I wish we could stay on topic. Every time a submission is about Windows, 90% of comments are either:

- "how is it surprising that Windows is bad? [unrelated story]"

- "linux linux linux switch to linux"

To be fair there because most of the submissions about Windows are negative ones, which means the comments are either "Windows sucks" or "I'm glad I stopped using Windows"

The last time I remember hearing positive news about Windows was the Win 7 launch.

You'll have to admit both those comment types are at least tangentially relevant.

Don't get me started . . .

For many years there has been "Windows Spotlight" through a number of Windows versions, which is the "regular" way for desktop background "wallpaper" to be autoupdated, as well as the modern "lock screen" which appears before the desktop comes up.

Then one day "Bing Wallpaper" was added as an extra feature for those already having the Bing app, which is intended for users who want more carefully-targeted ads and search results than you get from merely using Bing as the default search engine on your browser.

And if you didn't already have the Bing app there arose a subtle barrage of encouragement to persuade as many users as possible that "everyone" already has this "essential" Microsoft feature so you better not miss out. It's free after all.

When Bing Wallpaper became a thing it seemed like some beautiful eye candy to get more people's attention to something that was kind of a dud.

Later after a certain point many users would have had to opt out of Bing Wallpaper since then.

Co-incidentally, after gaining the impression that usage goals for the Bing Wallpaper were not being met after a while, the good old built-in Windows Spotlight has become flakier than ever and completely dysfunctional lots of the time. Simultaneously most of the "usual" expert wallpaper advice no longer applies, "maybe" because changes under the hood to accommodate sharing the normal wallpaper pipeline with the Bing alternative have gummed things up like never before.

However for quite a while there you could readily choose between Windows Spotlight or Bing Wallpaper and it worked either way as expected, then it all just kind of crumbled one day.

It doesn't matter what search engine you use now, most pro remedies for users who want Windows-curated wallpaper either settle for installing Bing Wallpaper or don't work any more.

Looks like "subtle" pressure toward the tracking-and-ad-riddled "choice" for those who want their Windows desktop to appear to do the same thing it was doing beforehand.