Windows 11 could bring back an old feature for wallpapers from Windows Vista – and it's about time

• Windows 11 could give you the option to set a video file as your wallpaper
• The option has been spotted in a preview build of the operating system
• It would echo a similar feature that was available in Windows Vista

Windows 11 could give you the ability to set a video file as a wallpaper for your desktop, based on clues in testing.

Windows Central noticed that intrepid leaker, PhantomOfEarth, has again been diving into preview builds of Windows 11 and found the functionality to select a video file as a background.

You can see how it works in the below post on X, which shows an MP4 video being chosen as a wallpaper.

It's possible to use any common video file format (not just MP4, but also MOV, AVI, WMV, and more) and the clip will be played whenever you view the desktop, apparently (not looped over and over, as that could get irritating, no doubt).

Remember, though, this is hidden in testing in current Dev and Beta builds of Windows 11 (and enabled via a Windows configuration utility), so we don't know how it'll work when Microsoft officially implements it in preview – or indeed if it'll ever go live in testing. The idea might simply be abandoned.

The return of an old friend

As the leaker points out, video wallpapers were part of Windows Vista for those who forked out for the Ultimate edition (as part of functionality that was called Windows DreamScene). Video wallpapers have been missing from the Windows recipe for a long time, then, but it appears that Microsoft is at least considering reintroducing this ingredient.

At the moment, if you want a video wallpaper, you're forced to use a third-party app (Wallpaper Engine is commonly recommended, or DeskScapes 11 from Stardock). It'd be nice to have this ability integrated directly into Windows 11, though, rather than having to rely on external software.

Okay, so not everyone wants to have a video background by any means, and already there's some concern being expressed over how much in the way of resources this feature might consume.

That could be a particular worry for those using Windows 11 on a laptop in terms of diminishing battery longevity, but if you don't want to run any such risks, you don't have to use video wallpaper. If this ever arrives in Windows 11 at all, that is, because as noted, Microsoft may yet scrap this idea.

Still, with fancy backgrounds and animations available on macOS – including time-sensitive dynamic wallpapers – and various Linux distros, it seems likely that Microsoft would want to catch up. That said, we've heard rumors about dynamic (AI-powered) wallpapers in Windows 11 before, which have come to nothing, so we'll just have to keep watching those preview builds.

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