Internal testing of native video wallpaper support has been spotted in recent Windows 11 Insider Preview builds. Users will be able to apply video files in widely used container formats, including MP4, MOV, AVI, WMV, M4V, and MKV, as desktop backgrounds. The system will automatically loop playback without requiring user intervention. Video resolution and frame rate will be adjusted dynamically to maintain system stability and resource consumption during playback.
Microsoft previously introduced a similar capability in Windows Vista Ultimate through a feature called DreamScene, which allowed users to replace static wallpapers with video content. Despite positive user reception, the feature was removed after the Vista cycle and never reintroduced in later versions.
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Video Wallpapers in Windows 11
Today, users seeking dynamic desktop backgrounds must install third-party applications. While those software provide some extra features, they often affect resource usage negatively. Native video background support would greatly improve desktop experience, not only by saving CPU and Power, but also by allowing users to select and apply video backgrounds directly through the existing Personalization settings panel, without external dependencies.
However, Microsoft has not released technical specifications regarding CPU, GPU, or memory usage for the new feature. System impact may vary based on video resolution, duration, and hardware capabilities. Battery consumption on portable devices remains unverified, though optimizations are likely to be implemented to minimize power draw during idle or low-activity states.
Currently, interested users can enable the video wallpapers feature with help of ViVeTool. The feature was discovered by trusted insider researcher @phantomofearth, who confirmed its presence in the latest development versions of the operating system. Check out his video:
Windows DreamScene is back! Hidden in the latest Windows 11 Dev/Beta build (26x20.6690) is built in support for setting video files like .mp4 as your desktop background: pic.twitter.com/B4vdtfvqSc
— phantomofearth 🌳 (@phantomofearth) September 20, 2025
Here are the feature activation steps.
How to Enable Video Wallpaper Support on Windows 11
- Download the ViVeTool utility from this link.
- Unzip the downloaded archive to a ViVeTool folder in the root of your C: drive.
- Open Windows Terminal (Admin) by pressing Win + X and selecting the eponymous item.
- In the Terminal, type
c:\vivetool\vivetool /enable /id:57645315and press Enter. - Make sure the command prompt displays the message "Successfully set feature configuration".
- Finally, restart the computer.
No official public announcement has been made by Microsoft. The feature is currently limited to select Insider Preview channels and is not yet available in stable releases. Wider testing among Windows Insiders is anticipated to begin in the coming weeks. If testing proceeds without significant issues, the functionality could be included in a future major update to Windows 11.
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Finally! They should have never removed this!