Microsoft will no longer fix new Windows 7 wallpaper bug for free

One of the latest updates to Windows 7 broke the wallpaper stretch feature. Setting a stretched wallpaper now results in a black background. Microsoft only solves the problem for Windows 7 users with Extended Security Updates.

The problem is due to update KB4534310, which came out on January 14, the last day Windows 7 received mainstream support from Microsoft. As of January 15, Microsoft will no longer release any updates for Windows 7 for free; not for security, not for new features and therefore not to fix bugs that it itself has caused at the last minute. As a result, this bug will remain in the beloved OS forever for mainstream users unless they find a fix for it themselves.

Only Windows 7 users with Extended Security Updates will get a fix for this sometime in the coming weeks. However, that costs extra money. For example, the German government pays 800,000 euros to transfer its at least 33,000 remaining Windows 7 systems to the ESU program. For that money, they get support for a year longer.

Fortunately, workarounds for the wallpaper issue can be found without too much effort. If you are really not satisfied with the other wallpaper methods, namely fill, fit, tile and center, you can scale the image up or down in an image editing program such as Paint.net to match the resolution of the monitor.