Microsoft is Bringing Video Wallpapers To Windows 11 (windowscentral.com)
- Reference: 0179464232
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/09/22/1726236/microsoft-is-bringing-video-wallpapers-to-windows-11
- Source link: https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-is-finally-bringing-native-video-wallpapers-to-windows-11-15-years-after-windows-vistas-dreamscenes
> Hidden in the latest Windows 11 preview builds, the feature lets you set an MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, or MKV file as your wallpaper, which will play the video whenever you view the desktop.
>
> For many years, users have wanted the ability to set a video as a desktop background. It's a feature that many Linux distributions support, and macOS also supports the ability to set a moving background as your lock screen. Windows Vista did support setting videos as your wallpaper, but only as part of the Ultimate SKU via a feature called DreamScene.
[1] https://www.windowscentral.com/microsoft/windows-11/microsoft-is-finally-bringing-native-video-wallpapers-to-windows-11-15-years-after-windows-vistas-dreamscenes
Active desktop returns (Score:4, Insightful)
Microsoft officially out of ideas. And Windows 98 did it with 512 times less ram.
Re: (Score:3)
It never really went away.. They just stopped talking about it, and they finally stopped trying to put long form articles and news bulls etc on the desktop. We generally kept the widget, and status content type stuff, from weather and headlines to e-mail.
The problem with the desktop is a organizational space you visit briefly to switch or start tasks, and maybe move some files around. If it is actually displayed other than around the periphery for any amount of time it means the user isn't really 'using'
Re: (Score:3)
Programmers gotta program. At some point your UI has reached peak usability and the you can only go downhill.
Re: (Score:2)
This... was the worst part of the outcome of the anti-trust loss... Microsoft had to remove active desktop from the UI, and now 25 years later they are getting a shittier version back. In the day it was fun to throw dilbert on the bottom of the screen, random stock quotes down the side and slashdot on the other side. This would just show you things you would want to see on a daily basis and didn't take opening a window. You just embedded the browser rendering engine into a chunk of your desktop.
Of course
Battery (Score:5, Funny)
"My laptop battery only lasts like an hour. Can you order me a new laptop?"
-Every helpdesk ticket from someone who enables this
Re: (Score:2)
Not sure, but if the frames were in video RAM already, isn't there graphics card magic that can trivially merge the frame with window data? I don't like it one bit, but we must be at the point where this is graphics card magic now.
I hate every bit of it, if you want to watch a video, watch a video, there's little point in having a video for the desktop that's stealing precious attention.
Re: (Score:2)
> Not sure, but if the frames were in video RAM already, isn't there graphics card magic that can trivially merge the frame with window data?
Rendering from memory to the framebuffer is trivial. Decoding the video takes processing time, probably on the GPU these days. Otherwise you have to keep the whole uncompressed video in memory. For a short loop that might be viable, except that resolutions have been trending upwards over time, so the memory needed for that has been as well. Most non-gamers still have 16GB RAM or less so this is still an issue. It's smarter to do live backgrounds as animations using pixel shaders, then the power consumption
Re: (Score:2)
I am kind of worried about the implications of having a constant video in the background and recall(TM) capturing and analysing the screen every few seconds. Where is my Linux installation?
Re: (Score:2)
Reminds me of one commentary I read about battery life of a laptop. The reviewer mentioned that it was kind of strange that we got to a point where watching a 4K video is more efficient than browsing the web. Years ago, it was the other way around. It probably is due to all GPU, integrated or not, are more efficient with video now. It is a pity the CPUs cannot do the same with JavaScript.
eh (Score:1)
Ok, so the specific formats are new, but Windows 98 supported animated wallpaper. No one actually wanted it or used it, but it was supported.
At least 15 years ... (Score:2)
... I have not seen my desktop background !
Re: (Score:2)
True. Loving XFCE and throwing a window a side of the monitor and it takes one side of the screen, throwing another at the other side and boom, two applications side-by-side and multitasking as it should be.
Re: (Score:2)
Yeah mean like windows 1.0 did it? ;)
Re: (Score:2)
Windows 1 might have had tile and cascade, but you couldn't just grab the title bar and snap it on the side of the screen to half-fill it. It's not a ground changing feature, but it's convenient. There might be a win10 hotkey for it perhaps now?
You keep saying that word ("wanted"). I don't (Score:3, Insightful)
think it means what you think it means. "For many years, users have wanted the ability to set a video as a desktop background." Really? I've never heard anyone ask for that.
Re: (Score:2)
Except advertisers....
"to set a video as a desktop background" (Score:3)
really? who would want a desktop background in motion?
Re: (Score:2)
I guess all the people who have paid for Wallpaper Engine, for starters.
Re: (Score:2)
Advertisers. And they'll include sound.
Just do a screensaver. (Score:2)
Ive seen programs trying to do this going back to win95 and its not attractive, productive, or helpful.
new feature no one ask for? (Score:2)
Dont you have enough crap moving on your screen. I have NEVER in my life said, Hey I would like a video playing in the background of my windows apps.. WHO is asking for this?
Re: (Score:2)
> WHO is asking for this?
My kids would love this, and within 2 minutes there would be a skibi toilet video on each of their backgrounds, repeating infinitely.
Great (Score:2)
I mean I used to run `xscreensaver -root` on Linux some 25 years ago as a novelty, but this is cool too.
Re: (Score:2)
Wouldn't mind a real time x planet display of the earth with cloud map and Terminator. But that doesn't need to be a video and I can already to that with a cron job every hour or so which I do. Though love iss position might be cool. That said I haven't seen my background in months.
Why? (Score:3)
I've never in my life wanted this. It sounds like a massive distraction and a waste of local resources. Just wait, once you can get video for your background, the very next fucking day you'll have ads on your background.
I guess home Windows users deserve this for using Windows, since no way this will fly in the corporate setting.
Guess what's coming next? (Score:5, Informative)
Video ads in your desktop.
Could Help With OLED Screens (Score:2)
If the video was dark and the changes were subtle, it could alleviate potential burn-in. However, burn-in seems to be pretty rare on newer OLED displays due to numerous technologies in the hardware.
Re: (Score:2)
Ah that's actually a legit use case, something slow moving might not be too distracting
Let go Old School (Score:3)
Instead of 'video wall paper' can we just get the After Dark screensavers back into existence?
Re: Let go Old School (Score:2)
xscreensaver has toasters, what more do you want?
Microsoft Bob come round and round (Score:2)
Every so often microsoft throws a bob at its customers. A animated desktop was tried before and it sucked. Like ole bob it didn't work and why would it work now?
Meanwhile... (Score:3)
...Their rationale for only showing hours and minutes and hide the seconds of the digital clock in the system tray was to "save power" [1]https://devblogs.microsoft.com... [microsoft.com]
[1] https://devblogs.microsoft.com/oldnewthing/20250421-00/?p=111095
Re: Meanwhile... (Score:2)
Do they have a rationale for making the clock font smaller and harder to read on Windows 11? I can't read it without my glasses, and I got "upgraded" only about a week ago so aging isn't the cause.
Major Keysplash Announcement ! (Score:2)
In related news, KeySplash announced their new vomit-proof keyboard! Pair it up with their PukeSurf mouse and you're good for hours of nauseating motion sickness and spreadsheets!
Next up, ADS as a desktop background (Score:3)
You know it's coming!
Subtle video for OLED monitors (Score:2)
I hope this happens soon. I wouldn't mind a subtle video that protects against screen burn-in without being distracting or hiding my icons.
Re: Subtle video for OLED monitors (Score:2)
If it doesn't move your icons, or the task bar etc., then it won't help with burn in.
Who the F. looks at their desktop ? (Score:3)
Mine is black I think, I'm not even sure. Why ? Because I always have 10-20 windows on top of it and I *never* see it. When KDE opens, so do all my windows from the previous session, so I don't even see it on boot. What a stupid idea. Oh, it's Windows ?!? Okay, fine, sorry about that, carry on.
Big fat NO! (Score:2)
Apple added animated wallpapers a while back. I turned it off immediately. While Iâ(TM)m not one of those people who do everything full screen (why do people do that with a terminal on a large screen?!), my desktop is rarely visible, except for little bits of it around windows. Thatâ(TM)s enough though that if thereâ(TM)s any movement, itâ(TM)s distracting. I constantly felt like something was happening in one of my windows in my peripheral vision, making me look.
What is it with Micr
Every poison pill... (Score:2)
Needs its coating of eye-candy.
Compressed QR Codes? (Score:1)
What could go wrong?
Well, someone wants it. (Score:2)
I don't really know why, but I have seen people talk about it.
I do see the potential for some decent pranks.
A terrible idea (Score:2)
A terrible idea for anyone who wants to use their PC for anything productive.
This is a feature that I'd never use, and I suspect that as soon as most people look at it and realize how annoying/distracting it is, they'll turn it off and never use it again too.
Let them eat cake (Score:2)
wondering when the guillotines are going to be dusted off
Have to Hide the AI Power Consumption Somehow (Score:2)
Why now? Why does anyone need video wallpapers--or does MS need an excuse to run the GPU all the time. Either way, it's a waste of power.
Here comes the pr0n (Score:1)
It’s not going to be long before people are selling hard core porn video wallpapers on OnlyFans and Patreon.
Finally! (Score:2)
One can put porn movies on the computer-illiterate co-workers' screens.
Hilarity and firings ensured.
Count me out (Score:5, Funny)
Let's just make the desktop as confusing and distracting as possible. What could go wrong?
If having video as wallpaper... (Score:1)
...is important to you, you really aren't doing anything important.
Re: (Score:1)
I dont know, I would like to have a an HTML page back as an option. Active Desktop was removed after Windows XP. I ran a simple web server which monitored my backup jobs for servers I administered, listed all services and hosts, some loading time statistics, and had links to view drill-down statistics. I also had some utilization graphs. Lastly, I had a security camera that took a picture every minute overlooking the view to the ocean (in San Diego where I was) that refreshed the image on a corner of my "da
Re: (Score:2)
> I ran a simple web server which monitored my backup jobs for servers I administered, listed all services and hosts, some loading time statistics, and had links to view drill-down statistics. I also had some utilization graphs. Lastly, I had a security camera that took a picture every minute overlooking the view to the ocean (in San Diego where I was) that refreshed the image on a corner of my "dashboard" wallpaper. It was so nice
> I wish they would bring a modern Active Desktop back.
wish granted, no need to wait for active desktop. if you managed to do all that with html/js you will have no major problems writing your own app that stays at the bottom with a simple call to the windows api. give it a try.
Re: (Score:3)
"Distracting" is probably the whole point. Look at the cool video, and not the UI disaster that is the rest of Windows 11. I guess you could also set it to a clip of Homer Simpson thinking of clowns when Marge is talking to him and switch to desktop to accurately mirror your state of mind in a typical Teams call? Can it play the audio too? $deity help the poor bastard that forgets to lock their screen when they leave their desk and falls victim to the very obvious office jape that this affords if so (HR
Re: (Score:2)
macOS has been doing this (using a video wallpaper) by default for a while, and I'm guessing that's what brought this idea to the fore (again).
And yes, it's basically just a pointless, silly distraction - why would anyone want this? Unfortunately (from the OS manufacturers' position) operating systems are pretty feature complete, and basically the only "new shiny" thing they can offer is adding pointless bloat. Oh, also they can actively break things I guess... which always seems to go hand in hand with add
Re: (Score:2)
VLC has done it for a long time too. I tried it once, which was enough.