Setting an animated .gif as the desktop background on Windows 7

Question

I can't get animation on my desktop although I can set it as a background from the context menu by opening it in Internet Explorer. Here is my .gif created using Photoshop CS4:

How can I set it as an animated background on Windows 7?

Answer 1

See the free BioniX Desktop Wallpaper Changer:

BioniX Desktop Wallpaper Changer is the most popular desktop wallpaper changer/wallpaper manager for Windows. It is FREE and jam-packed with features that no other concurrent wallpaper manager can offer!

Compatible with all Windows systems - From Win95 to Vista and Windows 7, all operating systems are supported.

BioniX Desktop Wallpaper Manager supports the following image formats: JPG (JPEG, JFIF, JPE), PNG, GIF (static and animated), BMP, ICO, WMF, EMF. Just drag and drop any image over BioniX's interface and it will be automatically included in the playlist.

Answer 2

Windows 7 added a "multiple picture Slideshow" feature to the desktop background settings.

You are not able to make an animated GIF work normally, but you can break up the GIF into single frames and the slideshow feature will run it as if they were still together.

Remember to order the frame numbers with zeros when naming them (e.g. name001, name002, name003 instead of name1, name2, name3) to avoid the dreaded 1, 10, 11, 2, 20, 21, ordering.

Remember to uncheck the "random" box at the bottom and adjust the delay down to 10 seconds (the minimum). Obviously speed leaves much to be desired with the minimum delay between frames of 10 seconds, but at least you will get your moving background again.

Answer 3

in order to get an animated gif to appear as your desktop which is what I imagine youre trying to do youd have to upload it somewhere and use active desktop which I think died around windows ME edited to remove punctuation

Answer 4

Not exactly and animated gif, but you could take a look at Enable DreamScene in Any Version of Vista or Windows 7