Microsoft celebrates Windows 10 Anniversary Update with new Ninja Cat backgrounds

By Jon Martindale Published August 1, 2016

Need a new wallpaper for your PC or phone? And do you like cats just as much as you love Windows? Then Microsoft’s new release to help celebrate its upcoming one-year Anniversary Update for Windows 10 will have you covered, as it features a ninja cat and the Windows logo.

Microsoft’s Windows 10 release and update schedule has seen the company attempt to rebrand itself as a services company as well as a software company. While once upon a time Microsoft would have hoped to make the majority of its money from selling its latest OS to the world, it famously made Windows 10 available for free to anyone with a valid Windows 7 or 8.1 license in mid-2015.

Recommended Videos

That was huge, but it was all part of Microsoft trying to get as many people on to its new OS as possible. Since then it has kept the updates coming thick and fast and the Anniversary Update which is set to go live Tuesday, August 2, continues that trend.

Related: Microsoft’s Dona Sarkar confirms Insider program will continue after Anniversary Update

Hence the big celebration. But that’s only come after months and months of hard work. Microsoft thanked Windows Insiders in its blog post discussing the update, saying that it took on more feedback from Insiders for this update than it did during the buildup to the release of Windows 10, and has received 70 million pieces of feedback in 2016 alone.

That’s why Microsoft has made this rather informal wallpaper release: because its Insider community has acquired a life of its own. Insiders have met and made new relationships and friendships and some have even married as a result of their involvement — much like any large gathering of people.

Tomorrow, 350 million Windows 10 users will begin downloading the big Anniversary Update and Microsoft wants to make sure that its Insider community survives it. Moving forward, it says it wants to interact even more with the community, meeting with some members in person to find out just what they want to use Windows for, so Microsoft can help make that a reality.

You can download the Ninja Cat Windows 10 wallpapers here.

Former Evergreen writer

Jon Martindale covers how to guides, best-of lists, and explainers to help everyone understand the hottest new hardware and…

Topics

Computing

What’s the Right Laptop for a Student on a $1,000 Budget?

The best college laptop isn't the one with the longest spec sheet. It's the one that fits your budget and the way you'll actually use it.

Dell XPS 14 Review: Sticker

This post is brought to you in paid partnership with Dell

Buying a laptop for college isn't a decision made in isolation. Tuition, textbooks, housing, meal plans, transportation, and course materials all compete for the same budget, leaving most families with one question before the semester begins: how much is enough to spend on a laptop without paying for features that may never get used?

Wearables

Siri is about to hear everything you say, but Apple’s privacy approach has me cautiously on board

Apple's new Audio Intelligence features want to hear almost everything you say. A privacy document released alongside them explains why I am mostly okay with that.

Apple Watch Audio Intelligence features

Apple used its September 2026 launch event to enter a feature category it has mostly avoided until now: ambient listening. Siri Recap, Live Rewind, Music Recognition with Shazam, and Sound Recognition all landed on the Apple Watch Series 12 and Apple Watch Ultra 4. All four depend on the watch microphone picking up sound around you far more often than any previous Apple product has.

Siri Recap listens for conversations throughout your day and turns them into short AI summaries you can check later. Live Rewind is smaller in scope but arguably more useful day-to-day. It transcribes the last 15 seconds of whatever was just said with a double-press of the crown. This is perfect for catching a name, a book title, or directions you missed the first time. Music Recognition uses Shazam to identify songs playing nearby without you lifting a finger, much like Now Playing on Google's Pixel devices. Sound Recognition is a useful accessibility feature that listens for sirens, doorbells, and alarms to alert users who have a hearing impairment.

Computing

Can You Turn a Mini PC Into a Local AI Agent?

Furniture, Table, Computer

This post is brought to you in paid partnership with MSI

Not every AI task needs the scale of the cloud. An employee searching company documents, a retail kiosk answering product questions, or a digital sign reacting to customer behavior all need fast responses, but they don't necessarily need to send every prompt to a remote data center. Running those workloads locally reduces latency, keeps sensitive information closer to where it's generated, and can lower the ongoing cost of AI deployments. As a result, many organizations are moving toward hybrid AI architectures that handle routine requests on-device while reserving cloud models for tasks that genuinely need more processing power.