Gizmodo did a very interesting interview with the artist behind Windows 7’s default wallpaper & login screen, Chuck Anderson also designed the box artwork for Windows 7. Anyhow, the Gizmodo interview showed the rejects but they were sized at 700 pixels in size for not allowing us to enjoy them as our desktop backgrounds. But. Yes, but, Microsoft un-intentionally gave out 720p versions of these images, of course there was some work involved at my end and this isn’t the first time someone at Microsoft has done something like this. So here are 8 of the rejects at high resolutions, good enough for your desktops. Here are the wallpapers:
Click to download.
1229×768 pixels
1229 x 768 pixels
1229 x 768 pixels
1229 x 768 pixels
1227 x 768 pixels
1366 x 768 pixels
1366 x 768 pixels
1229 x 768 pixels
I’ve taken the liberty to compile a Windows 7 theme. The theme consists of the 8 images & the sound scheme is ‘Garden’.
All credit to Microsoft & Chuck Anderson. Thank you.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:09 am
Microsoft really needs to start upping the resolution, fast
iirc, most of their wallpapers are 1080i though the sample images are still 1024×768 
I’d get the wallpapers if they wouldn’t look horrible on my full HD displays
Thanks though. Always nice to see good art coming out :>
December 6th, 2009 at 5:49 am
The first three wallpapers are actually very good. I wonder why Microsoft rejected those :/
December 6th, 2009 at 7:28 am
Getting Error with the download link. Please correct.
December 6th, 2009 at 5:39 pm
vasudev:
Are you using firefox 3.7 prealpha? That might cause some problems
December 6th, 2009 at 7:52 pm
hmmm… @vasudevg if that isn’t the case then I must’ve run out of bandwidth on Skydrive (again) I’ve added a mirror link for the theme.
December 6th, 2009 at 8:29 pm
Yes mannu that was on Skydrive.
December 9th, 2009 at 10:54 pm
I would love these in 1920×1200 res
December 10th, 2009 at 5:25 am
Thanks for getting these, and please do let us now if you get the originals. Cheers.
December 14th, 2009 at 10:13 pm
All the wallpapers have a 1px white border around them which looks really irritating when set as fullscreen wallpaper.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:05 pm
hmm weird. I don’t see it
I was careful about that.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:15 pm
It is quite noticeable here, especially on the left edge.
December 14th, 2009 at 11:54 pm
Thanks for the feedback will try and get that out.
Thank you 
June 7th, 2010 at 1:59 pm
If you ask me they look better than the original and approved themes…love them and got them right away for my laptop!
June 7th, 2010 at 6:03 pm
The first time I saw ‘em I wondered why they didn’t release it as a themepack or something. All of them are quite nice ideed!