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Is it possible to have an animated wallpaper for a Windows 7 64 bit computer?
dmr
Posted 2011-08-03T21:34:33.740
Reputation: 245
Animated wallpapers for Windows 7?
Answers
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Windows 7 supports video backgrounds and even offers some samples of their own.
UPDATE new (old) info: Dreamscene requires the Ultimate Edition of Windows Vista. I don't run it myself but had when I used Vista and had conflated memories in my mind. Apologies.
However, you can still install Dreamscene in Windows 7, though it does require registry edits and such: http://windows7center.com/tutorials/how-to-enable-dreamscene-in-windows-7/
This solution will allow you to right-click on .mpg and .wmv files (any video file that will play in Windows Media Player) and select "Set as desktop background" and the video will play on endless loop.
In my experience with Vista, this did not slow the computer down so long as the computer was capable of handling Aero effects easily.
music2myear
Posted 2011-08-03T21:34:33.740
Reputation: 34 957
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Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007
Posted 2011-08-03T21:34:33.740
Reputation: 103 763
It's called dreamscene, that's right, but it's no hack to use it. You can turn any video that is encoded properly, simply by right clicking on it, into a background. The rule of thumb for compatible encoding types is that if the video will play in windows media player, it should work with dreamscene. – music2myear – 2011-08-03T22:01:43.443
@music2myear DreamScene is not part of Windows 7; from my understanding it was dropped after Vista in favour of the new auto-changing wallpaper effect. Is there a way to use/access DreamScene in Windows 7 without doing anything special? – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-08-04T00:09:54.423
If "doing anything special" includes any registry edits, then no. But looking at the guide at the link I pasted in the update to my answer, they're included a package that does the work for you. – music2myear – 2011-08-04T14:06:11.360
Yeah, as I said, Windows 7 doesn't support animated wallpapers inherently, it needs a hack (or a 'package' or 'activator', etc. as also supplied by the links in my answer, just different sites), or a 3rd party utility. The screwy thing is, you aren't really licensed to run DreamScene under Windows 7, it's only for Vista Ultimate. You give up the right to use it when you upgrade to 7. :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-08-04T14:15:10.653
That's true. I ran Ultimate Edition in both Vista and 7 and so sometime forget what other people may not have gotten. – music2myear – 2011-08-04T14:17:21.583
@music2myear - Yeah, same here. :) – Ƭᴇcʜιᴇ007 – 2011-08-04T14:28:46.803
It works!!!! Thank you so much- I really really REALLY like it! – dmr – 2011-08-04T17:34:52.117
It is pretty cool. For me a dark, slightly undulating video with dim splashes of rich colors would make for quite the desktop background if I left this running. – music2myear – 2011-08-04T17:50:30.670