Discover Microsoft’s Exclusive 50th Anniversary Wallpaper: How to Download It

Microsoft is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, and after hosting a special 50th celebration back in April, it's now shipping out a special 50th anniversary Surface Laptop 7 to a handful of lucky people who signed up for a competition. The 50th edition device features a gold Microsoft logo on the lid and retro Microsoft logo from 1975 on the inside of the device.

Interestingly, these exclusive devices also ship with a special firmware that includes a new 50th boot logo design, but more importantly, it includes a new default Windows 11 wallpaper to mark five whole decades of Microsoft.

That new wallpaper is only available on the 50th anniversary Surface Laptop 7 it seems, making it one of the more exclusive and rare variants of the Windows 11 wallpaper out there. Luckily, we've got our hands on this new 50th anniversary Surface Laptop, which means we can now share the default wallpaper with you!

To download the wallpaper, just hit the full screen button on the image above and right-click to save it. Alternatively, click here.

Microsoft has actually made several different variants of the Windows 11 wallpaper since its inception in 2021. The wallpaper itself is called "Bloom," and the default variant is of an abstract blue "flower" that's available in both light and dark variants to reflect the light and dark themes on Windows 11. It was originally designed by "Six N. Five" who had worked with Microsoft on Surface wallpapers previously.

But the company has also shipped unique versions of this wallpaper for Windows 365, which includes the same light and dark variants, but with a slightly altered flower that features a glassier material effect. The Windows 365 Link device ships with an even more glassier version of this wallpaper.

There are also different color variants of the Bloom wallpaper that have shipped on different Surface PCs over the last few years, usually reflecting the color of the Surface device in question. Then, in 2024, Microsoft launched Copilot+ PCs, updating the Bloom wallpaper once again, this time with the colors of the Copilot logo.

The 50th anniversary variant of the Bloom wallpaper is the latest in a long line, and easily the hardest to come by. It features a much darker flower, with gold accents splattered across it, matching the gold accents found on the 50th anniversary Surface Laptop 7.

This isn't the first time Microsoft has shipped different variants of the default Windows wallpaper. Windows 10's default wallpaper was updated a number of times throughout its lifecycle. It started with the iconic Neon Windows flag, known as "Hero" which is real photograph by the way. That was later updated with a revised variant that shipped exclusively on Windows 10 S in 2017.

It was updated again in 2019 when the release of Windows 10's new light theme. The wallpaper was replaced with a light version of the wallpaper, which matched the new Windows 10 aesthetic at the time. Its design was simpler, and clearly no longer a real photograph. If anything, it was actually a slight downgrade over the original.

There's also a variant of this wallpaper that was made exclusively for Windows 365, which is the same design but with a slightly different color hue applied. Microsoft also released a number of variations of this wallpaper to celebrate Pride.

Years later, another variant of this new Windows 10 wallpaper was discovered in an early Windows 11 build that had leaked. This variant was based on the original Hero wallpaper but in a slightly brighter color. As far I know, this variant of the wallpaper was never shipped in any official capacity.

It's always interesting to see different versions of the Windows wallpaper, especially ones that don't ship or are really hard to come by. The 50th anniversary wallpaper is one of those special variants that, although officially shipping, is incredibly hard to come by as it's only available on hardware that was never available to buy.