It turns out Windows 10’s default wallpaper is a photograph of an actual, physical installation by designer Bradley Munkowitz, also known as GMUNK. Munkowitz has a section of his website and a short YouTube video that explain how he and his team used a physical mirror, lasers, and smoke machines to produce the image, taking thousands of exposures with different color filters and combining the best into a single, final composite.
The team arranged a laser projector behind the physical Windows 10 logo, firing off various patterns into the window while playing with volumetric smoke to maximize the effect. There’s a video of the thing in motion that’s absolutely sick to see, and some of Munkowitz’ alternate colorways and WIP versions of the background really do something for me—I think it’s the striking contrast against a pitch black background in most of them.
Finding out the Windows 10 desktop was made with practical effects has given me a whole new appreciation for it. Even before the advent of AI-generated imagery, I found that the sheer glut of pictures on the internet and proliferation of CGI have this cheapening effect on images, like I just default to assuming that most imagery is “fake” somehow. I never thought twice about the Windows 10 desktop because I didn’t think it was “real.” Now I’m kind of in love with the thing.
