After Copilot, Windows AI Actions, and Recall, Windows 11 could be getting an AI-powered wallpaper feature. We don’t have the details at the moment, but Microsoft previously experimented with an AI-powered desktop background in 2024. That idea never shipped to testers, but Microsoft hasn’t given up on its plans to create AI personalisation.
Phantom on X points out that Windows 11’s recent preview builds contain references to “Dynamic Wallpaper.” You can’t use the feature yet, and we aren’t seeing toggles to turn it on in the preview builds, but it looks like Windows will dynamically update the desktop background based on your “selection.”
“Dynamic background,” one of the internal strings, describes the feature: “Your background will automatically update based on your selections.” As I mentioned, the feature doesn’t work in the builds yet, and we don’t have the details, but it’s entirely possible that “selection” means selecting a broad category.
For example, you could be asked to select a theme, and Windows would swap the background or mix backgrounds automatically. It could be dynamic, which means Windows might watch signals like the clock to change the wallpaper based on the time.
What could a “Dynamic Wallpaper” for Windows 11 really mean?
Microsoft has been exploring “Dynamic background” for a long time now. And it could mean different things, not just rotating backgrounds. Previously, a Microsoft designer who no longer works at the company confirmed that the tech giant explored “dynamic animations” for the desktop to promote Microsoft’s low-cost devices that never shipped.
“This work was part of the Windows Creative Direction Team’s efforts to celebrate a new centered signature composition for Windows 11,” the Microsoft designer wrote in a now-deleted Behance post.
Also, Microsoft’s cancelled Surface Neo’s Windows 10X operating system shipped with a dynamic wallpaper feature that automatically rotated the background based on the time of day. But that idea, which didn’t use AI, never made it to Windows 11.
The internal references to “dynamic” could be referring to either of the features. Either the background changes based on clock time, is AI-modified based on your selection, or could include certain animations. Or it could be something else.
Windows does have a Spotlight feature, but it rotates the background without looking at the clock or using AI.
Microsoft wanted to add depth to the desktop with AI
In 2023 and 2024, Albacore, a well-known developer, spotted several references to depth effects for desktop backgrounds. At that point, Microsoft wanted to make wallpapers “livable” with an AI-powered parallax effect feature, but unfortunately, that idea never shipped.
Windows Latest previously reported that recent builds removed all references to it.
With the parallax effect, Microsoft was hoping to adjust the depth so that your wallpapers moved slower than the rest of the content on the screen, creating an illusion of depth. And when that happens, it gives you the impression that your desktop wallpapers are “alive.”
It could have tracked display movements and adjusted the background automatically.
While the “parallax effect” may be off the table, we might get Dynamic AI wallpapers, and it would still be fun. Hopefully.
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