Have a Video Wallpaper as Desktop Background

5 April 2007 66 Comments

Windows Vista will have a feature called Dreamscene which will allow us to have a video as a desktop background . Dreamscene will only be available to the people using Windows Vista Ultimate but for people using Windows XP , there is also a way . And that is VLC player . VLC player has a built in feature that can allow you to have any video as a wallpaper . All you have to do is the following things

1) Open VLC and check whether Wallpaper mode is enabled

Goto Settings->preferences->video->output modules->Directx

Just select the advacned option box and you will get the following window as shown below , enable the wallpaper mode , now when you run your videos and right click on it , you will see a wallpaper option .

Select the enable wallpaper option

2) Now to remove VLC from your taskbar go to

Settings->preferences->Interface->Main Interfaces->wxWidgets and uncheck the Taskbar option.

Deselect the Taskbar option

3)Now all we have to do is loop your videos , go to

Settings->preferences->playlists and you will see the required option .

This will work on most of the versions but i recommend you to use the latest version of VLC . I tried it on Windows Vista Ultimate but i got a black screen as a wallpaper which was probably due to some issues with Aero , so if anyone gets it to work in Vista , do comment about it .

via VistaRewired

In VLC for Windows Vista Home you also have to change the “Video output module” to “directx” mode, to enable the “Wallpaper” option in VLC. To do that open the settings dialog and select -> Video -> Output Module (enable “advanced settings”) and change video output module from “default” to “directx output module”.

Go to Playlist and select Repeat current item to loop it.

It is still has issues but it might work after trying the above!

Cheers!

# 9 July 2008 at 3:48 pm

arun said:

i tryed vlc but there is black screen on my xp so wat should i do know

# 19 July 2008 at 3:41 am

govee said:

hi
i have enabled option “Enable wallpaper mode”
but i could not set any video as a wallpaper.
i tried that hard but hard Luck !
i’ve got VLC 0.8.6i(latest version).
plz tell what to do?

one more thing is that when i put my cursor on “Enable wallpaper mode” the caption pop up like
“Note that this feature only works in overlay mode and desktop must not already have a wallpaper”.
what does that mean—>overlay mode?

plz tell what to do as i am raring to do this.

# 28 July 2008 at 6:30 am

govee said:

how could u do this ?

# 29 July 2008 at 3:56 pm

Anonymous said:

I have gotten it to work in vista. Some videos give me a black screen but some of them work great as desktop backgrounds, I haven’t figured out what parameters makes it work or fail though. Thanks for the info.

# 30 July 2008 at 5:35 am

tom said:

i also have set up the enable wallpaper mode in vlc
i run on vista basic as is
but when i right click i still dont get teh option for wallpaper.
govee seems to have the same problem as me
^^
and i think we need to remove our desktop backgrounds but dont know how please help i would love to do this
in the mean time i’ll go make my super video

# 31 July 2008 at 2:12 am

tom said:

sorry to be so rude wanted to add

other than that it is a great guide love the pictures and all nice work

# 31 July 2008 at 2:13 am

Madhur Kapoor (author) said:

@Tom
which version of vlc are you using ?

# 31 July 2008 at 8:04 am

Clumpen said:

At first it wouldn’t work for me, but, after following HappyPizza’s instructions, I got it working…

it seems that in vista home premium 32bit it won’t work if there’s any ransparency in your theme… cuz I had a “basic” theme that still ahd some transparency and it wouldn’t work but as soon as I changed to a completely opaque theme(like taskbar, start menu etc) I started to work.

I didn’t realize it was working untill I saw that the video size was expanded to full screen so I just shrank down my VLC player and it was running in the back ground.

Thanks for the walkthroughs and especially to happypizza for giving further instruction for us problematic vista users…

here’s a compilation of the exact steps I used…

Settings->preferences->video->output modules->Directx
-check advanced options in bottom right corner
-check enable wallpaper mode

Settings->preferences->interface->main interface->wxwidgets
-make sure you’ve checked advanced options in bottom right corner
-uncheck taskbar and check systray icon
(so… embed video, size to video and systray are all checked)

Settings->preferences->playlist
-check repeat current item (I’m not sure if you can do it with multiple files by checking repeat all)

Settings->preferences->video->output modules
- change the option from default to DirectX Video Output

Settings->preferences->Audio
-uncheck enable audio to disable sound

now try the right click thing and see if there’s a wallpaper option, if there is then you’re done. if not, continue on.

go to your desktop, right click and go to personalize->window colour and appearance and change to a Windows Vista Basic theme with no transparency.

now try the right click thing and see if there’s a wallpaper option. it should be there now.

then, after that it seems that I can now change back to my theme with transparency and it works…(note after changing themes it show the wallpaper picture and you have to go back into VLC and chech and uncheck the Wallpaper thing in the right click)

yes I know I said it won’t work with transparency at the beginning, but it seems to work now… so… I guess that’s windows for you… I love windows, It’s like opening a present everytime!!! You never know what you’re gonna get, lol.

oh, and I got bored and tested it with the loop all thingy and it doesn’t work for me so far so… no light on that front… anyhoo… good luck with getting yours to work.

to the guys who’se steps I stole in compiling up this list.. sry but it was only to help make it easier for others… hope ya understand, no harm intended if any comes from my recompiling these steps… and sry for rambling…

# 5 August 2008 at 8:37 am

dan said:

followed instructions above but the video won’t repeat for me. and yes i did the following step:
Settings->preferences->playlist
-check repeat current item (I’m not sure if you can do it with multiple files by checking repeat all)

But when the video it ends it goes back to my regular pictured background. i don’t get it.

# 23 August 2008 at 6:21 am

MARKO said:

Am i the only one that can’t get the background going. i tried using every VLC version that i could find but it just wont work > PLEASE if u had issues on Vista x64 Business please send me some instructions for my problem…..
My MSN : kara-bg@hotmail.com
THANKS….

# 28 September 2008 at 9:46 pm

MARKO said:

if anyone wanted to help me i managed to fix the problem tanks in any case

# 28 September 2008 at 9:59 pm

X said:

NONE of this shit works! I have a Vista… I don’t get the Wallpaper on my screen, at ALL… and what exactly do you right-click on, anyway?

# 28 September 2008 at 11:23 pm

MARKO said:

X chill out if u have a vista try the uper blog by Clumpen i did as h sad an it works just be patients

# 28 September 2008 at 11:25 pm

hardish said:

anyway you can script vlc to load a video on startup?

# 2 October 2008 at 2:57 am

The Best ‘How To’ Guides On The Blogosphere | webzaurus said:

[...] How To Have a Video Wallpaper as Desktop Background by Madhur [...]

# 8 October 2008 at 5:10 am

venkat said:

We can also take screenshot of playing videos in WMplayer by pressing CTRl +I

# 24 October 2008 at 6:49 am

me said:

How do i get the wxwidgets option to appear?

# 20 January 2009 at 6:30 am

bobman said:

that is awesome!

# 11 February 2009 at 7:15 am

OdoroboujohnJohn said:

Happypizza are you a rocket scientist W.^V I got up and running all thannks to you!!!!

# 21 February 2009 at 2:50 am

Yoyo said:

You also need to make sure you have “View Desktop Icons” selected otherwise it doesn’t work

# 22 February 2009 at 3:34 am

Malena said:

thanks for the info on the scripts.

# 1 March 2009 at 10:08 pm

Michael said:

I have VLC and I did all the steps as it said. Then, when I go to the DirectX Wallpaper button, it is grayed out. I can’t click on it. Any one know how to fix this?

P.S. I have VLC 0.9.8a

# 24 March 2009 at 10:31 pm

uribe said:

How do you save the video as Background??? Everytime I close VLC Program the video wallpaper close to..

# 26 March 2009 at 10:11 pm

Name (required) said:

Done everything like you explained.
My desktop just goes black and that’s it.
(I have WinXPProSP3 and an nvidia 7 series graphics board, if that helps.)

# 1 April 2009 at 9:31 pm

Name (required) said:

Actually, the VLC wiki advises you to “deactivate overlay”.
I did not know what that was and found a solution:

“ok, Just go to preferences, then go to the bottom left corner and click on all (its in a box that says show settings) then you just click on the item “video” on your left (should be the last item) then on your right it should say on the top “general video settings” go down till you find “overlay video output” and uncheck it, then you can also click on the little triangle (or “+”) that’s next to the item called “video” on your left then click on output modules and on your right should be a drop down list, choose one that you think is the best (usually directx or open gl works fine)”

It’s still not working though. ):

# 1 April 2009 at 9:50 pm

ming said:

i tried all the steps i even downloaded the 0.9.8 version i have vista ultimate but non of the steps worked..what should i do?

# 20 April 2009 at 7:19 pm

Need Help! said:

I tried this, but once the video was done, the screen went to an image as a background. How can I continuously loop the video?

# 3 June 2009 at 7:59 pm

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