Windows customization is one of the aspects that is increasingly being taken into account by users. Every time we install our operating system, one of the first things we do is configure its appearance to our liking. The desktop background is something elementary, because it is the image that we will always have in the foreground. In general, we usually choose a static background, as Windows by default does not allow us to add other types of content. However, this is where other types of applications come into the picture, such as Wallpaper Engine, developed for extreme customization of the wallpaper.
Windows 10’s ability to personalize isn’t as powerful as you’d expect. In addition, it does not allow by default to make certain changes although there should be no inconveniences to carry them out. One of them is the possibility of displaying an animated wallpaper showing whatever we want.
Bring your desktop background to life with Wallpaper Engine
Wallpaper Engine is a Windows-compatible application whose main objective is that we can customize our computer’s wallpaper to the extreme. This program will allow us to have maximum control over it, considerably improving what Windows offers us in terms of customization. We can use all kinds of wallpapers, whether they are static, dynamic or interactive with movement and sound. The latter can be animated (2D and 3D), include applications, videos, web pages, etc., playing in real time.
The program has an extensive gallery where you can download all kinds of static, dynamic or interactive backgrounds , which can be customized, changing colors, effects or animations. It is compatible with multi-monitor configurations, so we can use it on more than one screen, supporting sizes from 4: 3 to 21: 9. In addition, it is compatible with Steam Workshop, so we can create our own wallpapers and share them with the community. We can even choose a video that plays in the background, as it supports most of the known formats, although the files must be local.
Wallpaper Engine is optimized to adapt to the performance of our PC , stopping automatically when we are playing or when we use applications maximized on the screen. In this way we guarantee that we can have a high performance of the system when we need it. It should also be noted that this application supports LED hardware support, being able to take control of the Corsair iCUE and Razer Chroma RGB, matching the LED lighting settings with our wallpaper.
Customize the desktop background to the maximum
Using Wallpaper Engine is quite simple, because once it is run it will always be in the background in the taskbar. When locating its icon and clicking on it, a contextual menu will appear with the different options that we have available.
Set a wallpaper
Surely the first thing we are going to do is change our wallpaper, so we must click on the Change Wallpaper option at the top. Next, a new window will appear where we can select our favorite background. These funds can be by favorites, name, latest uploads, size or subscription. If we click on any of them, it will automatically be applied and placed as a desktop background. Likewise, a thumbnail view will appear on the right side, allowing us to configure the color of the Start menu, task bar and window borders.
By default they are synchronized with the colors of the image, but if we wish it is possible to configure it to our liking. If the result is not as expected, we can always leave it as it was, by clicking on Restart.
Make adjustments to funds
If we click on the gear button at the top, a window with the Settings menu will appear. Here we can make modifications about the reproduction of the background and the quality of each one. For example, we can choose what action we want the program to perform on the background when other applications are focused, maximized or run in full screen. We can adjust it by indicating whether we want it to continue running or to be paused.
In the Quality section we can make adjustments regarding the quality of the funds, which can be low, medium or high. We can also configure Anti-aliasing, the resolution at which they are displayed and the FPS at which it moves.
Within the General tab we can establish that the program runs when Windows starts. This can affect a slower start of the system, but when starting we will have available the background that we have configured. We can also configure the audio output and some audio options such as the graphics API, the loading and the speed of the video.
Create Wallpaper
This program also allows us to create our own wallpapers from the menu hosted on the system bar in the Create Wallpaper section . This will bring up a menu to choose from if we want to select a scene, a video or a website as the wallpaper, as well as a tutorial that we can access from Steam.
In the event that we choose a scene, it can be both in 2D and 3D. This background can be empty, have animated oceans, windows, animated GiF, or in the form of a flood of water. From there we will have to import images with a resolution equivalent to that of our monitor to start creating them from the editor.
How to download Wallpaper Engine
Wallpaper Engine is a paid application, so we must acquire its license to be able to use it, which has a price of 3.99 euros . To buy it we must do it through the Steam platform, which will cause it to be downloaded on that platform and will always be associated with our account, being able to use it on any computer where we have Steam installed. In addition, thanks to its compatibility with Steam Workshop, we can have access to thousands of funds created by the community that we can download and use. What is not possible is to download a trial version, so if we want to try it, it will be necessary to go through the box.
The requirements to be able to enjoy this application on our PC are not too high, although we must take into account where the best performance we will obtain will be with the configuration recommended by the developers:
- Operating system: Windows 7 (with Aero), 8.1 and 10.
- Intel i5 1.66 GHz processor or equivalent (2.0 Ghz Intel i7 or equivalent recommended).
- Memory: 1024MB RAM (2048MB RAM recommended).
- Graphics: HD Graphics 4000 or better (NVIDIA GeForce GTX660, AMD HD7870, 2GB VRAM or better recommended).
- Storage 512 MB available space (1024 MB storage).
- DirectX: Version 10 (recommended version 11).
Other alternatives to customize the wallpaper
In the event that Wallpaper Engine does not convince us or we do not want to pay for its use, we can choose other alternatives with which to customize the background of our computer.
WinDynamicDesktop
It is a free application that will allow us to change the wallpaper depending on the times of sunrise and sunset according to our location. The program will automatically change the color of the theme that we choose, adapting it to sunlight. It has 13 themes to choose from and it also allows us to import our own background from our PC. We can download it from the Microsoft Store.
Lively Wallpaper
This software has been developed to turn our static desktop into a desktop with a dynamic and animated background. The program will allow us to convert videos (MP4, MKV, WebM, AVI and MOV), GIF, emulators, HTML and web addresses. It has a preloaded library of animated images that we can use for our funds. We can download it for free from the Microsoft Store
