Microsoft's Windows 10 offers users many ways to customize the OS. Indeed, we have a rather large article detailing all the methods by which you can make Windows 10 yours. One throwback style has an animated desktop. Indeed, yesterday you may have seen my Instagram video showing one in action featuring the famous Windows 10 logo from the new login screen.
Today, I'll show you how you can do the same using a third-party app called DeskScapes 8 from Stardock!
A video posted by Daniel Rubino (@daniel_rubino) on
The 'duh' moment
Before we get started, I should point out the obvious. Using an animated desktop on a laptop, older computer, or even a newer one with lower-end specs is probably not the best idea if you are concerned with battery life and graphics performance. There is no doubt that in using such a setup you could tax your system just to make it look fancy.
Of course, if you are running a high-end rig with CPU and GPU cycles to spare, there is nothing wrong with doing this trick. Indeed, I am running it on two Core i5 desktop systems (Intel Skylake) with plenty of RAM and two rather high-end GPUs (an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 and 970, to be precise).
If you want a more accurate estimate having an animated desktop will consume between 6-9% of CPU with an average of around 7 percent. Although that is not terrible, it could constrain your setup if on an older rig. The good news is not only can you pause your animated desktop you can quickly just switch to a static image at any time saving your precious CPU for when you need it.
Why the tutorial?
Besides just explaining the basics there is one other issue. DeskScapes 8 gets its name because it is made for Windows 8 systems. It can run on Windows 10 however if you just try to install it you are going to get an error message.
This impediment is very easy to get around, and I'll show you how to get it going. That said, the reason this is not meant for Windows 10 is the app is not optimized for the newer OS and, as such, Stardock cannot guarantee performance or any issues. So do this at your own risk.
Let's get started!
Animated desktops in Windows 10
Before we being, you need to download the DeskScapes 8 installer. The app has a free 30-day trial and costs $9.99 for a single license. Having 30 days to try this app is more than enough for you to decide if you want to justify the $10 price tag.
Besides the preinstalled animated desktops within the app, you can also create your own or navigate to the site WinCustomize to download ones the community has made. There are quite a few, so you should find something to pique your interest.
1. Download
Head to Stardocks' site and grab the installer. Agree to use the 30-day trial and download.
2. Compatibility Mode
The trick to running the app on Windows 10 is to use compatibility mode. This feature is an old function from previous releases, and it works well here for the installer. Right-click on DeskScapes8_cnet-setup.exe and choose Troubleshoot Compatibility.
3. Troubleshoot Program
You should be presented with two options. Select the second one Troubleshoot program.
4. Earlier version
Next, choose the first option The program worked in earlier versions of Windows but won't install or run now from the menu. Hit Next to proceed.
5. Version choice
On the next menu, select Windows 8 and hit Next.
6. Test it
Next, choose Test the program… This part is where it gets tricky. Normally, the program just launches, and you can then proceed with Next. However, this is an installer we are running so you should see a blinking Windows shield ( User Account Control ) icon appear in the taskbar.
Note that it won't be an active window so you could miss it if you are not looking for it. Click on it and agree to let the installer run.
7. Install
Now you can finally install the program to your computer. During the process, you will be asked if you optionally would like to install Decor8 , another Stardock app. I advise against this only because the app is to customize the old Start Screen in Windows 8 and is not very relevant for Windows 10. Make sure you have the box unticked, and the proceed.
8. 30-day Trial
Stardock lets you try DeskScapes 8 for 30 days. However, you still need to register and let the app verify the trial to begin. The process is simple only requiring an email and a verification link. This action starts the trial period. Although not as convenient as just using a non-phone-home program Stardock likely does this to cut down on piracy, so cut them some slack.
Exit Compatibility
It should be noted that once you hit Test the program… you ran the full app installer. As such, at any point you could just hit Cancel on the compatibility mode window as we already got what we wanted. Still, if you did not do so, you can now hit Cancel. There is no need to re-run using Next.
A video posted by Daniel Rubino (@daniel_rubino) on
That's it! You now have DeskScapes 8 installed on Windows 10. Here are a couple of other tidbits:
- You can pause DeskScapes 8 at any time by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Pause DeskScapes
- For multi-monitor setups , you can run DeskScapes on all windows or choose one for each display. For instance, you could have an animated main display with a secondary (and tertiary) monitor running a static image. Likewise, you could put a different animated wallpaper on each monitor. The choice is yours!
- Grab new backgrounds from the site WinCustomize. Just find the image/animation you want and download to your computer. Double clicking on the download enables it through the app, and you can create a directory to add more
- While DeskScapes is running, you may have trouble moving files or folders on the desktop. You can always choose a regular wallpaper through Windows Settings > Personalization and then re-arrange your files or folders, then re-enable DeskScapes. Those files or folders are accessible so you can launch apps and open the folders you just cannot re-arrange them when the app is running. Logging off and on again seems to fix the issue.
- Deskscapes has quite a few options in it including transparency for your desktop icons , which is an added neat effect that I recommend
- If you have a Windows Insider watermark on your desktop, you can read our other tutorial on how to get rid of that for a cleaner look
- If the app does not enable an animated wallpaper, and you have just a black background, try to log off and back on again then re-launch DeskScapes 8
- If running multiple Windows 10 computers , you may want to head into Settings > Accounts > Individual sync settings and disable Theme. This action prevents Windows 10 from trying to sync your DeskScapes to your other Windows 10 computers, which obviously does not work.
- DeskScapes 8 can auto-pause when AC power is disconnected meaning you can use this on a laptop with little impact
For those who want the new Windows 10 login screen with the fancy Windows logo and lasers, you can find it on WinCustomize (link below). The theme is made by AzDude, who is one of the most prolific creators on that site. The version I use is Windows 10 v1 (link) although he has a few variations out there, so try them all and use what you think looks best.
Overall, DeskScapes is running rather well on my PC, and I have no issues or complaints. This program is a rather high-end way to customize your PC, but there is little denying that it has a certain wow appeal to it. Whether you will like it and want to pay the $10 is up to you, but at least you now know how to get it on your PC.
There is no word if a Windows 10 version is on the way, but we'll keep you posted if we hear anything.
More Resources
Remember that we have many other articles on Windows 10, if you need help you always check these other resources:
Last Updated on April 24, 2019
Hey everyone! As part of our ongoing series on Windows 10 hacks, today we are going to show how to get rid of your typical static wallpapers. From now on, you will be able to have animated GIFs as your wallpapers.
If you’re here, you may have already realized that Windows 10 itself doesn’t support GIFs as desktop wallpapers. Therefore, we will download a third party program to do this for us. We will be introducing two different programs: BioniX and Plastuer. They do almost the same thing but BioniX is free while Plastuer costs a small amount of money. (you pay any amount you want with minimum 2 USD). If you pay that sum you get a friendlier interface and software that’s a little easier to use. Let’s start with our Free choice, Bionix.
What is BioniX?
BioniX is a pretty cool free program which manages your wallpapers. In it you can:
- Create a playlist of wallpapers (which can include GIFs) to change between.
- Decide how often the change will be made.
- Decide whether the order of wallpapers will be decided randomly or whether they switched according to the order you decided.
- Plus many other features, but we’ll focus on the features above for this article. We encourage you to play with the program, it’s fun and pretty easy to use.
How to download BioniX?
Go to http://www.bionixwallpaper.com/downloads/Animated_GIF_Wallpaper/gif_wallpaper.html and click on Download it now.
How to install and use BioniX?
- When you finish downloading the program, double-click on the setup file to start installing it.
- Set your installation directory from Browse (The default location is C:BioniX Wallpaper), you can leave the default if you’re not sure what to do here and then click Install.
- After the installation is done, click Ok to accept the License Agreement.
- Choose the Full user interface and then click Close (You will be able to change that later so no worries).
- Click Ok.
- Now to focus on adjusting your settings, you should click the Stop button to stop any automatic wallpaper changes for the moment.
- In the Playlist tab, click the Clear playlist button in order to remove all the imported media files from you computer.
- Now you have a clean playlist, drag and drop the GIF wallpaper into the blank playlist (you can actually add more than one and the program will switch between them automatically – see next step).
- Adjust the timing in case you have more than one wallpaper in your playlist and then click on the Play button to start the wallpaper timer. If you don’t press the play button then it won’t automatically change the backgrounds. Click on the ‘Shuffle mode‘ checkbox if you want to be surprised by the order of the background changes.
- Also let’s adjust the wallpaper size from its tab. Many choices are available there: you can use the original size of the wallpaper, you can also choose to fit and fill it. If you plan to use the fill option then you can adjust the maximum enlargement you want. Beware that small GIFs can get pixelated when enlarged.
- If you would like to add some online wallpaper/s from a specific website, there’s a way to do so. Also there is a special tool to get wallpapers from Flickr. You can do both of these things from the Tools menu as shown below.
- Also if you want to control which monitor(s) you want to manage using the program, open the Monitor tab, set each monitor by number and then click Apply.
- Click on the Start button to start the whole thing.
- Here you are. Your GIF wallpapers will now work perfectly as long as the application is running. Note that minimizing the application will not exit it while Close will.
- If you want to stop your GIF wallpaper’s animation or maybe return control of the wallpapers to Windows, right-click on the BioniX icon and choose Close BioniX.
What’s Plastuer?
Plastuer is another solution to make your GIF wallpaper work, it’s available as PWYW (Pay What You Want) with a minimum of 2 USD. We have tried it ourselves and it’s almost the same as BioniX but we found its interface more friendly and elegant.
How to download Plastuer?
- Go to http://plastuer.com/ and scroll down until you reach the bottom of the webpage and input the amount of money you would like to pay with a minimum of 2 USD and then click on the Buy now button.
- Now enter your personal email because after you finish the PayPal transaction, they will send you the download link. Click Confirm.
How to run and use Plastuer?
If you noticed, we said “run and use” without mentioning installing, and that’s because Plastuer doesn’t need any installation, it’s a portable program which requires no installations to work.
In general, the user interface is pretty easy and it takes you step-by-step. We really liked how smoothly it went. Let’s take a look:
- Right-click on the downloaded zip file and choose Extract all.
- Choose the location where you want to extract this file and then click Extract.
- In the extracted folder, double-click on Plastuer.exe to launch the program.
- We will begin by selecting the monitors we would like to control via Plastuer.
- Click Select File to choose the GIF you want to set as your desktop wallpaper. If you want to add the GIF URL directly because you don’t have it on your local computer, just paste it in the top bar and go so step 7.
- Browse to the GIF’s location, select the wanted GIF and then click Open.
- Now, click Save.
- Choose the wallpaper layout and the background color that might appear behind the GIF.
- Now you have set your wallpaper, but back to step 5 and let’s Create a Playlist.
- You can now browse and select the wallpapers you want to add to your playlist and you can past a URL and the program will add the online wallpaper to the playlist immediately.
- Don’t forget that you will have to choose the layout and the background color for every wallpaper you add.
- After your playlist is ready, click Save.
- Choose the location where the playlist will be saved, give it a name and then click Save.
- Click Save to start working using your playlist.
- Determine the duration of each wallpaper in the playlist and whether to shuffle or to stick to the order. This can be done through the checkbox. Now click Save.
- Finally the program offers some free wallpapers in its gallery, if you want to choose among them, go to the main menu and click Browse Gallery.
- You can now choose from a variety of wallpapers.
- That’s it. Your GIF wallpapers will now work perfectly as long as the application is running. You can make sure it’s running in the bottom-right corner of your screen. You can also skip the current wallpaper to the following one by right-clicking on the icon and choosing Change wallpaper.
In my previous article, I had written an article aboutWindows 10 Skins. And, In this article, you will know about a new way to customize Windows 10 desktop. Here, I am talking about GIF Wallpaper Windows 10. Though, Windows doesn’t allow users to set GIF as Wallpaper. Even, if you try to set GIF as Wallpaper. Then, Windows will set a single frame from the GIF File. But still, with some third-party software you can set a GIF as your background.
GIFs are the good way to customize Windows Desktop. But, it will use some resources to make it work. By resources I mean, CPU and RAM. And, if you’re using a laptop. Then, laptop battery will drain fast because of GIF backgrounds. So if you have an old laptop or PC. Then, don’t try GIF desktop background in windows 10. Else, it will affect on your Computer performance.
But, if you want to give an attractive look to your Windows. And, Own a high performance Computer, then this article is for you.
What is GIF?
If you’re reading this article, then maybe you already know about GIF. But, still there are few things which you need to know about it. Graphics Interchange Format is known as GIF. It is an bitmap image format, that support 8 bits per pixel for each image. GIF format allows a single image to use up-to 256 different colors. From the 24-bit RGB space. GIFs also does supports animation, that can use 256 colors for each frame.
The best part is GIF format uses a lossless data compression. Which reduce file size of multiple images included in GIF. But, doesn’t compromise with quality. If above information is little bit complicated for you. Then, you can understand GIFs with this simple definition. Basically, GIF contains a group of images. These images keeps changing in loop, one after one. It is completely different from the slideshow or Windows 7 theme. But, trust me GIF will enhance your desktop look.
Contents
- 1 GIF Wallpaper Windows 10.
- 1.1 BioniX Wallpaper. ( GIF Wallpaper Animator.)
GIF Wallpaper Windows 10.
BioniX Wallpaper. ( GIF Wallpaper Animator.)
BioniX Wallpaper or GIF Wallpaper Animator is free software, to show animated GIF file, as animated GIF Wallpaper. It does support with GIF and AVI Wallpapers. Best part is this software does use very low RAM (approx 0.02 GB) and low CPU. GIF Wallpaper Animator works with all version of Windows (XP, 7, 8 and 10). And, you can install it on your USB Drive. And, can use it without installing on your HDD.
IMPORTANT– You can install this program in your USB Drive or Pen-drive. Or, can install it in your HDD. If you just want to check how GIF wallpaper Windows 10 looks on desktop. Then, don’t install it on your HDD. It creates trouble while uninstalling it.
Download BioniX Video Wallpaper Animator.
* Visit to the following link and under download section click on “link” hyperlink text. (File Size – 3.50 MB)
http:// www. bionixwallpaper. com/downloads/Animated_GIF_Wallpaper/index. html (remove space from the link)
(In the site, you will get option to download BioniX Desktop Background Switcher. That comes with GIF / Video Wallpaper Animator. But, instead of downloading complete package. I suggest you to download wallpaper animator program only.)
Software Installation.
1. After downloading Video Wallpaper Animator setup run it as administrator.
2. Now, setup will ask you to choose destination folder. If you’re using USB Drive, then select the drive. Else, don’t make any change. Just click on install button.
3. BioniX Wallpaper Animator program automatically will get open after installation.
Download GIF from GIPHY.
Now, you need a GIF image to import into this software. So that you can set GIF desktop background. There are various source to download a GIF image. You can even download GIFs from Google. But, GIPHY is the main source of GIFs. So, here is the way to download GIF from GIPHY.
1. First, open GIPHY site and search for the GIF that you want to download. For example – search ‘download’ keyword.
2. Click on the GIF that you want to download. On the right side you will get media option click on it.
3. Click on copy button from the source to copy the source link. Mount and blade warband how to become king.
4. Open copied link into new tab. And, GIF will get open into new tab.
5. Now, you have to edit the copied link.
EXAMPLE– Original copied link
Replace giphy.gif with the random name. For example cat.gif
new link will look like this –
6. Open edited link into new tab. Right-Click on GIF, and then click on “save image as”.
7. Now, in the save as window, select desktop and then click on save button. That’s it. Now, we are going to set GIF Wallpaper Windows 10 as desktop background.
How to set a GIF as your background windows 10.
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1. Open BionX Video Wallpaper Animator. Click on folder icon. And, select the folder in which you have downloaded GIF images.
Also, from the all selected formats section select GIF option.
2. That’s it. Now you will able to see all available GIF in the select folder.
3. Select the GIF that you want to set as GIF Wallpaper Windows 10.
4. Click on start button.
That’s it. now check your Windows 10 desktop. And, you will able to see GIF as your desktop wallpaper.
- With Animated GIF Wallpaper software. You can also able to control frames of GIF image.
- To set GIF image on the complete desktop screen. Select “full screen magnification” option. And, again click on start button.
- To remove GIF and set old desktop background. Just, click on the stop button.
- If you have installed the software into your HDD. And, now unable to uninstall it from Control Panel. Then, first delete software folder from installation directory. After that, you can easily uninstall it from control panel > uninstall a program.
GIF Wallpaper Windows 10 – Summing up.
Gifs As Wallpaper Windows 10
So, this is the easiest method to set a GIF as your background. There are some other software to do the same. But, those software are paid. That’s why I am not mentioning those software in this article. BioniX wallpaper animator is the best way to set GIF as your desktop wallpaper. You just need to drop GIF into it and click on the start button. If you know about any other better software then, feel free to comment.