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Do you miss when Windows Vista allowed you to set a video to be your wallpaper? It may soon return in Windows 11.
A new change found within some of the latest Windows 11 preview builds lets you upload video files to automatically play on your desktop. The video wallpaper feature was spotted by Phantomofearth on X, before being reported by Windows Central.
The feature was spotted within the latest Dev and Beta builds called 26×20.6690. Most people won’t be able to play with the feature yet, but if you’re on the build you can enable feature ID 57645315, restart explorer.exe and access the feature.
It currently supports video types including MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, and MKV files. The example below is a short video clip in action. It’s unclear what the maximum length supported is.
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The feature only works on the desktop, and it won’t allow you to upload videos for your lock screen.
Microsoft has yet to officially announce video wallpapers, so it’s unclear when it’ll be made available within Windows 11. The fact this has been activated in the latest preview build suggests it may be coming in a future update.
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Playing video on your desktop has been previously possible through third-party tools on various versions of Windows, but this will be the first time Microsoft has had the option built in for almost 20 years.
Windows Vista had a version of video wallpapers called DreamScene. Microsoft then chose to discontinue the feature for its Windows 7 release.
The thing to bear in mind here will be whether it will have a negative impact on your laptop’s battery life, and it may also change performance on desktop computers. We’ll have to wait for an official rollout to know what impact it will have on compatible computers.
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