How To: Use Video Wallpaper Without Dreamscene

By Jeffrey | May 15, 2007

By now you’ve probably heard of the Dreamscene addition to Vista Ultimate - and Home Premium and Business with this patch - and how it allows video to be used as wallpaper.

If not, here’s a short video:

Pretty cool, no?

However, if you’re still among the many who are still using XP - myself included - you can join in the fun, too.

This guide will show you how.

What You’ll Need

Before you can watch your own desktop twist and shout you’ll need these:

• VLC Media Player - Available here.
• Dreamscene Videos - You can use any video you choose, actually, but the ones from Dreamscene are among the best available. You can download them from here.

Step 1 - Initial Setup

Go ahead and install VLC, I’ll wait. The default installation settings will work fine.

Done? Ok, now change your desktop wallpaper to None, like so:

Why? Well, using a wallpaper takes up memory, so if you’re not going to be seeing it at all there is no sense leaving it hidden.

Now open up VLC that you just installed.

Mute the audio, like this:

This way if you decide to use any videos that contain audio you won’t have to constantly hear it playing.

Now head over to Settings > Preferences. Click the + sign next to Video, then Output Modules and select Direct X. Now on the bottom right check the box that says Advanced options.

In the new options list that appears check the box that says Enable wallpaper mode.

It should looks like this:

Now on the left click on Playlist. On the right select the option box that says Repeat all, like this:

Click Save and you’ll return to the main VLC window.

Now try playing a video, your desktop should display the output!

We’re not finished yet, though.

Step 2 - Remove From Taskbar

If you’re not going to be accessing VLC all the time you’ll probably want to free up some space on your taskbar.

To do that, head back to Settings > Preferences. This time, select the + sign next to Interface, then Main interfaces, then wxWidgets.

On the right, deselect the box that says Taskbar, and select the box that says Systray icon.

Now close VLC, and re-open it. Attempt to minimize the window and it should now settle nicely in your system tray.

Step 3 - Select The Video

This is done outside of VLC.

Right-click on the shortcut icon to VLC and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab you’ll find the Target input box. This is where we need to specify the video file.

Find the exact path to the video you want to use and input it after the program path, like this:

“C:\Program Files\VideoLan\VLC\vlc.exe” –open=”Path To Video”

Make sure that the path to your video is in quotes and exactly correct. Mine looks like this:

“D:\Program Files\VLC\vlc.exe” –open=”D:\Documents and Settings\Dewey\My Documents\My Videos\Video Desktop\vid8898.mpg”

Now click on OK and it will close the window.

Try opening VLC again and it should automatically start playing your video as the wallpaper!

Step 4 - Load With Windows

If you want it to truly act as your wallpaper you’ll need to have VLC load with Windows.

This is a simple step and only requires you copying the VLC shortcut to your Startup folder in the Start Menu. Make sure that you copy over the same shortcut that you just edited above!

You’re Done!

That’s it! Now you should have video playing as your wallpaper, just like in Dreamscene.

Here’s what mine looks like.

I apologize for the video quality, but video capture programs don’t capture video being played at the same time so I had to resort to a manual method.

But…

There are a couple drawbacks to this method, though, so I feel it fair to point them out.

• VLC Is Tied Up - This method only allows you to use VLC for this technique. I use the K-Lite Codec Pack for playing video files anyway, so this is not an issue for me.
• Changing The Video Is A Pain - There are no ways around this, at least that I have easily found. You just have to edit the shortcut each time you want to change the video. If you’ve found another way to change this, please let me know!
• Interface Appearing - Every time you load VLC you’ll need to manually minimize the window, then click Hide Interface under its icon on the System Tray. As of yet, I have not found a way around this.

Final Thoughts

If you have any thoughts or suggestions you’d like to add, please let me know!

And if this guide helped you out, please consider donating to SavvyGeek by clicking the button on the sidebar.

Topics: Guides |

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