Microsoft is making Windows 10 available starting July 29, 2015, as a free upgrade to the public. The Windows Insiders formed an important part as they provided continuous feedback, feature requests, bug submissions of various Windows 10 preview builds. Gabriel Aul of Microsoft had hinted a few days back, about at least one fun surprise for Windows Insiders. As promised, today he provided it in the form of Ninja Cat backgrounds & lock screen images for Windows 10.
What is Ninja Cat all about
For those who don’t know, for a few months a sticker depicting a ninja cat riding a fire-breathing unicorn and holding a Windows flag had gone viral and is in huge demand by Microsoft fans. After the sticker, fans started using it as Windows backgrounds too.
It all began when this sticker was seen on the laptops of Windows team members at the Redmond campus. Slowly, people outside noticed it and since then this has taken the internet by storm so much that the news was covered by some Business news channels. Stickers were on sale too at various online stores. Microsoft fans created their own versions of wallpapers depicting the ninja cat.
Gabe Aul mentioning the craze said:
It’s been so fun to see Insiders rally around the ninja cat as a fun icon for Windows 10 and for Microsoft. In particular, we’ve really been enjoying the mashups many of you have been creating…
Microsoft itself has now provided it with new cats and steeds. This is the most famous ninja cat and unicorn image
It also offers variants with different cat and steed:
Gabe Aul also informed about the origin of this image.
“…the original ninja cat was modeled after the amazing “Welcome to the Internet” image by Jason Heuser . While the ninja cat started out as just a fun little internal joke, it’s been pretty neat to see our Windows Insiders and Windows and Microsoft fans really enjoying our version of it. We were fortunately able to connect with Jason and wanted to give him props for his amazing work in creating this design and inspiring us. “
To celebrate the upcoming launch of Windows 10 upgrades for PCs, here are some fun background/ lock screen images of the ninja cat and her steeds. One can download the background images which are sized by most common resolutions for PCs, tablets, phones, and the Microsoft Band. The various resolution was chosen that were most common based on data from the Windows Insiders Program.
Not only that, but Microsoft has also provided a “Do-It-Yourself” kit with raw individual images to create one’s own creation. And creating them, one can post their creations tweeting them with #Windows10, #ninjacat. And from these Microsoft will pick up a bunch of their favorites and that will be put up in a blog post later.
One can download Ninja Cat background & lock screen images for Windows 10 from Microsoft from here:
- PC and tablet: 3840×2160, 2160×1440, 1920×1080, 1600×900, 1366×768, 1280×1024, 1280×800, 1024×768
- Phone: 1440×2560, 720×1280 or 480×854
- Band: 310×102
- “Do-It-Yourself” kit with the raw images
Lastly apart from this fun surprise, Microsoft has hidden some secrets in Skype too and has asked if the users can find them. So give it a try and have fun creating your ninja cat mash-ups.
