- A former Microsoft designer showed off some dynamic wallpapers
- These were reportedly intended for Windows 11 23H2
- Microsoft has apparently abandoned this idea, and also the concept of fancy AI-powered wallpapers.
If you were hoping for fancy ‘live’ wallpapers to come to Windows 11 – and they may be, according to some past rumors – then I have bad news for you.
It seems that so-called live or dynamic wallpapers, adorned with subtle animations and effects to give them a touch beyond the average desktop background, were once planned for Windows 11, but that is no longer the case.
Windows Central became aware of the fact that a former Microsoft designer from the Windows team, Sergey Kisselev, shared some alleged images of these dynamic wallpapers.
Kisselev explains that: “A variety of dynamic animations and still images were explored for Microsoft’s low-cost devices, aimed primarily at educational users.”
As Windows Central’s Zac Bowden tells us, dynamic wallpapers have been spotted in pre-release builds of Windows 11 in the past, and Bowden believes they were supposed to be introduced with Windows 11 23H2. Of course, that never happened and, according to another person who weighed in on this topic, it never will.
The Verge noted that Albacore, a well-known
That definitely seems to indicate that Microsoft has scrapped the idea.
“Have they already been discarded?” Yes. The (unfinished) components for this actually shipped with Windows 11 version 22H2 and 23H2, but were removed in 24H2. The same system component also powers AI and depth effect enhanced wallpapers. Everything interesting is destined to be canceled https://t.co/YNmEDBLve2January 2, 2025
It’s not just the wallpapers being streamed here, potentially aimed more at educational customers, as noted.
You may also remember that it looked like Microsoft had nifty AI-powered wallpapers in the works, with fancy parallax effects, but Albacore points out that the system component that was scrapped also drove this feature. In other words, this idea isn’t happening either: no fancy wallpapers for you Windows 11 users.
Analysis: disappointment at the desk
If you were hoping to make your desktop come alive in a meaningful way with cool wallpapers, then it looks like you’re out of luck.
Worse yet, the look at what the former Microsoft designer might have provided shows some really clever backgrounds (which notably align with Windows 11’s new design scheme of having the Start menu in the middle of the screen by default) .
So we can only dream of live wallpapers for Windows 11, unless Albacore is wrong somehow or Microsoft backs down (the latter seems unlikely). If you’re disappointed, maybe Windows 12 (or whatever the successor OS is called) will give you the dynamic wallpapers you crave.
For now, however, Microsoft’s dynamic background plans seem to have hit a wall—a bland, brick wall—and are going nowhere. If you want a live background on Windows 11, you’ll need to go the third-party app route.
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