Frogboy Frogboy

Welcome!

▼

Welcome!

Animated Wallpapers!

from WinCustomize Forums

I remember watching Harry Potter and seeing how pictures in frames were animated and thinking "Wow, this is cool!"

For years, many people have wanted to have animated wallpapers. And for years, developers would try to put something together but inevitably, the results were not acceptable for the target audience.

But now, with Windows Vista Ultimate, things have changed.  Now you can have animated wallpapers that on a modern, high end machine use very little CPU.

Having a good engine to run animated wallppaers, is only half the story of course. You also need to have animated wallpapers that people would actually want to use.  After all, if they're distracting or obnoxious, people won't use them.

For many months now, we've been working with Microsoft on a project to create and provide animated wallpapers to users of Windows Vista Ultimate.

We'll have more details soon.

12,145 views 37 replies
Reply #26 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Excellent! Have a great weekend!

Thank you, this goes for everyone  


I will stick around and enjoy this site


Good...hate to see anyone leave because of a misunderstanding. Reading comments in type is often very "cold" and the true meaning in ones words can be misunderstood. I've put my foot in my mouth occasionally and had to appologize and english IS my native language so i can understand. As you will see there is a lot of help and understanding available here. Good Luck and welcome.   


Nice words and exactly as I would describe it  
any idea if this will ever be available for anything other than Ultimate?   


I cannot answer this question, but this good material should belong to all  



Reply #27 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I could be wrong but I believe Ultimate is the only version that has the capability of running animated walls. Pity as I expect to be using XP for quite some time yet.   
Sins of a Solar Empire: Rebellion
Reply #28 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I could be wrong but I believe Ultimate is the only version that has the capability of running animated walls. Pity as I expect to be using XP for quite some time yet.   


I could be mistaken but this kind of technology is depending on hardware (not software). Max-OSX and Linux are allready capable  
Reply #30 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I could be wrong but I believe Ultimate is the only version that has the capability of running animated walls. Pity as I expect to be using XP for quite some time yet.   


Actually, XP can run active content as wallpaper. I've seen several programs out there that run animated walls in XP. The downside is that they chew up CPU cycles to do so. The ones I tried weren't all that stable unfortunately. The full version of Dreams will reverse that and put the work back onto the graphics card.
Reply #31 from WinCustomize Forums Top

I've seen several programs out there that run animated walls in XP

Ani walls had been a goal since roughly the time a wall could be added to a desktop....long before XP.

Many proggies did it....even Litestep had ways....but the CPU hit was unworkable....[sit and watch...but turn it off if you actually wanted to DO something]...

Reply #32 from WinCustomize Forums Top
sit and watch


Please do.....your 'puter will love you for it......  
Reply #33 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh come on, yrag....without me and my 'puters you'd have no-one to point and laugh at....
Reply #34 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Ya got me there....fixing most people's 'puter problems is work......in your case....it's entertainment   
Reply #35 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I could be wrong but I believe Ultimate is the only version that has the capability of running animated walls. Pity as I expect to be using XP for quite some time yet.   


Actually, XP can run active content as wallpaper. I've seen several programs out there that run animated walls in XP. The downside is that they chew up CPU cycles to do so. The ones I tried weren't all that stable unfortunately. The full version of Dreams will reverse that and put the work back onto the graphics card.


I quote "The full version of Dreams will reverse that..."
Why does everyone believe that only Vista Ultimate is capable of using the GPU's hardware. Linux can do the same. Install Ubuntu and find out!  
Reply #36 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I don't think "everybody" believes that. I haven't read that anywhere. The full version of Dreamscenes will use the GPU more...reversing the CPU cycle usage...I meant what I said and said what I meant. Nothing more, nothing less.
I don't believe I made any comment nor tried to infer that Vista Ultimate is the only OS that can do that. How did you infer that from my statement?
Reply #37 from WinCustomize Forums Top
The word "everyone" is my way of expressing "many people" under certain circumstances, and I hereby confirm and certify that you did not "made any comment nor tried to infer that Vista Ultimate is the only OS that can do that", so everyone must be happy now  
(In this case everyone means in my opinion: the only two of us debating about the word "everyone" in this thread).