Microsoft digs up Vista-era animated wallpaper for Windows 11. Here's how to get it

Debuted in 2007, an old feature is coming back

hands on If you're tired of staring at the same old static wallpapers in Windows 11, there's help on the way. Microsoft has just added support for animated video backgrounds in the latest Insider builds of its popular operating system, heralding their likely appearance in a production update soon.

The hidden capability, which was first spotted by feature-finding guru phantomofearth, works with any MP4 or M4V video file and adjusts it to fill your screen. When I chose a video I had shot in portrait mode, the system cropped my video so that it would take up my entire 4K monitor, without skewing the image.

There seems to be no practical limit on the size or length of videos. I played through an entire 4K 60 fps nature video that was five and a half minutes long and close to 1 GB in file size. You could probably watch a whole movie as your desktop wallpaper, but you wouldn't have any sound or captions.

If you're a student of Windows, you may recall that Vista had a feature called DreamScene back in 2007, which allowed users to designate WMV or MPG files as wallpapers. That capability was disabled in Windows 7, which instead offered a simple slideshow that carried into Windows 8.

There are some third-party apps, such as Lively Wallpaper, that add animated backgrounds to Windows. But having functionality built in is usually preferable to installing an extra piece of software.

How to enable animated wallpaper in Windows 11

For now, Windows support for moving wallpaper requires running a Beta or Dev channel Insider build, using the ViVeTool to enable a hidden feature, and knowing how to select the appropriate video file to make it happen. Note that you'll need Windows build number 26220.6690 (for Dev channel) or 26120.6690 (for Beta channel) or higher.

If you're not a member of the Windows Insider program, which lets you preview Windows 11 features before everyone else, you can join for free by navigating to Settings->Windows Update->Windows Insider Program and then selecting your Microsoft account and which Insider channel you wish to use. We recommend going with the Beta channel as this is the least likely to cause performance or stability problems.

Join the Windows Insider Program - Click to enlarge

After you've joined the Insider program and your computer has run an update, which could take 10 to 30 minutes, you can check your build number by using the Winver command. Just hit Windows key + R and enter winver to make sure you are on the right build.

Winver - Click to enlarge

Once you are on a current Beta or Dev Insider build, you'll need to use the ViVeTool, a free command-line utility that enables hidden Windows features, to turn on animated wallpaper. First, download the ViVeTool and unzip it to a folder you can easily access - I put mine in C:\vive.

Then open an elevated command prompt by searching for cmd, right clicking the top result, and selecting Run as administrator.

Launch cmd as an admin - Click to enlarge

Navigate to the folder that has ViVeTool in it. In my case, that's C:\vive.

cd \vive

Run ViVeTool and set it to enable feature ID 57645315.

vivetool /enable /id:57645315

Using the ViVeTool to enable animated backgrounds in Windows Insider builds - Click to enlarge

Then restart your computer or restart Windows Explorer. Navigate to Settings->Personalization->Background. You can get there by right clicking on your desktop and selecting Personalization and then clicking Background.

Right click and select Personalize - Click to enlarge

Select Picture from the Personalize your background menu. Note that, in our experience, we had to select this even if it was already selected to get the animated wallpaper to work the first time we tried.

Select Picture from the Personalize Your Background menu - Click to enlarge

Click Browse photos and select an MP4 or MKV file from your internal storage drive. Any video file will do, but if you want a nice nature, urban, or abstract scene, I recommend downloading an MP4 from Pexels, a free online library of moving wallpapers.

Click Browse photos and then select your video file - Click to enlarge

Once you close the Settings window, you should now see your new animated wallpaper. It will remain on in a continuous loop until you change it.

Getting animated wallpaper without the latest Windows build

If you want animated wallpaper and you don't want to install a Windows Insider build, a third-party tool can make it happen. I recommend Lively Wallpaper, a free and open source utility, which is available in the Microsoft Store.

After you've installed and opened Lively Wallpaper, you're shown a list of 12 desktop wallpapers that are preloaded. These are actually more advanced than a standard animated wallpaper because they change and show colors based on where you move your cursor.

Lively Wallpaper - Click to enlarge

To add an animated wallpaper of your own, first click the + button.

Click the plus button to add your own video wallpaper - Click to enlarge

Then click Choose a file. And select the MP4 or other video file you want.

Then click Choose a File - Click to enlarge

Enter a title and description or just leave them at the defaults and hit Ok.

Enter a title and description and then click Ok - Click to enlarge

You'll have to wait a few seconds while the video processes. Then it will become your background wallpaper and will also be available as a permanent entry in the program's library of choices.

Note that the animations only work so long as Lively Wallpapers is running. Clicking the close button on the app minimizes it to the system tray. But if you do close it from within the tray, you'll return to whatever wallpaper you have selected in Windows Settings. ®