Providing a Personalized Desktop Background for your Students

Modified on Wed, 31 Jan at 1:55 PM

How to change the background image on OrasiLabs instances

Lab Templates are initially created with a default desktop background that will vary based on Operating System. However, you can easily change the default background by modifying the lab template.

For example, the default background for a Windows 2016 instance contains the Windows logo while a Windows 2019 instance has a bright blue default background. In addition, the default includes a dynamic display in the top right hand corner with the machine's technical specifications.

To change the desktop background for an OrasiLabs lab template, you must use the Amazon EC2Launch utility. This utility will override the default image (described above) with a custom image you provide. Additionally, you can decide which, if any, technical specifications are displayed.

To change the desktop background, perform the following steps:

Select your lab template in the Lab Templates list.
Start and Expand your lab template.

Upload your background image into the template if it's not already there. Don't forget to remember the location where you save the file.

NOTE: If you use the OrasiLabs Upload feature to upload the file,
we recommend you move the file from the "Uploads" folder into
another folder (like "Documents") for permanent storage.

Run the Amazon EC2Launch utility.
1. The easiest way to do this is to click on the Search icon in the Taskbar and type in "ec2launch".
2. Click Yes to allow the app to make changes to the template.
3. From the EC2Launch app, select the Wallpaper tab.
4. Enable the Display instance details on wallpaper option.
5. Click Image Path and select your background graphic file.
6. Select or deselect the background attributes, as desired.
7. Click Save.
8. Click OK to close the confirmation box.
9. Click Exit to close the EC2Launch utility.
Finally, Collapse the template and Stop and Save the changes you just made.