The term "wallpaper" was originally used for covering the walls of the rooms in a house. It was very fashionable, especially in King Louis XIV France to cover the walls woth silk wallpaper with different painted or embroidered models on it. In fact it appeared and gained popularity in the Rennaissance times and was used through the whole period of the Middle Ages. Nowadays it is used only in rare homes by elderly people. Wee, that was the meaning of the word in the past. Nowadays "wallpaper" has a different meaning. It means the picture that is used to be displayed on your desktop monitor of your computer. When you open the computer you have the possibility to watch a certain picture instead of a grey background or an automatically generated one. You can choose to be greeted by the picture of your son or wife, by the picture of beautiful landscapes, pictures taken by you or downloaded from the internet. It is a way of showing that you like art , nature and beauty in any form, even a wallpaper on your computer. It is a way of customizing your computer, making you feel special and relaxed when you open it and use it. Wallpapers have no other function than to make you feel fine, to admire a picture that you like or a person that you love. It is only a matter of taste.



Actually the term "wallpaper " is mainly used for Microsoft Windows, except the latest version of Windows 7 that calls it "desktop background". It is in fact the image used as a background on your computer screen. Mac Operating Systems calls it "desktop picture" and previously referred to it as "desktop pattern", but no matter what operating system you have on your computer or what kind of computer you have, poeple know what you are talking about when you mention "wallpaper". There are even specialized web sites that offer free wallpapers for your computer. You can choose from a wide range of categories, from pictures of cars, nature, to favourite actors and movies, cartoon characters and politicians. It is up to you to choose the ones that you like best, download them and set them up as wallpapers on your computer. you can even change them regularly in order to avoid boredom and to make your desktop more alive, a constant surprise for the user.



I admit that I used to prefer wallpapers with nature and famous actors. But things changed when I became a mother and especially when my daughter grew up and started using my computer. She is not that old to use the computer on a regular basis or by herself. But she does ask me to play some cartoon movies on the computer and expresses preference on certain cartoon characters. At this point in time I thought it was more appropriate to change my computer wallpaper and replace it with nice wallpapers with Disney cartoon characters , especially Mickey mouse that she simply adores. I found some very nice Mickey mouse computer wallpapers for free download on many web sites: www.disneythemes.com, www.coolwallpapers.org, www.flash-screen.com, www.desktopia.com,  www.wallpaperbase.com. Some of these wallpapers are offered in different format types such as: HD, widescreen, standard, iPhone, iPod Touch. So the idea is that you can use these wallpapers not only on your computer desktop , but also on alternative devices that have a display and use an operating system, like iPods, PDAs, Palms, iPhones and so on.



Usually these nice wallpapers have the same resolution as the desktop, filling the wholw space shown on the computer desktop, but some wallpapers (like the ones downloaded from the internet pages) do not have this resolution - for example the last three web pages recommended by me only offer wallpapers with 800/600 resolution. You will have to adjust it in order to cover your desktop entirely or choose another format, like 4:3 in order to have a better view of the wallpaper.

These Mickey mouse computer wallpapers are actually digital pictures of the famous Disney character that are presented in different circumstances: Mickey Mouse with friends, MM and winter, MM and Christmas, MM with Pluto and Donald, and so on. These pictures will become your wallpaper, showing this way your love for the Disney character or a child in your life or simply something you like to see when using your computer. It is relaxing and nice and even if I chose this particular wallpaper for my daughter, I am enjoying it as well, as it reminds me of my very sweet childhood moments, of happy times without worries and sadness.



More advanced operating systems like Windows 7 or mac OS or KDE have a special feature that enable you to use different wallpapers in Shuffle regime. For example you select a number of pictures, of wallpapers and they are displayed in turn on your desktop and they automatically change after an established period of time. In this way you can see let's say twelve Mickey Mouse wallpapers if you want to, without manually changing them. I guess it is quite impressive. Windows Vista Ultimate for example goes even further and allows video image display instead of pictures. The only problem might be that the video film is continuously looping and you can get tired of it. The bottomline is that this technology is available and it is your choice whether to use it or not.



To be honest I open my computer every morning and while I am waiting for the internet connection to be done and all the data saved and accessed, I am actually happy to see the smiling face of Mickey mouse looking at me from the computer desktop and wishing me a "Happy morning and a nice day!". I guess this is one nice way of starting a day with a smile on my face. And it is a good start. Just look at the faces above and below! Isn't it true that you can't help smiling?