Windows 11 and wallpapers go together like peanut butter and jelly. Many of our laptop reviews are met with comments asking about our wallpapers. Microsoft deals with the same fervor for images. I spent weeks trying to find the wallpaper shown off during the RTX Spark event.
Unfortunately, like the Jedi Archives, Microsoft's publicly shared collection of wallpapers is incomplete. The company has not shared that wallpaper from the RTX Spark event, but it has shared several images inspired by the Surface Laptop Ultra.
The official Microsoft Surface account shared a thread with a bunch of wallpapers. The collection includes an image that looks like an x-ray of the Surface Laptop Ultra, a rendering of the engineering to make that laptop, and some more abstract artwork inspired by the PC.
But one image immediately caught my eye. In the X post stating "It's all about the details," Microsoft shared an image of a grid of screws used in the Surface Laptop Ultra's construction.
As much as I love a good torque screw (side-eye at proprietary screws), that's not what drew my attention. What piqued my interest was that I first thought the image was the Galactic Senate from Star Wars. All it needs is a floating podium and an emergency powers vote.
Tell me I’m not the only one who saw the galactic senate at first.October 30, 2026
It turns out I'm not the only person whose brain jumped straight to Coruscant. My X post has drawn several replies and messages from people who saw the same thing.
I was tempted to make the headline of this piece something along the lines of "So this is how liberty dies, with glorious wallpapers," but I figured some people would not know the meme and assume I'm being negative.
For those who don't know, a famous scene from Star Wars Episode III sees Padmé Amidala watch the Senate cheer the rise of the Galactic Empire, prompting her famous line, "So this is how liberty dies... with thunderous applause."
In that scene, you'll see the senate chambers that Microsoft's new wallpaper resembles.
Star Wars jokes aside, the best way to download any of these wallpapers is to use the "Load in 4K" option on X. To do this, press and hold the image to bring up the share menu, then select "Load in 4K." This worked for me on iOS and I believe it's available on Android. As far as I can tell it is not an option on Windows or the web, so you'll have to grab the wallpaper from your phone and send it to your PC.
I quite enjoy the wallpapers shared by Microsoft and hope the company continues to release these types of images.
If you're similarly enthusiastic about the background of your desktop, you should check out the Microsoft Design website.
Join us on Reddit at r/WindowsCentral to share your insights and discuss our latest news, reviews, and more.
