How to put animated backgrounds in Windows 11

Animated backgrounds in Windows 11

He wallpaper of our computer is one of the fundamental parts when it comes to customize our systemsuch as the main color or even the Touchpad gestures that can also be customized in Windows 11. The desk However, it is of special importance, since we will see it constantly when changing tabs and it will be the best way to expose our style and/or tastesthat is why it is normal that many people are meticulous when choosing them, even going so far as to edit them, ordering and changing the icons on the desktop so that they are consistent with the image or even adding visual effects, animated backgrounds or using applications to give it an extra personalization touch.

There are many ways to get a good animated wallpaper in Windows 11 for which unfortunately we have to use external applications, since the operating system by default it does not support animations or effects, even if they are extremely simple, such as putting a gif or a video as the wallpaper. Some of the best known applications are:

Wallpaper Engine. One of the most famous applications, which allows the creation and use of animated and interactive backgrounds that react with what happens on the computer, such as music, applications and even the computer’s LEDs thanks to the integration with applications such as Razer Chroma. The application also has the possibility of easily downloading other people’s creations with thousands of options already created. The only disadvantage is that it is a payment option.
Lively Wallpaper. This open source application allows you to use gifs, videos and even web pages like wallpapers on our computer, the only drawback is that this is all it does, without having advanced effects or a great degree of customization beyond that.
Rainmeter. this app is something different and the one that we will explain in detail in this guide, since while with applications like the previous ones we can change the wallpaper, with this what we can do is add effects on a wallpaper that we already haveas we will see below.

A First Look at Rainmeter

Rainmeter, as we have already mentioned, works in a a bit differently from the other apps we’ve covered before, and it is that it is an application focused on widgets and effects to add them to a wallpaper that we already have and thus animate it as we want, which has its advantages and disadvantages compared to the other options.

The disadvantages are obvious, and that is that we will have to select and apply our wallpaper from another side, which is not usually a problem since most of the skins that can be obtained for Rainmeter usually have a few recommended wallpapers or the theme that we can download to use with the effects.

but we also have numerous advantages using Rainmeter, and it is that the effects that we can obtain to use with the application through the “skins” can become very advancedbeing able to be integrated with other programs like Spotify or even computer monitoring programs in order to know the use of the processor or other components. In addition, the customization task is simple and once we understand how to add and remove the different effects and widgets it will be as simple as drag them across the screen and edit them to adapt them to the wallpaper that we have and customize it as we want.

Finally, like other similar programs, computer resources will be used to process and display the effectsthis may mean that the processor, RAM memory or graphics card is used more or less depending on the effects and widgets that we add But that’s not why you have to worry, since Rainmeter has a game mode to prevent it from affecting applications that need that performance while we are not seeing the desktop, and if we still need more performance we can always optimize our computer to get a little more out of it.

How to use Rainmeter to add animated effects in Windows 11 step by step

Now we will explain step by step How to install this application in Windows to be able to customize our desktop. In this section we will not be able to touch everything that the application allows to do and depending on the effect packs or “skins” that we obtain we can meet with different effects or different customization options, so we encourage you to play around and explore the different effects and packs once you understand the basics.

Download Rainmeter. We can do this from your official website pressing the blue download button from the same main page.
Install Rainmeter. Once the file is downloaded we will have to executeand after choosing the installation language we will have to select the standard installation optionand then later in the installation options we can select where it is going to be installed, and more importantly the additional options, which we recommend marking. Once installed it will open and some widgets will appear by defaultthat we can close by right clicking on them and clicking on the option below disable skin on each element.
Download packs of effects or “skins”. This is a fundamental part of Rainmeter, since although some are included by default, they are not as advanced as the ones we can find in packets over the network. These community-created “skins” will offer different styles and themes, and some will even feature websites, wallpapers to use with them or they will have more advanced options. We can download them from different web pages, one of them for example visualskins from which we have downloaded the “Neon Space” package to demonstrate its use in this guide. If we want more websites we can find them by searching the internet or in the “Discover” section of the Rainmeter page itself. Remember that you have to be careful with what you download from the internet and that, like all other files, Rainmeter’s “skins” files may also have vulnerabilities or carry viruses.
Install the packages. Once the packages we want have been downloaded, we will have to add them to rainmeterwhich is extremely simple, since we will only have to do double click on the file we have downloaded and click on it “Install” button.
Add and edit skins on our desktop. At this point we will have everything ready to start using the effects packages. Most of them usually have a main panel or menu from which you can configure the other effects. But still we will explain in detail the different ways to manipulate them. For a start, Rainmeter has a configuration window from which you can configure the application, access the settings of the game mode and see the different skins or “skins” that we have installed and its elements. To access it we will have to press the arrow on the taskbar at the bottom right and there press the application icon as we can see in the following image.

In the skins taba folder will appear for each skin packand within that folder, another for each category. If we click on a skin we can activate or deactivate it and edit different parameters on it like its position, what happens when you click it, its transparency, or whether you can click through it.

We can also access these options if we make right click on an element that we have added to the desktop, which can be more comfortable, especially to hide elements with the option to deactivate skin.

Additionally, there are more advanced “skin” packages that have an options panel to configure the skins from there. Generally, these panels will open when installing the skinsbut otherwise we can enter them by giving right click on any skin in the pack and there click on the second or third option starting at the top or if we go to the rainmeter management and in the fur section and there we look for the configuration category or settings, where that widget will be found if it exists.

In that options panel we will be able to add more skins from the pack and configure some advanced effects like the ones that react with the music. Remember that some widgets are punctureable and have functional buttons to perform actions on the computer or if we right-click on them we can find specific additional settings of the effect.