wallpaper image resolution vs monitor resolution

[Special K]

I have a 24" 16:10 aspect ratio monitor. The resolution is 1920x1200. If I use a 1600x1200 image as my wallpaper (or any 4:3 image really), how is the image I see as the wallpaper altered from the original? Obviously it looks pixelated because the resolution is lower, but what changes does Windows make to the 4:3 image to make it fit in a 16:10 space? Does it take a 16:10 rectangular "cut" out of the original image? Does it distort the aspect ratio of the 4:3 image and stretch it to 16:10?

I'm looking at the 1600x1200 image now as my wallpaper and I can't seem to see any obvious changes that were made to the image to make it fit on my 16:10 monitor, yet it seems like it shouldn't be able to without modification.

 

[ViRGE]

You should take a screenshot of your desktop, and upload that along with the original image. Otherwise we're just sort of poking in the dark here; I don't know if Windows is merely stretching your image horizontally, or if it's doing a crop & zoom.

 

[Fardringle]

It depends. Do you have the wallpaper set to Centered, Tiled, or Stretched? If centered, you'll have empty bars on the left and right of the image. If it's tiled, you'll have the full image starting from the left edge of the screen, plus a small portion of the left side of the image showing on the right edge of the screen. If it is stretched, then everything will be stretched (made wider) left to right to make the 1600 pixels of the image fill up the 1920 pixels of your screen resolution.

 

[Special K]

It depends. Do you have the wallpaper set to Centered, Tiled, or Stretched? If centered, you'll have empty bars on the left and right of the image. If it's tiled, you'll have the full image starting from the left edge of the screen, plus a small portion of the left side of the image showing on the right edge of the screen. If it is stretched, then everything will be stretched (made wider) left to right to make the 1600 pixels of the image fill up the 1920 pixels of your screen resolution.

Thanks, this answers my question perfectly.