So I was thinking about some of the older Microsoft demos of builds that were shown at various times through out the build stages of Windows Longhorn, Windows Vista and Windows 7 and the correlation with the wallpapers shown in the demos, its like every time a demos a is shown the wallpaper that was shown in the demo is/was the most sought after item, sometimes more then the build itself. it still goes on now as seen with Windows 8.

So I began going through my screenshots collection and started to put some things together I am sure there are a lot more that I don’t have I know of one for sure and that’s the Athens PC demos that featured the uber-wickedly-super-duper-rarest of the rares cherry blossom wallpaper (people still email me asking me if I have it…I DONT HAVE IT!!!!) but…here’s what I came up with (in no particular order): **links and uploads updated Jan2020.

This green leafy wallpaper was shown in this demo of build 5355.vbl_media_ehome.060330-2100, I am not sure what the demo was for or where it was presented, but I am guessing sumthin to do with media based on the build tags, this would have been just after the Feb CTP Refresh in Mar 21 2006 and before Vista Beta 2 on May 1 2006.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next one is from the Longhorn Concept Demos which I believe are still available on Microsoft’s website, this is from the Healthcare Demo which was meant to “increase efficiency, reduce costs, and improve care with software” the demo is presented by Carter Maslanthere are still questions about which build is being demoed in this video, most people believe it to be one of the 405x builds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The next screenshot/wallpaper combo is from the PDC2003 the screenshot is of the interior of the Los Angeles Convention Centre, this was another 405x build that was demoed at the PDC2003

 

 

 

 

 

 

I’ll mention this one just due to the fact that this screenshot was recently shared, this is from another demo that was shown at the PDC2003, this wallpaper is a favorite of mine..who could think grass was so exciting..lol

 

 

 

 

 

 

Build 4015.lab06_n.030403-1706 was demoed during WinHec in May 2003 this build was quite different than the 4015 that had leaked only a few week prior to WinHec and although this wallpaper was feature in a few other builds I figured I would include it here as it was from a build that was demoed.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here is another from PDC2003 this was a demo that was running for one of the sessions I believe, build 4050.private/lab06_demo.031019-1809 never did leak to the public and included the same wallpaper that was in other 405x builds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Build 4067.private/lddm_dev_tech(devdmo).040212-1646 was demonstrating Longhorn Display Driver Model during Jim Alchin’s keynote during the WinHec 2004 conference, the wallpaper seen in the screenshot was included in other builds that were shown during the conference including 4074

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wallpaper was featured in the Athens Concept demo video that was viewable back in 2006 if you had the Soapbox Gadget and was also shown on msn video, the build featured was not a real build it was a Macromedia demo of concepts the teams were working on for Longhorn and the Athens PC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This wallpaper also came from the Athens Concept PC demo, the wallpaper is branded by HP who were also in cahoots with Microsoft, bringing to life some of the concepts Microsoft had designed, this wallpaper was featured in demos, Windows Longhorn was the OS for the Athens PC.

 

 

 

 

 

 

This next wallpaper was featured in a demo that was shown at “some damn conference I cant think of at the moment” I believe the build being shown is from around the 55xx 57xx era based on the icons and such, the wallpaper is an picture of Wellington Harbour in New Zealand.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Last but not least here is another, this wallpaper was shown in a variety of builds and demos from around the same era, this time build 5087 was being shown and featured the grass wallpaper that was first in a 50xx build.

 

 

 

 

 

 

as mentioned above this of course is not everything, this post would be much bigger if I were to have included all of them, not to mention a lot of them I don’t have or didn’t post to try and keep this post to minimum, do you have a collection of wallpapers and demo pics? what IS the fascination all about…