How to get an animated desktop in Windows 10 with DeskScapes 8. You can pause DeskScapes 8 at any time by right-clicking on the desktop. And you have just a black background, try to log.
Until now I've been using Stardock Deskscapes to maintain the video wallpaper effect I loved back in Vista. Pretty much the only good idea in that ♥♥♥♥ OS. But over the years Stardock has shown a total lack of support for their software.
Minor patches to make it work on a new OS and thats all. Their insistance on a propriatary.dram format all but kills the ability to make your own.
The small community making wallpapers on Wincustomize generates nothing but loud, buys and gaudy looking stuff. THIS program beats the crap out of it in terms of wallpaper selection and simplicity.
The ability to use my own mp4s alone is worth far more than you are charging. Keep up the great work sir.I would suggest however to be very careful with the ability to offer exes via the workshop. I already backed off one that there a virus warning in your app. Delivery of exe based wallpaper may open unknowing users to malware. +1 I would install Wallpaper Engine over Deskscape any day of the week.
So far its been great and working well with a 5 screen multi setup.Depending on the animations in the wallpaper it can get quite resource hungry. The minute you do anything full screen it stops the animation instantly with no delays or problems. It even has the option to pause it, stop the animations or remove the different elements of the wallpapers.I do look forward to seeing what the steam community can come up with as the wallpapers at Wincustomize can add up $$. So far the free ones have all been good quality and there is lots of them, i can only see it getting better.DeVsFaN1830 did point out an obvious problem with the.exe But with good antivirus/malware we should be good. It is something you need to keep in mind.
The 'duh' momentBefore we get started, I should point out the obvious. Using an animated desktop on a laptop, older computer, or even a newer one with lower-end specs is probably not the best idea if you are concerned with battery life and graphics performance. There is no doubt that in using such a setup you could tax your system just to make it look fancy.Of course, if you are running a high-end rig with CPU and GPU cycles to spare, there is nothing wrong with doing this trick. Indeed, I am running it on two Core i5 desktop systems (Intel Skylake) with plenty of RAM and two rather high-end GPUs (an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960 and 970, to be precise).If you want a more accurate estimate having an animated desktop will consume between 6-9% of CPU with an average of around 7 percent. Although that is not terrible, it could constrain your setup if on an older rig. The good news is not only can you pause your animated desktop you can quickly just switch to a static image at any time saving your precious CPU for when you need it.
Why the tutorial?Besides just explaining the basics there is one other issue. DeskScapes 8 gets its name because it is made for Windows 8 systems. It can run on Windows 10 however if you just try to install it you are going to get an error message.
This impediment is very easy to get around, and I'll show you how to get it going. That said, the reason this is not meant for Windows 10 is the app is not optimized for the newer OS and, as such, Stardock cannot guarantee performance or any issues. So do this at your own risk.Let's get started! Animated desktops in Windows 10Before we being, you need to download the DeskScapes 8 installer. The app has a free 30-day trial and costs $9.99 for a single license. Having 30 days to try this app is more than enough for you to decide if you want to justify the $10 price tag.Besides the preinstalled animated desktops within the app, you can also create your own or navigate to the site to download ones the community has made. There are quite a few, so you should find something to pique your interest.
DownloadHead to Stardocks' site and grab the installer. Agree to use the 30-day trial and download. You now have DeskScapes 8 installed on Windows 10. Here are a couple of other tidbits:. You can pause DeskScapes 8 at any time by right-clicking on the desktop and selecting Pause DeskScapes. For multi-monitor setups, you can run DeskScapes on all windows or choose one for each display. For instance, you could have an animated main display with a secondary (and tertiary) monitor running a static image.
Likewise, you could put a different animated wallpaper on each monitor. The choice is yours!. Grab new backgrounds from the site WinCustomize.
![Background Background](/uploads/1/2/5/5/125568080/895081826.png)
Just find the image/animation you want and download to your computer. Double clicking on the download enables it through the app, and you can create a directory to add more. While DeskScapes is running, you may have trouble moving files or folders on the desktop. You can always choose a regular wallpaper through Windows Settings Personalization and then re-arrange your files or folders, then re-enable DeskScapes. Those files or folders are accessible so you can launch apps and open the folders you just cannot re-arrange them when the app is running. Logging off and on again seems to fix the issue.
Deskscapes has quite a few options in it including transparency for your desktop icons, which is an added neat effect that I recommend. If you have a Windows Insider watermark on your desktop, you can read our for a cleaner look. If the app does not enable an animated wallpaper, and you have just a black background, try to log off and back on again then re-launch DeskScapes 8. If running multiple Windows 10 computers, you may want to head into Settings Accounts Individual sync settings and disable Theme. This action prevents Windows 10 from trying to sync your DeskScapes to your other Windows 10 computers, which obviously does not work. DeskScapes 8 can auto-pause when AC power is disconnected meaning you can use this on a laptop with little impactFor those who want the new Windows 10 login screen with the fancy Windows logo and lasers, you can find it on WinCustomize (link below). The theme is made by AzDude, who is one of the most prolific creators on that site.
The version I use is although he has a few variations out there, so try them all and use what you think looks best. Overall, DeskScapes is running rather well on my PC, and I have no issues or complaints. This program is a rather high-end way to customize your PC, but there is little denying that it has a certain wow appeal to it. Whether you will like it and want to pay the $10 is up to you, but at least you now know how to get it on your PC.There is no word if a Windows 10 version is on the way, but we'll keep you posted if we hear anything. More ResourcesRemember that we have many other articles on Windows 10, if you need help you always check these other resources:.