Big Sur’s Big Ugly Wallpaper

Big Sur has been one of the best upgrades to Apple’s operating system family in several years. After Catalina, it’s nice to upgrade and actually have a better user experience. Big Sur is to Catalina what Snow Leopard was to Leopard or Mountain Lion was to Lion: the operating system that should have shipped.

Yet, Big Sur is also an aesthetic mess. I dislike the drab windows, the rounded-tile application icons, and the navigation panes with difficult to discern little gray and blue icons. Icons need to be distinctive, and on Big Sur, they aren’t.

And then there’s that horrendously ugly Big Sur wallpaper.

What in the world were executives at Apple thinking when they let the Big Sur “color vomit” wallpaper ship as the default for the new macOS 11?

It might be interesting as a one-off painting project (no, not really), but as a background it is atrocious. A brand recognized for understated elegance, Apple blew it with this background.

Thankfully, you can override the color vomit swirl wallpaper!

I located a dozen or more step-by-step guides to reducing the migraine risk of Big Sur’s swirls. Two of the best:

• https://macreports.com/how-to-change-the-login-screen-background-in-macos-big-sur/
• https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252056512

For convenience, follow these instructions:

1. System Preferences > Users & Groups.
   1. Open the lock icon to make changes.
   2. Right-click on the primary user listed in left column and select Advanced Options.
   3. Copy UUID value, which is the unique identifier of the user.
2. In Finder, use “Go to Folder” and enter: /Library/Caches/Desktop Pictures
   1. Note: If it doesn’t exist create a Desktop Pictures folder.
3. Inside Desktop Pictures create a folder with the copied UUID value as its name.
   1. Right click on the Desktop Pictures folder and select Get Info.
   2. Open the lock to make changes.
   3. Grant permission to Read & Write to user, admin, everyone.
4. Make sure FileVault and Guest user are both deactivated.
5. Change your desktop wallpaper.
   1. This creates a “lockscreen.png” copy of the background chosen.
6. Restart your computer.

There are more permanent, deep-down fixes that entirely remove the Big Sur background. The simple fix was good enough for me, and should work for most users.

Reminiscing about the old Apple operating systems, I found myself searching for some of the wallpapers of days gone by. Only a few remained on my system. I had hoped Apple included the past with the present, but that’s not the case. Searching, I located exactly what I wanted.

Stephen Hackett has performed a great public service, reviving old Apple wallpapers in 5K resolution. Not merely the OS X and macOS wallpapers, Hackett also upscaled the Mac OS 9 wallpapers. Thank you!

Mac OS 9 Wallpapers in 5K Resolution
To go with my collection of default (Mac OS X) macOS wallpapers in 5K resolution, I’ve gathered the wallpapers that shipped with Mac OS 9 and re-worked them to modern-day sizes.

Most of them are very 90s, just like Apple’s hardware at the time.

Here are the OS X wallpapers:

https://512pixels.net/projects/default-mac-wallpapers-in-5k/

Every Default macOS Wallpaper – in Glorious 5K Resolution
Every major version of Mac OS X macOS has come with a new default wallpaper. As you can see, I have collected them all here.

While great in their day, the early wallpapers are now quite small in the world of 5K displays.

Now, I have a default screen that doesn’t make me feel nauseous.

Apple, please let users choose their default lock and login screens.