Enable DreamScene Video Wallpaper in Windows XP and non-Ultimate Vista
Windows DreamScene (also Motion Desktop) is a nice extra feature that plays high definition video content or movie as desktop background with animated wallpaper instead of static graphic (video demo). Unfortunately, Microsoft only offers the feature to Windows Vista Ultimate users for free download. But it’s not impossible for Windows Vista Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, Enterprise and Starter edition users, and for those Windows XP user who do not want to upgrade to Windows Vista to set a video as animated desktop wallpaper. Here is a trick to use an alternative method to create DreamScene wallpaper effect in non-supported Windows.
To set and play a video as wallpaper in Windows XP, Windows Vista Home Premium, Home Basic, Business, Enterprise and Starter edition:
- Download and install VLC Player for Windows.
- Run VLC Media Player, go to Settings -> Preferences, expand Interface and click on wxWidgets. In the bottom right corner of “wxWidgets interface module” window, click on “Advanced options” to show advanced settings. Then uncheck the Taskbar check box in order to remove VLC Player title from the taskbar while the program is running. Check Systray icon if you want to enable Systray (system tray or notification area) icon instead.
- Next, expand Video -> Output Modules and then select Direct X. In bottom right corner of DirectX Video Output window, check the Advanced Options check box in order to see all the settings available.
- Check and tick the “Enable wallpaper mode” check box.
- Then, select Playlist and then check or tick the Repeat current item checkbox.
- Press “Save” button when done.
- Open and play any video that you would like to set as motion wallpaper in VLC Media Player.
- If the video hasn’t yet been set as desktop background, right click on the video and click on “Wallpaper”.
- The video or movie will be set as if it’s DreamScene motion desktop background wallpaper.
If you do not configure VLC Player to repeatedly play current media in loop, you can still do so after playing the video. Simply click on View then select Playlist. Highlight the video media content that is playing and click on Repeat One or Repeat All button as shown below to loop the video for non-stop video wallpaper.
Looping the animated wallpaper
Note that the video must be encoded in a video format supported by VLC Player such as MPEG, AVI, MP4, WMV, FLV (Flash Video) and etc. Else you will need to convert the video clip to the supported format.
Here is a video showing how to set the video to start the “DreamScene” in Windows XP, and the relatively low system resources and memory that been used for the effect.
Share and contribute or get technical support and help at My Digital Life Forums.
Related Articles
- How to Set a Video as a DreamScene Background Wallpaper
- Glowing Vista Orb Button DreamScene Wallpaper Preview
- Set Dream Scenes Videos as XP Background Wallpaper with BS.Player
- Windows Vista Ultimate DreamScene Preview Enable for Download via Automatic Updates
- Beautiful Vista Dream Scene Desktop Video Wallpaper with Nature Theme
- Windows DreamScene Content Pack Free Download
- Enable Windows DreamScene Audio and Sound
- Windows DreamScene Free Download for Windows Vista Ultimate
- WindowsUltimate.com Portal Live for Windows Vista Ultimate Edition
- Trick for Vista DreamScene to Support and Play DivX and XviD AVI, RMVB or Other Video Formats
Entries (RSS)
March 29th, 2007 22:09
wxWidgets? there is no wxWidgets in vlc here
March 29th, 2007 22:22
waza, it’s under the Interface tree.
March 30th, 2007 06:21
Ultimate :(((
March 30th, 2007 21:11
I run apps in full screen too much to enjoy anything DreamScene. :-/
April 5th, 2007 18:18
[...] If you’re not using Windows Vista Ultimate, but want to experience DreamScene, try the workaround to DreamScene here. [...]
April 20th, 2007 08:50
i cant seem to get the video to play on my background, i have vista premium and i checked/unchecked everything that was written. Plus the wallpaper button doesnt appear when i right click on the video i chose. PLZ help, i would really like this feature to work on my pc.
April 23rd, 2007 01:19
thing is u have to fire it up urself, u cant get this to load automaticaly with windows. but its realy nice uno. i like it!
April 25th, 2007 14:50
Hmm… its a pity it cuts out for a second before it loops, is there any way to fix this? I know that media player classic doesn’t cut out but it doesn’t have the wallpaper option…
May 9th, 2007 16:30
[...] as motion desktop or video animated desktop wallpaper. Other than VLC Player which can be used to display a video as desktop background in Windows XP/2003/2000, Mac OS X, and Linux variants operating system, the free BS.Player also [...]
May 10th, 2007 10:07
[...] Anytime Upgrade just for DreamScene. There’re alternative programs in VideoLAN’s VLC Player and BS.Player that can be used to set video as desktop background wallpaper, however, this is a [...]
May 17th, 2007 12:21
[...] Let’s have a look at how to do it, thx to mydigitallife: [...]
September 21st, 2007 15:46
fuck this not working
November 9th, 2007 23:03
why if i hit the refresh the video wallpaper disappear?? can i run this vlc at startup so it will automatically be open when i turned on my computer like the one that is in vista??
I want a reply plssss
November 27th, 2007 23:06
[...] edition (only Ultimate edition supports DreamScene, or else go for DreamScene alternative with third-party players), has turned on and enabled Windows Aero Glass theme, and the graphics card (GPU unit) fulfills [...]
November 29th, 2007 04:04
somebody help pls. - stuck on STEP 8…
can’t see any ‘Wallpaper’ option when i right click on the video ?
how do i apply the video as the wallpaper ?
managed to get video working on dreamscene…..
thanks - mave
November 29th, 2007 08:59
Try to use BSPlayer instead.
November 29th, 2007 13:12
Thanks.
Is ‘BSPlayer’ one of the options from ‘VLC Player for Windows’ link ?
November 29th, 2007 19:03
It’s a program like VLC.
http://www.mydigitallife.info/2007/05/09/set-dream-scenes-videos-as-xp-background-wallpaper-with-bsplayer/
January 21st, 2008 20:01
You can also use a html-page (with embedded windows media player). Under Windows XP you can set *.html files as background like any other wallpaper (e.g. *.bmp, *.jpg), so no additional software is required. To create such html-files there is a freeware Tool called XPScene (free download at ).
January 24th, 2008 04:50
thank you I found it ^_^
February 6th, 2008 06:20
How do you set it so that when your computer starts to run it just comes on automatically? Is this possible?
February 8th, 2008 08:29
Everytime I start a video my color scheme keeps switching to vista basic. It says that vlc is not compatible with Aero. What can I do to fix this?
Thanks.
February 8th, 2008 21:41
@matthew: .. automatically run on startup? with vlc, no. with xpscene, yes (by default). there is a nice tutorial on youtube how to use xpscene http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7w3JapEYKj8. hope that helps.
June 1st, 2008 05:26
didn’t work for me. vista home premium. managed to check all options as outlined but no wallpaper and no wallpaper option on right click either.