By Zo Ahmed
Publication Date: 2026-10-25 13:26:00
Connecting the dots: Microsoft is asking creators to swap their MacBook Pros for the new $2,600 Surface Laptop Ultra. So it’s awkward that the wallpapers it just shared with Windows Insiders appear to have been saved in Photoshop on a Mac.
Most image files carry a small tag naming the app that last saved them, buried in a properties menu that few people ever open. When a Windows developer checked it on Microsoft’s newest wallpapers, it pointed to Photoshop running on a Mac. The company has since swapped in cleaned-up copies.
The wallpapers went out by email in mid-October as a thank-you for 12 years of the company’s early-access Windows Insider Program. The message said the designs drew on the program’s history and “the latest Surface design aesthetic.” There are ten in all, built around flowing ribbons in five colors, each in a light and a dark version.
A developer called Rafael Rivera dug into the files almost as soon as the email landed. One of the image’s…
