When you have wallpaper on your desktop background and it suddenly turns black, there are a few reasons which might be that you are yet to properly set up the display settings.
On the other hand, it might be that you used a corrupted Transcoded Wallpaper, which makes your desktop background blackout.
Although, there are other possible reasons why your Windows computer background turned black.
In this article, you’ll learn how to fix a black desktop background on your Windows computer. You’ll also see why you encountered a black desktop background.
Why Is Black Desktop Background In Windows Occurring?
So far, there have been a few reasons why black desktop background occurred on your Windows 10 computer.
The obvious one boils down to how you might have configured or set up your desktop display settings.
The black desktop background occurred because of a corrupt Transcoded Wallpaper. This is one of the main reasons your Windows computer background isn’t working.
Your desktop background will go black because of an outdated graphics driver. If the graphics driver is outdated, you might experience this issue on your PC.
Your desktop background blacked out while you were trying to replace your desktop background wallpaper.
Correctly setting up your desktop display, enabling the show Windows background option, and observing your power plan settings will fix the problem.
How To Fix Black Desktop Background On Windows
If you want to fix the black desktop background in your Windows 10, below are some fixes you can quickly try.
Fix 1: Turn On the Show Windows Background Image option
Firstly, you’ll need to check and be sure that your display settings are accurately configured, as it can be the cause of a black desktop background. Make sure to toggle on Show desktop background image.
Go to System Settings and search for Ease of Access, open it and Select Display > Scroll down to Show desktop background image and then turn it on.
Fix 2: Set up Display Settings via Control Panel
If your Windows 10 computer continues to show a black desktop background, you’ll have to set up the display settings from the control panel.
To do this, search and Open Control Panel > Tap Ease of Access > Select Ease of Access Center > Scroll down and tap on Make the computer easier to use > Unmark the Turn off all unnecessary animations > Unmark Remove background images > Tap on the Apply button and then click OK.
Fix 3: Properly set up the High Contrast Settings
When there is an improper High Contrast settings, it can lead to a black desktop background. You can quickly turn off the settings
Open Settings > Tap on Personalization > Select High contrast settings option on the right-hand side under Related Settings > Toggle Off Use high contrast and then restart your computer.
Fix 4: Set up desktop background
If you have mistakenly selected the black background solid color, you might want to change it to an image or another solid color. To fix the “desktop black background” you’ll need to make a change.
Go to Settings > Click on Personalization tab from the menu > Select the Background option on the left-pane > Click the Background drop-down menu and select Picture from the options.
From there, select your favorite picture and make it your desktop wallpaper.
Fix 5: Change Power Plan Settings
Most time when the black desktop screen appears when you are using the slide show mode, you’ll need to observe and change your power plan settings to quickly rectify the issue.
Search and open Control Panel > Change View by option to Small icons at the top right > Select Power Options > Click Change plan settings > Tap Change advanced power option settings > Select Desktop background settings > Click Slide show > Select Available for On battery and Plugged in options > After that click Apply and then OK.
Fix 6: Stop Corrupt TranscodedWallpaper File
If you have tried the above fixes and it’s still not working, it might mean that the TranscodedWallpaper file has been corrupted. You’ll need to stop the corrupted file from working.
Go to your File Explorer > Tap This PC and tap on the location address bar and copy and paste this address “C: Users/User Account/AppData/Roaming/Microsoft/Windows/Themes“. > From this location folder rename the TranscodedWallpaper. File to TranscodedWallpaper.old.
Open the slideshow.ini file with Notepad or any file editor and delete all the contents of this file, and then save this file.
Fix 7: Check The Display Drivers
If you have tried the above fixes and the problem persists, then you’ll have to check the display drivers to see if they are compatible or corrupted. This can also be a core reason why your desktop background is black.
You’ll have to reinstall the display drivers or update them to fix the problem, here is what you need to do.
Open the Quick Access Menu by long pressing Windows + X > Tap Device Manager > Double tap Display adapters > Right click on the available display adapter and select Update driver > On the next screen, tap on Search automatically for drivers.
While to reinstall display drivers, open Quick Access Menu by long pressing Windows + X > Device Manager > Double tap Display adapters > Right click on the available display adapter and select Uninstall device > Confirm uninstalling process > Then go back to display adapters > Right click and then select Scan for hardware changes. Restart your computer so that the changes can take effect.
After doing these fixes, the black desktop background issues will stop showing and you can see your wallpaper as it supposes.
Conclusion
When you want your desktop background to look nice with your favorite image, then you’ll have to set it as wallpaper.
It is kind of strange when your desktop background turns black all of a sudden. But the good thing is, there are quick fixes you can try in order to stop this from occurring again.
FAQs on How To Fix Black Desktop Background In Windows 10
Why Is My Desktop Background Black?
Your desktop background turned black due to a few reasons of which it could be that you've not set your display settings correctly or your drivers are corrupted or no longer compatible.
