Windows 11 is getting a video wallpaper feature
Microsoft is testing a feature that will allow you to use a video as a wallpaper. Welcome to 2007!
When iOS 26, iPadOS 26, and macOS Tahoe 26 were announced, everyone said Liquid Glass looked similar to Aero. Well, if Apple can do it, surely Microsoft is allowed to do it.
I'm talking about DreamScene, a feature that was introduced in Windows Vista, that let users set a video as their desktop background. Ah, the good old days of the Start orb, Aero Glass effect, DreamScene, it was pretty cool. Anyway, that's enough reminiscing.
My point is live wallpapers have been around for a long time, as I said they were available on Windows Vista (removed from 7), are usable on Android and Linux. Even macOS has an option to set slow-motion videos as the Lock Screen background, I wrote an article about this a couple of years ago. Wallpaper Engine, Lively, and other apps also allow you to set an animated wallpaper. It looks like animated backgrounds are back in fashion, and Windows 11 is the latest to adopt it.
But, nothing beats a feature that is native to the operating system. PhantomOfEarth, known for reliable Windows feature leaks, spotted the new customization option that is hidden in the latest Windows 11 Dev and Beta builds. The feature can be accessed from the Settings > Personalization > Background. Click on browse photos, and instead of setting a picture, you can select a video as your desktop background. It supports the following video formats: MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, or MKV. When you have set a video wallpaper, go to your desktop, and it should play automatically. (check the link above for a demo).
The feature ID is 57645315, if you want to activate it via ViveTool. Apparently, video wallpapers are only available for the desktop, not for the lock screen.
Animated backgrounds are cool, but I never use them on any device, because it uses resources in the background, and drains the battery. Hopefully, Windows' implementation will be more power-efficient.
I’d like to set fire to Windows 11 and watch it burn slowly, while drinking a beer listening ‘Enjoy the Silence’ by Depeche Mode. Damn Windows 11, how fucking disgusting I am with you.
I think MacOS has such wallpapers, although I haven’t used it for more than a few minutes, I saw some of the features of version 26 and it showed animated wallpapers of nature for different times of day, assuming they change with the system clock.
Maybe Microsoft want to copy that and have something similar for Windows too, I don’t know, but for me this is useless. A static wallpaper is enough and assuming most people use programs maximized, they won’t see the wallpaper except once or twice during the day for a few minutes.
Microsoft can do what they want, but Windows is still old and outdated and broken in many aspects. All the bloat they add and circumventing users’ preferences and reapplying disabled settings automatically is bad. Not to mention all the old UI from 1998 that is still underneath is some system setting programs, they can change the main UI as much as they want, but it’s still and old and archaic OS deep underneath.
Just to be clear, Microsoft had animated/video wallpapers before MacOS, they were trialling this stuff back in 2004-5 with Longhorn, and officially released as Dreamscene for Vista in 2007.
It’s not about who had it first or who’s copying who, it only matters that they are adding something that’t really redundant considering all the flaws of Windows.
Don’t knock it till you tried it, video wallpapers are really cool and a nice vibe. They don’t distract at all depending on what kind of person you are. I think the people who want all “fun” things banned at the OS level are just as bad as the people that change things for no reason.
So, after 30 years, we can’t fix icon position on desktop … but … we can play videos …. huray!
I understand your pain. Let me recommend Midiox Desktop Restore for that
It’s good to see M.$ is prioritizing. /facepalm
Another waste of developer time.
I just can not imagine practical use for this. If you want to watch video, you can open it separate video player with all the options and start it when you want. It is a bloat.
Wonder how popular this will be? Do I want the distraction of a video moving in the background of my working Windows? Not me.
They worked for ages on Dreamscene to ensure the CPU/power footprint would be as low as possible (mattered a lot in the 00s), I remember it was .MPG and .WMV video, likely going through some sort of tuned directshow filter, etc. Worked fairly nicely, then people ported it to Windows 7, not bad.
I believe all other implementations (perhaps apart from Stardock’s) are pretty resource intensive, or at least not as lean as the older implementations. Wonder how much worse this new code will be.