Live Wallpapers for Windows 11: Setup Walkthrough & Free Downloads
Animated wallpapers in Windows 11 aren't natively supported
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Are you bored with your regular background image and would like to switch it up a bit? Aesthetic live wallpapers for Windows 11 should do it for you.
The thing is, Windows 11 doesn’t natively support live wallpapers, but going around that is easy. Follow the steps below to quickly set them up.
Table of contents
How can I set an animated wallpaper in Windows 11?
- 1. Use Lively Wallpaper
1. Download Lively Wallpaper, either from the official page or the Microsoft Store.
2. Install Lively Wallpaper on your device.
3. Open the app.
4. Go to Library.
5. Select one of the pre-existing choices for a live wallpaper.
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.
NOTE
How to download free wallpapers for Windows 11
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:
- In the Lively Wallpaper app, press the plus button.
- If the file you are trying to add is already in your PC, click on the Browse button.
- If you want to make a live wallpaper out of your favorite Youtube video, copy the video’s URL and paste it here.
- Clicking on the More wallpapers button will send you to the Lively Walppaper subreddit.
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.
After doing so, a dropdown menu with all the above-mentioned options will appear and you will be able to make the desired modifications.
Using two displays and want perfect spans or separate images per screen on Windows 10? Follow this guide: How to set a dual monitor wallpaper in Windows 10.
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.
FAQs
Lively animated wallpaper refers to motion backgrounds on Windows that play videos, GIFs, or interactive WebGL scenes on your desktop while staying behind apps and icons.
Yes, a little; expect a small CPU/GPU load that scales with resolution and frame rate. Use pause on battery, lower playback FPS, or stop on full screen to keep gaming and battery smooth.
Install a trusted wallpaper app, open it, pick a video/GIF/HTML scene, then click Set as Wallpaper; enable startup and pause rules, and choose “Stop playback when a game is detected” if available.
MP4 (H.264/H.265) is the most compatible, followed by WebM and GIF for short loops; HTML/WebGL scenes are lightweight and interactive, while high bitrate 4K clips need stronger GPUs.
If you’re on an older Windows version, we have a great guide on how to set up a dynamic wallpaper on Windows 10, so don’t miss it.
To learn more about wallpapers, don’t miss our great guide on wallpaper compression in Windows 11.
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