How to Set Live Wallpapers on Your Windows 11 Desktop

Bring your desktop background to life with an animated wallpaper

by Alexandru Poloboc
Alexandru Poloboc
Alexandru Poloboc
News Editor
With an overpowering desire to always get to the bottom of things and uncover the truth, Alex spent most of his time working as a news reporter, anchor,... read more
Affiliate Disclosure
  • You can apply a live wallpaper to your Windows 11 PC.
  • This requires third-party software to also be installed, because there isn't a built-in option yet.
  • Follow our guide and you will be done in no time.
Windows 11 live wallpaper
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Are you bored with your regular background image and would like to switch it up a bit? Say no more!

Just in case you didn’t already know, there is a way you can actually set live wallpaper for your Windows 11 device, as you previously did with Windows 10.

However, this is not an operating system option, and you will have to get some third-party software in order to get it working.

How can I set an animated wallpaper in Windows 11?

At the moment, you can only set a live wallpaper on your Windows 11 device using the third-party app called Lively Wallpaper. You can select one of the default live wallpapers available in the app to use as your desktop background.

That being said, let’s get right into it and show you what steps you need to take for this whole thing to work properly.

1. Download Lively Walpaper, either from the official page or the Microsoft Store.

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lively MS store

2. Install Lively Wallpaper on your device.

install lively wallpaper

3. Open the app.

4. Go to Library.

5. Select one of the pre-existing choices for a live wallpaper.

lively app

6. Click on the three-dotted button to open the menu.

7. Multiple options will appear. Select Set as Wallpaper.

8. The live wallpaper you selected is now on your desktop.

These steps are basically what you have to do in order to have a live, animated wallpaper, even if you are using Windows 11.

It’s a fairly simple process but it will take some minutes of your time, so it’s best if you don’t try to do it while you are in a rush.

First things first, as we mentioned above, you will need to download and install Lively Wallpaper. You can do so directly from their site, or you can also find it on the Windows 11 Store.

Can I add more live wallpapers to the app?

We know that it’s hard to please everyone, so if you are not at all happy with the current selection provided by developers, you can add more wallpapers with just a few clicks. Here’s how:

  1. In the Lively Wallpaper app, press the plus button.add more wallpapers
  2. If the file you are trying to add is already in your PC, click on the Browse button.select file
  3. If you want to make a live wallpaper out of your favorite Youtube video, copy the video’s URL and paste it here.url live wallpaper
  4. Clicking on the More wallpapers button will send you to the Lively Walppaper subreddit. reddit wallpapers

You can also tweak certain aspects of your new live wallpaper, such as saturation, hue, brightness, contrast, gamma, or speed. How can you do that you ask?

Well, easier than one might think. In the Lively Wallpaper app, just right-click on any wallpaper and select Customize.

windows lively wallpaper customize

After doing so, a dropdown menu with all the above-mentioned options will appear and you will be able to make the desired modifications.

windows customize options

There you go! Now you are all set to set up your first Windows 11 live wallpaper. This is great news for many early adopters, as they weren’t sure if this software will also be compatible with the new OS.

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