I always want to play with my Windows XP ( I am also using Vista Ultimate as dual boot) and like to exploit different features. When I started using Windows Vista Ultimate, I was spelbound to see the DreamScene feature of Vista Ultimate. Suddenly an idea came into my mind why not have this Ultimate feature in Windows XP and here I will guide you how to perform this simple tricks in Windows XP.

First a brief introduction about DreamScene feature for those who are still ignorant about it. This is a special feature in Vista which is available only on Windows Vista Ultimate (Apart from that Bit Locker is another feature in Vista Ultimate). This is not a built in feature but available as a download only to Windows Vista Ultimate through Windows Update. With the help of this it is possible to give life to still boring wallpaper on the PC. Yes you can set moving wallpaper and that too set your favorite videos as wallpaper. So the video alongwith the sound will be running as the desktop background. Huh…such a cool feature. Not to forget this feature requires sophisticated hardware like WDDM capable Graphics and obviously much touted Aero feature being enabled (if you have Vista Ultimate then you definitely have both of them).

That was a brief introduction about DreamScene. So now I will provide a couple of workaround to bring that feature in Windows XP albeit it is not exactly porting DreamScene to XP, you will have almost similar effect. We do not need to spend a buck to have this feature running in Windows XP nor do we need any sophisticated hardware or Aero feature. We can use VLC player, BS Player or GT Ripple program to achieve this feat.

Using VLC player:

Download and install VLC player, one merit of this player is that it can play virtually any format without the need of a codec. It can also be installed without administrative right, just change the default path (C:\Programfiles) to something like C:\XXX\VLC where XXX is any folder in C drive. Now do the following steps to run the video in a loop without any interference:

- Open VLC player, click on Settings >>Preferences and expand Interface and Main Interface and click on xWidgets. Click on Advanced setting from the bottom right of the window and uncheck Taskbar. This will remove the VLC player from appearing in the taskbar.

- Click on Video from the left pane and make sure disable screen saver is selected. Expand video option and Output modules option, seelct Direct X and from the right pane check enable wallpaper mode.

- Select Play list from left pane and check repeat current item option from right pane.

- Click on Save.

Open the video in the VLC player. Right click on it while it is playing and select Wallpaper. Voila you have your video set as desktop wallpaper.

Using BS Player:

I will not recommend this method, cause the free version of BS Player is supported by adware as written on the home page. But it does not require any configuration. Just download and install the player, open the video in the player and right click on the video and select desktop mode or just press D key from the keyboard while the video is running.

Using GT Ripple:

This will not let us play video rather it will bring animation effect to the still wallpaper. Say you are using the Azul wallpaper with water and coconut tree and a sail boat to create the perfect scenery. But the water is standstill and give very boring effect. Here we can make the water moving using the GT Ripple program. I suggest to use this utlity to have professional quality animated wallpaper with ripple effect and Azul is the best wallpaper to experiemt with. Download and install the GT Ripple program. When started it will sit on the system tray and do it’s work. Click on the mirrror button from the toolbar to remove the mirroring. Play with available options like Frequency, height, Amplitude, perspective and speed to make the best suited rippling wallpaper.

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