Desktop slideshow, a feature first introduced with Windows 7 (available in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 as well), is a handy feature designed to automatically change the desktop background at pre-defined time intervals.
Microsoft has been releasing new themes almost every week ever since the release of Windows 7 and one can download hundreds of awesome theme packs by visiting the official personalization gallery page. Most of us enjoy downloading and applying official and third-party themes (themepacks) in Windows 7, Windows 8, and Windows 8.1.
As every person has a different perspective about a particular object, at times you might find a wallpaper included in a theme not so beautiful and might not want to use it as your desktop background. Sure, Windows lets you move to the next picture in the queue by right-clicking on the desktop and then clicking Next desktop background, but you need to right-click and click the option every time Windows sets the same picture as your desktop background.
Luckily, you can easily select only the wallpapers that you would like to use as desktop background. If you want to use specific pictures of an active theme as your desktop background in Windows 7, 8, and 8.1, you need to follow the given below instructions.
Step 1: Right-click on the desktop and click Personalization.
Step 2: Once Personalization window is opened, click on Desktop Background option to see all pictures included in the currently active theme.
Tip: This window shows the location where the wallpapers are saved if your current active theme is a not a default Windows theme. Very useful if you plan to create a new theme pack by including your favorite wallpapers of the active theme.
Step 3: Here, uncheck pictures that you don’t like to see as desktop background and then click Save changes button. That’s it.
Even though the above mentioned procedure is fairly simple, you need to repeat the procedure every time you apply the theme pack. While it’s also possible to extract all wallpapers included in theme pack and then create a new theme by including wallpapers that you would like to use as desktop background, you can use a free tool named Delete Desktop Wallpaper to easily delete current desktop wallpaper.
Delete Desktop Wallpaper adds a Delete Desktop Wallpaper option to the desktop context menu so that you can quickly delete the current desktop wallpaper without having to open the Personalization window. This tool was originally released for Windows 7 but it might work in Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 as well.
How to install and use Windows 8/8.1’s theme in Windows 7 guide might also interest you.
