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

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 …

[original_rwg]

I don't use Windows 11 and I'm probably never going to but perhaps if Mircos~1 were to focus their efforts on making the software people need to use more reliable and less buggy, then maybe superfluous drivel like this might be better received.

[Neil Barnes]

Whaddo we want? A return to simple hierarchical menus!

Whaddo we get? Moving backgrounds...

[blu3b3rry]

They give us pointless shit like this, yet won't let us move the taskbar to the side or top of the screen.

What a joke.

[steviebuk]

And took them forever to bring back small taskbar icons.

[Zenubi]

Stardock $6 !

Any menu ever. Stable / chap.

So easy and its not lie linux people don't use tweak Sofware!

Or you can just whine in places like this.

[Anonymous Coward]

Came here to shout this comment (admittedly I was going to say move it to the side to make best use of an ultrawide).

[Anonymous Coward]

It would be fun to let this duke it out with Recall and see which one can abuse my SSD more.

[Sampler]

It was about the only feature I quite liked in Vista, I used to have a HTPC back then and it looked quite slick having a running waterfall as the wallpaper - vista media centre actually looked quite polished too and the epg one of the nicest I've seen to this day.

I mean, I get the rest is hot garbage and most of MS stuff is, but, you know, that one little light in the dark, even if frivolous.

These days I just rock a chromecast as that's enough for plex in 4k so no need to waste the watts on a HTPC anymore, so, no use for it now, but I liked it then.

[simonlb]

Popular? Operating System?

..."of its popular operating system"

Only because a few hundred million can't avoid it and would probably avoid if it they can. I'd also disagree about the OS part as a proper OS is usable and doesn't keep getting in the way.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Popular? Operating System?

I agree. XP was popular (after Sp2, Sp0 was a blue-screen bugfest), Win 7 was popular (after Sp1!), Win10 was popular (after 2017!). Win11 was never popular, still unliked by most due to its SLOW, inefficient and limiting UI.

Edit: There is a choice: Server 2022 (on all my machines except one) or Server 2025 (this is that one, switched my main machine last weekend, first fresh install since end of 2011). that actual "pro" version now.

[Sudosu]

Re: Popular? Operating System?

As a long (long) time Windows desktop user I would highly recommend that it is worth some of your time to fire up a "friendly" Linux build and give that a shot.

Of course this completely depends on what you are doing with your machines so take that with a grain of salt.

I dumped all my Windows desktop builds, even on my gaming machine, for Bazzite; which I am now a super fan of as it is very simplified and good for a daily driver.

To be forthcoming I did use a separate physical drive for Bazzite so I could revert back if things did not go well but Bazzite still remains default in the boot order.

Now that I think of it, If I ever have to go back into Windows I'm going to lose half a day on updates :)

Also, after a recent drive failure on my media player hooked to the TV, I moved it from Ubuntu to Mint for a change of pace, and because the install was way smaller than Ubuntu on the soldered in hard drive.

I have to say Mint (I went with Cinnamon) is pretty slick looking now too compared to the last time I tried it half a decade back.

After a couple months now, living with Linux desktops, for my use cases at least, is a great fit, plus it was a fun adventure to see if I could migrate over successfully.

PS - I don't think I had to drop to the CLI to do any of the setups.

[Col_Panek]

Re: Popular? Operating System?

By that criteria, my OS is popular.

[An_Old_Dog]

No Distractions, Please

Human vision processing is optimised for motion detection.

Moving computer wallpapers would drive me batty.

[xyz]

well at least it'll...

give users something to watch as the thing updates itself daily.

[nematoad]

Re: well at least it'll...

...your computer has run an update, which could take 10 to 30 minutes,

What are they doing?

I can install a complete Linux distro in that sort of time-frame. And from what I have heard Windows can decide to update when it wants without user interaction.

Is that true?

Because if it is, then why would anyone put up with it?

[David 132]

Re: well at least it'll...

“And from what I have heard Windows can decide to update when it wants without user interaction”

And reboots itself without user confirmation, even if there’s unsaved work, yes.

And Windows users just seem to accept this.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: well at least it'll...

The one side complains about Microsoft not putting enough effort to push security updates, the other side has no problems waiting for more than a year to even reboot after the update has been installed. You think the latter cannot happen? I still see it in the Server world (Linux and Windows), uptime over a year, waiting for reboot after update. And yes, I log into a linux and get the message "System restart required", quite often combined with the extra info that the kernel was updated 380 days ago. On Windows Server you have more control too and can delay it forever, especially after the loud screams when Server 2016, fresh after release, rebooted without asking. As Hyper-V host or Hyper-V cluster. Was fixed by MS fast, well for the Server 2016, since that did cause a lot of expensive damage MS had to pay for.

[DJO]

Re: well at least it'll...

I'd give you even odds that the video pauses while the system is updating itself.

[The Oncoming Scorn]

Re: well at least it'll...

I'd give you even odds that the video pauses while the system is reporting what you are watching back to the mothership.

Even worse if Clippy gets in on the act "It looks like you are trying to w**k*, would you like some help with that"

FTFY

*OR

[Sudosu]

Re: well at least it'll...

Especially if DRM is detected.

[fluffymitten]

But...

...why?

[Rich 2]

It’s good to see….

…that MS are focusing on the REALLY important parts of their joke of an OS

[jokerscrowbar]

If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - for ever.

[David 132]

But at least the boot this time around has nice translucency effects and rounded corners and can update itself as necessary.

[Uncle Slacky]

...and it's been renamed the Torment Nexus!

https://knowyourmeme.com/memes/torment-nexus

[DarkwavePunk]

Confused...

Who actually sees the the Windows desktop (other than at boot up) these days? I thought everyone ran programs full screen.

[Ken Hagan]

Re: Confused...

Not me, since I generally have several apps running, but I still have relatively little of my desktop visible. This "feature" feels like a "because we can" with a disturbing side-order of "because we aren't allowed to spend our time doing things that aren't so visible, such fixing bugs".

[jlturriff]

Re: Confused...

Oh, yes; I run all of my apps' windows full-screen on my ultrawide monitor.

Really, I wonder why anyone would do that (except for a few occasions where it is warranted for a moment).

[Dan 55]

Nothing can go wrong here

Certainly not an exploit which replaces the desktop background with a video of the attacker's choosing.

[a_foley]

As someone with ADHD...

...this is just worthless and distracting, and I already have enough distractions on my desktop and the final thing I would've needed is this cruft.

[that one in the corner]

Maybe MS want to keep the User entertained

Whilst Copilot gets on with doing their job for them?

(In their dreams, that is)

[Marty McFly]

Bloat

Microsoft continuing to prove their OS is bloated and filled with detritus from years of garbage features. When was the last time this code was checked for vulnerabilities?

Anyone want to bet this has been in Windows codebase all along and was simply never removed? Someone just added a 'hidden' switch to turn it back on.

[Graham Lockley]

A feature nobody wants is added to an OS nobody wants ? Seems OK to me.

[PRR]

> ...having functionality built in is usually preferable to installing an extra piece of software.

Why??

And everybody is so dead-set against MS Win11, why would I want MORE MS crapware on my machine?

And yes, I remember in the dawn of Win311 somebody brought a screensaver to the office. A dozen copies installed overnight. A dozen machines locked-up solid every morning and lunchtime.

[Fruit and Nutcase]

After Dark

Not that I had After Dark, but quite liked the tropical fish.

Icon: A Penguin come looking for lunch

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Class Action needed

Against Microsoft for the time they steal from us by the default delay they set on Menu expansion (everytime that's 400ms you are never going to get back), and the extra cost of electricity for the unnecessary effects and animations. Multiply the time and cost of the interactions across hundreds of millions of more Windows users, it's a lot of waste.

Do the animations add value? It's a bloody Operating System that allows the end user to do something useful with the computer - the OS should be invisible/irrelevent.

This is being written on a Linux distribution with Mate Desktop replacing the default Gnome 3 on this distribution - unfortunately, the ailment is not confined to the Microsoft Desktop Development["User Experience/UX"] Team.

A pox on the lot of theml, including mobile, TV - basically everything these days with a screen - the other day, I saw a NEFF oven with a touch screen display - when it is switched on, there is an animation and accompanying "startup sound" - and again, robbing time while the damn thing goes though that "startup"

[X5-332960073452]

Re: Class Action needed

Well, you could not wait and click instead, saves, what, 200ms

I actually like a little delay in some menus, especially websites, move just wrong, and get completely different menu !!

[jlturriff]

Re: Class Action needed

Well, theoretically it allows the end user to do something useful.

(I really wish that IBM would allow me to run an image of VM/XA or VM/ESA (now obsolete compared to z/VM) in a virtual machine, but the only "freeware" version is one that doesn't have Xedit or CMS Pipelines, so is crippled. I was 200% more productive on the IBM Zseries OSes than I have been since retiring and moving to toy computers.)

Want a text editor that can be truely automated, as opposed to having keystroke record/playback "macros"? Xedit. In fact, Xedit can be used to write whole full-screen applications, not just edit text, and its macro language, Rexx is so much more programmer-friendly than emacs' Lisp.

Want a pipeline processor that can split and merge record flows, allowing one to modify different flows different ways, then merge them for output? CMS Pipelines. (Okay, NetRexx provides an NRX Pipelines clone, but it doesn't implement many of the CMS Pipelines features.)

I (daily) miss my mainframe productivity tools...

[Fruit and Nutcase]

Marquee

When Windows started to ship with a stock set of standard screensavers, I used to configure machines I setup with the Marquee screensaver set to a black background with the text being a single hyphen/dash in 32 or 48pt Ariel font, random vertical height.

Apart from the random vertical element, the intention was to create the effect of a flat lined heart ECG/EKG, or oscilloscope without a signal

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Marquee

Just tested: ssmarquee.scr from Server 2003 (x64 if you want). Just extract from the service pack for Server 2003 R2 (x64). Copy into System32. Still works and appears on the list. The NT 3.51 variant works too, but you may want a screensaver which can handle multiple monitors. And that came with Windows 2000.

[Jou (Mxyzptlk)]

Re: Marquee

PS: There is even the Mermaid font you mentioned!

[Jimjam3]

Animated wallpaper is old

I had animated wall paper in 1993 using Caldera Linux on a 486!

M$ really are running out of ideas.