AwesomeWallpaper: How to Put a Video as Desktop Wallpaper

Customizing our desktop is a basic and essential action. After all, we are going to spend many hours looking at it, and at least it should show something pleasant. Windows 10 lets us place images and galleries, but if you have thought about putting a video as the desktop wallpaper, you will need the help of AwesomeWallpaper, a free and portable program that will add more color and movement to your screens in a couple of clicks.

If I remember correctly (and I hope some reader can correct me if I'm wrong), Windows Vista was the first to experiment with animated desktops. Unfortunately, the processing cost was too high for most computers at that time, and no matter how "nice" the result was, the system became a sedated snail. Of course, Windows Vista didn't need any extra help for that, but the desire for "a video as wallpaper" never completely disappeared.

Some users achieved it through shell replacements and other secondary tools, and with Windows 10 among us we can say the situation hasn't changed much, but the resources that enable that effect are simpler and less invasive. One of those resources is AwesomeWallpaper, designed by a Russian developer known only as "AlexanderPro".

How to put a video as desktop wallpaper

The global modes of AwesomeWallpaper are four: present an "overlay" with detailed and updated system information (the program allows modifying the update frequency), place static images, galleries, or a video played in loop. AwesomeWallpaper offers more advanced controls than Windows 10, especially regarding alignment and transparency adjustment.

In the specific case of a video, all you have to do is specify its path, set Auto Play and Repeat Video to "True", and keep both alignments in "Center". The Stretch parameter depends on video resolution: if it matches perfectly the native resolution of the screen, the ideal would be to use "None", otherwise, you have to play a bit with "Fill" (which in my tests worked very well), or with the rest of the options. Videos also support audio playback, and format compatibility extends to MP4, MP3, MPG, MPEG and AVI. As if that were not enough, AwesomeWallpaper can use all our monitors.

AwesomeWallpaper is free and open source, but it has two special technical requirements: Windows 10, and at least the version 4.6.1 of .NET Framework. If someone thinks they can make it work on previous versions, they just have to request a pull of the code.

Official site and download: Click here