Animated Backgrounds... Why only on Smartphones/Tablets?

[DJSmithers]

I have been pondering this question for many years now. Ever since the Minority Report, when I saw their desktop computers sporting a slick animated background I have wondered why the heck don't we have that now? And I am referring to our run-of-the-mill laptops and Desktop Computers. I think it's derelict of M$ and Apple to not give a flying flick at a rolling doughnut about such a wonderful addition to our IT of today. Ever since the advent of the smartphone it's become an industry standard and I love it! The tablets take the idea and further beautify it with simple size enhancement.

So I guess what I am asking is there talk of something in the pipeline for notebooks? Are there programs that can substitute this feature? And if Android can do it why can't Windows 7???

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[HappyHead]

I've been using animated backgrounds on my Linux workstations for over a decade (via xscreensaver, I currently have sharks and whales swimming around behind my browser.) - Windows is just behind the curve on stuff like that. I'm sure they'll announce it as a "revolutionary new innovation" that is part of windows 8 any day now.

Since the Win8 desktop is almost entirely based on javascript and html, it should be pretty simple for people to build animated wallpapers for it.

[Frederuco]

Since Windows XP (maybe even older) you can put an animated .gif as the wallpaper, or even a URL of a webpage with animations.

10 years ago one of my friends had this as their wallpaper:

[funbob]

Windows Vista had a feature called Dreamscene that allowed for the use of video wallpapers. The feature was removed in Windows 7 but is easy enough to re enable How to enable Dreamscene or Video Wallpaper in Windows 7 | Windows 7 Center and there are excellent sources of wallpapers dreamscene.org - Home - free dreamscenes, windows 7 themes and desktop tools

Honestly, I don't think I would ever want an animated background on my desktop. A tablet is a very personal device, which lends itself well to customization, personalization, and showing off. It is more gadget and toy than serious business tool. A desktop, on the other hand, is a tool, a commodity, something that you use to get real work done, and having an animated wallpaper would be too busy and distracting, for me at least. Simple is best here. Not to mention the increased overhead, resource usage, power consumption, potential for decreased reliability etc. that goes along with features like that. Just my opinion anyway.

[BubbaHotepUK]

On a tablet, apps occupy full screen, so you aren't being distracted by an animated background whilst using it. Not so with Windows or MacOS, which is why they've never proved popular.

Going back before Windows XP, remember Windows 95? It had a feature called 'Active Desktop' that let you use Internet Explorer as your desktop backdrop - complete with RSS feeds and live updates. It never got used, for obvious reasons, so Microsoft pulled it in XP, then reinstated animated backgrounds in Vista Ultimate, before releasing that as Dreamscene for everyone to use if they wanted.