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Over at photo.SE we rarely get questions related to wallpapers of operating systems. As long as they are about how to take the image, we try to answer them.

But some are about meta information like the location where the image was taken for example. That's off topic as far as photography goes.

I'm wondering if Super User is the right place to ask such questions and if askers can/should be redirected here.

My train of thought is that some operating systems get such media from the community. Somebody knowledgeable about an operating system might be able to tell who took an image that's used as a wallpaper/lockscreen/... or what process led to it being chosen to be included in the operating system etc.

example questions:

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  • I recall once seeing (not on SE) a discussion along these lines about the default wallpaper from Windows XP, to which the facts were derived from knowing the identity of the photographer who sold the image rights to Microsoft. Is there a SE site where questions about a copyrighted work's origin would be on topic? Oct 7, 2015 at 13:20
  • Thanks for asking first! :) Oct 8, 2015 at 15:20
  • One of these sample questions was answered over on Travel.SE.
    – Andi Mohr
    Oct 12, 2015 at 15:53
  • @null, you're linking to a "page not found".
    – Pacerier
    Oct 19, 2015 at 13:33
  • @Pacerier Thanks, fixed. It moved to travel.SE, see Andi's comment.
    – null
    Oct 20, 2015 at 17:12

3 Answers 3

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More concrete/formed examples would help, and it will depend on what it is.

Examples in scope:

  • I'm using {program} to edit the meta data, having tried X, Y and Z, but it doesn't work. What am I doing wrong?/How can I make this work?
  • Where in the settings do I have to go to set the wallpaper for {operating system}?
  • How can I set a video to display as my wallpaper on {operating system}

Examples out of scope or just off-topic:

  • Where was this photo taken?
  • What program can I use to extract EXIF/meta data?
  • Is EXIF/meta data absolute and can it be used in court?
  • What advantages are there to using SD Card vs {something else}
  • Where can I get wallpapers designed for dual/side-by-side monitor setup?
  • How can I get my photo to be added as one of the default system wallpapers?
  • Talk to me about the history of wallpapers
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  • It's mostly "Where was this photo taken?". I added two example questions to the question. Thanks for clarifying the scope
    – null
    Oct 6, 2015 at 23:19
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Both these examples would be off topic here. We've had questions in the past on finding where the wallpaper is stored on a system (for recovery purposes) but where a photo was taken does not really involve hardware, software or networking.

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Your sample questions are off topic. If you were asking how to set this as a default background for the lock screen as if you were issuing a group policy for a company. That would be a bit more on topic as long as you were asking how to navigate the registry and what the files were that you changed and how to fix them.

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