Windows XP default wallpaper

One of the most famous wallpaper images is undoubtedly the default Windows XP image showing a blissfully relaxing vista of green rolling hills and a bluer than blue sky. The wallpaper, probably one of the most viewed images of all time, is aptly named ‘Bliss.’ Do a Google image search for just the word ‘bliss,’ and the first result is the Windows wallpaper.

For Dutch Windows users however, the name of the image is Ireland, which has mistakenly led many to believe that that’s where the image was taken.

Have you ever stopped to wonder where the image was taken, or who took it? In fact, the image is so crisp you might have assumed it wasn’t real at all.

The man behind the camera is American photographer Charles O’Rear. Don’t let his name fool you into thinking that the photo was in fact taken in Ireland. Bliss, as it turns out, is in California. In Sonoma County to be exact.

The photo was taken in 1996, years before Windows XP launched, and before the area was converted into a vineyard. In fact, a photo taken 10 years later from exactly the same spot where Bliss was shot, shows a disappointingly, dreary view:

The image has since made its way off of users’ computer and can be spotted in some of the most unexpected places.

Microsoft Office 365

 

Microsoft Office 365 brings the future of productivity to your organization today — whether it's an organization of one or thousands. Like this page to: find out the latest about Office 365, learn how you can get in the beta, and see how it will change the way you do business.

 

Microsoft Office 365–Tamer alhosiny 2011

 

  What is Office 365?

Microsoft Office 365 delivers the power of cloud productivity to businesses of all sizes, helping to save time, money and free up valued resources. Office 365 combines the familiar Office desktop suite with cloud-based versions of our next-generation communications and collaboration services: Exchange Online, SharePoint Online and Lync Online.

Office 365 is simple to use and easy to administer – all backed by the robust security and financially-backed, guaranteed reliability you expect from a world-class service provider.

Key benefits

• Anywhere-access to email, documents, contacts, and calendars on nearly any device*
• Work seamlessly with Microsoft Office and the other programs your users already count on everyday
• Business-class features including IT-level phone support, guaranteed 99.9% uptime, geo-redundancy, and disaster recovery
• Pay-as-you-go pricing options which give you predictability and flexibility for all or part of your organization
• Latest version of Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), which has millions of business users today

^{* Access from mobile devices require Wi-Fi capability or depends on carrier network availability.}

 

The story behind the name.
With such a rich and comprehensive service, coming up with one name to sum it all up was more than a little challenging. Microsoft Office 365 embraces three major services—Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Lync Online—along with access to Microsoft Office desktop software and Web apps. There's a lot of power under this particular hood. In the end, though, Microsoft Office 365 was really the only logical choice.