Wallpapers for Windows Featuring Nods to Iconic Elements from the Corporation’s Past

Today, April 4, Microsoft celebrates its 50th anniversary. Over the years, Microsoft has revolutionized the work environment, making both personal computers and cloud resources widespread. In honor of the anniversary and as a token of gratitude for half a century of joint activity, the company decided to please Windows users with a variety of free desktop wallpapers, dynamic backgrounds, profile themes, icons, and even a new theme for Microsoft Solitaire.

Image source: Microsoft

«As we prepare to celebrate Microsoft’s 50th anniversary on Friday, April 4, we honor your game-changing memories and the games you’ve played with us over five decades. This journey has only been possible because of you — our players and developers around the world,” Microsoft said in a blog post.

Microsoft designers have played with the concept of the company’s half-century anniversary in several ways. They offer nostalgia with new profile themes, where you can see the old Windows cursor, floppy disks and, of course, the famous “Paperclip” – the predecessor of all AI assistants.

Wallpaper with the number 50 made of spring tulips looks very cute.

To celebrate 50 years of experimentation, innovation, play, and teamwork, the designers also created a special Microsoft 50th Anniversary badge for your Xbox profile.

The company paid special attention to the truly masterpiece game “Solitaire”, which, it seems, accompanied all previous releases of Windows.

The Microsoft 50th theme adds an original background, deck style and card backs to the game.

I was a little surprised by the presence of a background of the far from popular game “Mahjong” without even a mention of Minecraft. Perhaps it will be added later.

All high-resolution wallpapers can be downloaded from the link. More information about installing dynamic backgrounds and getting an icon can be found here.

Earlier, to mark Microsoft’s anniversary, founder Bill Gates released the source code for the Altair BASIC interpreter that defined the company’s origins. He called it “the coolest code I’ve ever written.”