Change All Desktop Backgrounds at Once in OS X 6

3 Mar 2013   | Mountain Lion

Tags: · · · ·

Do you have multiple desktops setup on your Mac and want to change the background image of all of them at once? Since OS X seems to only allow you to change them one by one I have developed a Preference Pane to make this task a breeze. First you will need to download the Preference Pane from here then open it and install it.

  1. Now in System Settings you will need to click on the wALLpaper Preference Pane.
    wALLpaper_1

  2. Once you are in this new Preference Pane you will see your current desktop background image and a button that says Change Wallpaper…, click this button.
    wALLpaper_2

  3. Now you will be presented with a file dialog which defaults to the folder where all of the Apple desktop wallpapers are saved. Choose the wallpaper you want then click Open.
    wALLpaper_3

  4. The wallpaper preview in the Preference Pane will update to the new wallpaper you selected and your desktop backgrounds should also be updated on all desktops.
    wALLpaper_4

I hope this simple tool is useful to you and makes this task as simple as it should be. Also if you are a developer and would like to see the source code behind the Preference Pane you can find it here.

6 thoughts on “Change All Desktop Backgrounds at Once in OS X”

  1. Reply Rod Mar 4, 2013 3:50 am

    Thanks for taking the time to do this. Up until now there has been no elegant solution. We do appreciate you efforts.

    • Reply admin Mar 4, 2013 4:07 am

      No problem, I desired an elegant solution myself and decided it was something that needed to be done. I just hope others will stumble across this so our lives can be easier. I also hope Apple will add this feature in a future update to OS X so my solution won’t be required anymore.

  2. Reply Sven Apr 8, 2013 11:14 am

    Nice. If it only could apply to multiple monitors as well …

    • Reply admin Apr 23, 2013 2:42 pm

      I do not currently have a multiple monitor setup but will try to get one in the near future to try and address this issue.

  3. Reply chris wells Apr 23, 2013 2:30 pm

    This is definitely the easiest way to handle this situation, a preferences pane is simple. However, it doesn’t change the preference for all monitors, only the primary monitor. I use my Mac Mini with a two-monitor setup, and this preferences pane changes my left/primary monitor, but my other monitor got reset to galaxy. Do you know of a way to change it on all? Can the app be updated?

    • Reply admin Apr 23, 2013 2:45 pm

      I will try to address this issue in the near future, I currently do not have a multiple monitor setup for testing this.

Leave a Reply