Enable DreamScene in Any Editions of Vista or Windows 7

Posted by ADMINISTRATOR On 21 June 2010 No Commented

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Windows DreamScene was a utility available for Vista Ultimate that allowed users to set video as desktop wallpaper. It was dropped in Windows 7, but we’ll take a look at how to play DreamScenes in all versions of Windows 7 or Vista.

Downloading DreamScenes

The download links are provided below.
Right-click on the .exe and select Run as administrator.
Click on Enable DreamScene.
This will also restart Windows Explorer if it is open.
Then right click any video and choose “Set as desktop background”.

An alternate way is by using VLC Media Player:

Using VLC Media Player

Users of all versions of Windows 7 & Vista can enable a DreamScene using VLC. Recently, Since DreamScenes are in MPEG or WMV format, we will use the same tactic to display them as desktop wallpaper. We’ll just need to make a few additional tweaks to the VLC settings.

You’ll need to download and install VLC media player if you don’t already have it. You can find the download link below. Next, select Tools > Preferences from the Menu.

Select the Video button on the left and then choose DirectX video output from the Output dropdown list

Next, select All under Show Settings at the lower left, then select the Video button on the left pane. Uncheck Show media title on video. This will prevent VLC from constantly showing the title of the video on the screen each time the video loops. Click Save and the restart VLC.

Now we will add the video to our playlist and set it to continuously loop. Select View > Playlist from the Menu.
Select the Add file button from the bottom of the Playlist window and Add file.
Browse for your file and click Open.

Click the Loop button at the bottom so the video plays in a continuous loop.

Now, we’re ready to play the video. After the video starts playing, select Video > DirectX Wallpaper from the Menu, then minimize VLC.

If you’re using Aero Themes, you may get a pop-up warning and Windows will switch automatically to a basic theme.

If looping one video gets to be a little repetitive, you can add multiple videos to your playlist in VLC and loop the entire playlist. Just make sure you toggle the Loop button on the playlist window to Loop All.

When you’re ready to go back to your old wallpaper, maximize VLC, select Video and click DirectX Wallpaper again to turn it off the video background. Occasionally we were left with a black screen and had to manually change our wallpaper back to normal even after turning off the DirectX Wallpaper.

Note: Keep in mind that using the VLC method takes up a lot of resources so if you try to run it on older hardware, or say a netbook, you’re not going to get good results. We also tried to use the VLC method in XP, but couldn’t get it to work. If you have leave a comment and let us know.

DreamScenes from Dreamscene.org

DreamScenes from DeviantArt
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Download VLC media player

Windows 7 DreamScene Activator

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