The story behind the famous Windows XP ‘Bliss’ wallpaper

The idyllic and iconic image that served as the default background for computers running Microsoft’s Windows XP operating system wasn’t Photoshopped. The photo was taken by Charles O’Rear north of San Francisco in 1996 and will live on long after XP shuts down.

‘Bliss,’ which is perhaps the most famous desktop wallpaper, is the real deal, according to the man who took the picture.

You may not know the name Charles O'Rear, but if you've used a PC in the last decade, you're familiar with his photo.

The 73-year-old photog is the man behind the tranquil image of a rolling hill and bright blue sky that served as the default background for Microsoft's Windows XP operating system.

To mark the end of the Windows XP era —Windows stopped offering support for it on April 8 — Microsoft made a video about O'Rear and his famous snapshot.

Charles (Chuck) O'Rear, a former National Geographic photographer, snapped the famous picture after a storm.

Yes, "Bliss" is a real photo. O'Rear, who is sometimes known as Chuck, took it using a Mamiya RZ67 camera with color Fuji Film and a tripod in Napa Valley, north of San Francisco, in 1996.

He later sold the image Corbis, which was actually started by Bill Gates, to be used as stock art, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.

This is what the hillside in California looked like when Microsoft filmed the video.

It then caught the eye of Microsoft.

Carriers wouldn't accept the liability of transporting the original photograph because of the undisclosed value Microsoft put on it, so the company eventually sent O'Rear a plane ticket so he could deliver it in person.

"I had no idea where it was going to go," he said.

In the clip, O'Rear shares that a group of Microsoft engineers had a bet going about where the photograph was taken and whether it was Photoshopped (he says it wasn't).