No matter how beautiful a static wallpaper is, it will be boring for mobile phone/computer users after a long time. Although you can increase the amount and change frequency of wallpapers, it is still not so cool and visually stunning as using GIF, video and other dynamic resources as a desktop wallpaper.

On Android phones, setting up an animated background is a very simple process, as this feature has been integrated into all Android app launchers. On Windows, you can’t use GIFs, videos, or Web addresses as dynamic desktop wallpaper by default (Windows Vista’s DreamScene function is an exception). Even the latest Windows 10/11 doesn’t offer this feature. They include a variety of settings to change the look of desktop and application, but that’s only limited to the theme (wallpaper + style + color).

When it comes to live wallpaper/desktop, many users will think of the famous Wallpaper Engine. Of course, this is a dynamic desktop wallpaper edge tool that makes your desktop look as cool as possible. Undoubtedly, it’s the best of its kind. Because its wallpaper resources are the most abundant and cool. Unfortunately, it is not only available for a fee, but also requires third-party apps like Steam and WeGame to run.

Lively Wallpaper (Lively for short) is currently the best free and open-source animated/multimedia desktop wallpaper & screensaver application for Windows 10+, developed by rocksdanister (Dani John) from India (written in C#). It is considered the best alternative to Wallpaper Engine. Their features are basically the same, but Lively Wallpaper is already better in many ways. For example, it can run on its own (no Steam or WeGame client installation is required), and it has a smaller file size, less system footprint, better and more stable performance.

Lively Wallpaper supports a wide range of live wallpaper sources, including GIFs, local and Web videos, Webpages, Shaders, 3D applications, small Unity/Godot games, game emulators, and more. Even better, it automatically pauses when you run a full-screen app or game (i.e. 0% CPU and GPU usage) without affecting the performance, and restarts when you switch back to the desktop, very user-friendly. Lively Wallpaper is able to do this because it uses the Chromium open-source platform to load HTML files, JavaScript, WebGL, and other Web technologies supported by Google.

Lively Wallpaper builds in more than 10 sets of carefully made dynamic desktop wallpaper, allows to custom settings of various desktop properties, supports mouse interaction to change the effect, perfectly supports for multi-screen display, and you can use wallpapers made by others, or create your own. In addition, although Lively Wallpaper’s dynamic wallpapers library is not rich and mature now, it is compatible with Wallpaper Engine’s video package files, which can be used directly in Lively Wallpaper.

// Key Features //

Feature	Description
Videos / GIFs	Powered by mpv / vlc player. Customize videos with filters. Hardware Acceleration supported. Supports integer scaler for sharp image.
Webpages	Load HTML file or web address as wallpaper. Runs webgl, javascript.. basically anything that works on chrome. Audio Reactive Wallpaper support.
Shaders	Run GLSL shaders in browser. Custom shader renderer (coming soon.) Shadertoy.com urls are supported as wallpaper.
Games & Applications	Support Unity, Godot games as wallpaper. Limited support for gui applications as wallpaper.
Screensavers	Lively supports Windows screensaver. Any wallpaper can be used as screensaver. Multiple monitor supported.
Automation	Lively can be controlled with command line arguments from terminal. Can be paired with third party scripting software like AutoHotkey.
Lively API	Powerful set of API for developers to create interactive wallpapers. Get system information, audio graph, music information.
Taskbar Customization	Several system taskbar theme : Clear, Blur, Fluent. Can adapt taskbar color based on live wallpaper color.
Performance	Wallpaper playback pauses when fullscreen application/games run on the machine (~0% cpu, gpu usage). Set wallpaper playback rules based on running foreground application. Can be set to pause wallpaper when running on battery power (laptops.) Wallpaper automatically pauses when running remote desktop session.
Multiple displays	Supports any number of monitors. Wallpaper adjusts automatically to monitor settings change. Span single wallpaper across all screens. Duplicate same wallpaper across all screens. HiDPI and Ultrawide resolutions supported.
And more	Easy to use; Just drag’n’drop media files & webpages into lively window to set it as wallpaper. Hardware accelerated video playback, powered by mpv player. Interactive webgl wallpapers, powered by lightweight chromium engine Cef. Windows 10 fluent design, native windows theme. Efficient, Lively is a native .net core application. Fully opensource & free; no blackmagic, no features behind paywall. Supports converting any wallpaper to video via screen recording.

// Official Demo Videos //

// System Requirements //

• Windows 10+
• DirectX 10+

// Prompts //

• Any cool application comes at the expense of high system resource usage.
• Lively Wallpaper is designed to run on low-resource devices, but you’ll get the best results on powerful PCs.

// Download URLs //

License	Version	Download	Size
Freeware	Latest	(mir)	n/a

(Homepage | GitHub)