Dreamscene Activator changes that. It works under Vista and Windows 7, and will enable Dreamscene on all operating system editions.

The program has been out for quite some time. Up until recently a bug was giving users a hard time to read the text of icons on the desktop as it was turning the text into a blurry transparent mess that was barely readable.

A new version of Dreamscene Activator has been published by the developer over at Door2Windows recently which fixes that bug. The program itself has stayed as user friendly as before. Windows Vista and Windows 7 users need to run the application as administrators. The application displays the current Dreamscene status which can be either On or Off.

A click on the slider changes the status. Dreamscene is turned on if it has been off before. From then on it is possible to set video wallpapers. This is done with a right-click on a compatible video (wmv or mpg) and the selection of Set as DreamScene in the context menu.

Users who run the app for the first time need to restart the PC once before the video will be set as the wallpaper. Video wallpapers compatible with DreamScene can be found at DeviantArt and other Internet sites. (via)

Soon thereafter alternatives like DreamRender became available that offered the functionality for all Windows operating systems.

Microsoft has made the decision not to distribute Dreamscene with their new operating system Windows 7. Thanks to the Windows 7 Dreamscene Activator it is now possible to enable Dreamscene in Windows 7 to use videos as desktop backgrounds.

The portable program is compatible with both 32-bit and 64-bit editions of the Windows 7 operating system. It will display two buttons in its interface to enable or disable DreamScene in Windows 7.

The program needs to be executed with elevated rights. A click on the enable DreamScene button will copy files to Windows system directory and add entries to the Windows Registry.

The tool will first copy DreamScene.dll to %WinDir%\System32 & DreamScene.dll.mui to %WinDir%\System32\en-US.

The Explorer process will be restarted afterwards to load the changes and offer the functionality right away.

DreamScene should now be active on the user’s system. Videos can now be added as desktop backgrounds by right-clicking them and selecting to set them as the desktop background.

Dreamscene videos can also be found at Deviant Art

Windows 7 DreamScene Activator can be downloaded from The Windows Club website.

A third party alternative for Windows XP to Windows Dreamscene is XP Scene. It is an elegant solution that can turn videos into desktop backgrounds in three simple steps. It does so by creating a html file with an embedded Windows Media Player control that can be used as the background in Windows XP.

XP Scene is a portable application that can be run from any location. It displays all three steps of the process in the main interface.

• Step 1: Select the video that should be used as the desktop background. Supported are avi, mpg and wmv videos. The resize mode can also be changed from “keep input aspect ratio” to “stretch video to display size” in this step.
• Step 2: Selecting the output folder where the html file and video will be saved in.
• Step 3: Starting the conversion

Once the files have been created it is a matter of selecting the HTML file as the background wallpaper. This is done in Display Properties > Desktop > Background. The user has to browse to the location where the html file has been saved to and pick it from there.

The process itself demands quite a bit of computer memory and cpu. It can also be quite the distraction most of the time. The right-click menu to change the background again is not working because of the html file that is using all of the space on the desktop.

The only way to change the desktop background back is to go into the Windows Control Panel and select the Display configuration from there.

The biggest shortcoming of DreamScene is that it is only available for Windows Vista Ultimate DreamRender looks like a promising candidate for everyone else who is not working with Windows Vista Ultimate. The interface is somewhat confusing and it took a while until I discovered how to add your own videos, pictures, sounds and textures to the application.

DreamRender ships with about a dozen animations. One click is sufficient to load that animation. This does not replace the original wallpaper of the system though. It overlays the animated wallpaper and the original wallpaper will appear if DreamRender is disabled.

To create a new animated wallpaper you need to click on the File > New menu in the settings. There you have the options to select a video, a picture, slideshows and several other backgrounds for your animated wallpaper. Just play around with it for a while and you should find your way.

For complete customization of your system DreamRender can apply textures and colors to your windows, make them transparent, and produce amazing effects every time you move your mouse.

If you ask me personally than I would have to say that animated wallpapers are a waste of time. They are confusing and a distraction if you work with the computer. Guess it’s ok as a screensaver but I would never add them permanently to my desktop and since I do not use a screensaver that option is no option as well.

That was however before I discovered user generated Dreamscene background that blew my mind. Those backgrounds are eye friendly, they show passing clouds, ripples and rain drops. Lots of animations that relax the eye and are pleasing at the same time.

Dreamscene users will have to download the free Descapes software to be able to add the following Dreamscene backgrounds to their Vista Ultimate system. You can find many more backgrounds at the Wincustomize Dream Gallery.

Crystal Island

Falling Rain

Island Paradise

Midnight Moon

Polar

Rays

Shark Pit

Silence

Sun

Tafiti

Wasserfall

Enter SSDream. SSDream is a software that is way more powerful than Dreamscene and available for all Vista editions. The video wallpaper functionality supports more than just wmv and mpeg-2 compatible video formats; Basically any video that plays in Windows Media Player should work with SSDream as well.

It’s difficulty to mention all the features of SSDream in this short article which is why I concentrate on the most important ones only.

• Supports all Vista versions
• Desktop icons remain visible
• Multi-monitor support
• Videos, Images and Screensavers are supported
• Cpu priority settings

The developer is currently trying to bring his application to Windows XP as well which would be really nice.

Dreamscene will then be available after the next restart. There is also a way to install the package without using the bat file. Probably a safer way for users who mistrust those files. This step requires lots of manual work though, you copy files around, rename files and change permissions for some of them. It seems a lot more complicated than using the bat file.