Live wallpapers for PC display animated or video content as your desktop background — moving images, particle effects, or looping video clips. Here is what you need to know.
What is a live wallpaper?
A live wallpaper is an animated desktop background that moves in real time — flowing water, drifting clouds, particle animations, or looping video. Unlike a static image, they are rendered continuously while your desktop is visible.
Live wallpaper apps for PC
- Wallpaper Engine (Steam) — the most popular live wallpaper app; supports animated, video, and interactive wallpapers. Paid (~$4 on Steam).
- Lively Wallpaper — free and open source; supports video files, web pages, and GIFs as wallpapers.
- PUSH Video Wallpaper — plays video files as your desktop background.
Do live wallpapers affect PC performance?
Yes. Animated wallpapers use CPU and GPU resources continuously. On a gaming PC the impact is small, but on laptops or older hardware they can reduce battery life and compete with other apps. Most live wallpaper apps pause automatically when a window is fullscreen.
Rotating photo wallpapers — a lighter alternative
If you want a constantly changing desktop without the performance cost of animation, a rotating photo wallpaper changer is an excellent alternative. Webshots automatically swaps your desktop background on a schedule from a library of 5,000+ HD and 4K photos — a fresh look every day with zero CPU overhead. here →
Live wallpapers on Mac
macOS Sonoma (14+) introduced native animated wallpapers — slow-motion aerial videos that play as your desktop background. For older macOS versions, third-party apps are available.
For beautiful rotating photo wallpapers on both Windows and Mac, download Webshots free at here →