It may seem like a commonplace small hill â but this landscape is one of the most viewed scenes in the world and it has made one photographer a not-so-small fortune.

This view of a hill at Sonoma Valley in California is the default wallpaper of Windows XP home edition

Most of us assumed the default Windows XP desktop wallpaper was a digital creation â of course, if weâd bother to look it up on the internet (which, as everyone knows, has every- thing in the world, ever), we could have found out the truth.

American photographer Chuck OâRear has revealed he was simply driving along Highway 121 in Californiaâs Sonoma Valley when the view caught his eye.

He pulled over and shot through the wire fence with a handheld camera.




âI didnât âcreateâ this. I just happened to be there at the right moment and documented it,â he said.

Going green: The rolling hillside greets Windows users when they load up their computer in millions of homes and offices worldwide

More than a billion home computers have been distributed across the globe, arguably making the âBlissâ image the most viewed picture in the world.

âIâm sure the Kremlin computers have this photo,â he joked. âThey use Microsoft programs. I think every corner of the globe, every culture, every country, has been exposed to it.â

As for just how much Microsoft paid him for the picture, heâs keeping quiet. But he did admit it was an âextraordinaryâ amount of money â the second-largest sum ever paid to a living, working photographer.

Second only, in fact, to the amount paid for the photo of then-president Bill Clinton hugging Monica Lewinsky.

The vineyard seen in the picture was blighted by the devastating phylloxera bug in the early 1990s â so all the vines were temporarily removed, revealing the rolling pastures of OâRearâs photo.

Californian bloggers were shocked when the true location was revealed. âI used to drive past that hill all the time! I must have blown past it dozens of times and never once noticed it,â said one. âI always thought it was part of Tellytubbyland,â said another.

Mr OâRear spent 25 years travelling the world as a photographer for National Geographic magazine but knows that this will always be his most famous work.

âPeople may remember it when Iâm dead and gone,â he said. âIt will probably be mentioned in my obituary.â