Microsoft has apparently scrapped the idea of dynamic wallpapers

Microsoft has been working on dynamic animated wallpapers for Windows 11 for a few years now. Sergey Kisselev, a former motion designer and 3D artist at Microsoft, detailed his work on dynamic animations for Windows 11, which were originally scheduled to launch in 2023. Since that timeline has long passed, Microsoft has likely canceled this update.

Kisselev spent more than eight years working on Windows design elements and Microsoft’s Fluent design system before leaving for Amazon in 2022. In his Behance post, Kisselev describes the dynamic wallpapers as “part of the Windows Creative Direction team’s efforts to celebrate the new centered signature composition for Windows 11, which emphasizes the centered Start menu and taskbar.” The dynamic wallpapers were part of an effort that was “explored for Microsoft’s low-cost devices, primarily aimed at education users,” Kisselev states.

Windows Central says that these dynamic wallpapers were originally supposed to be part of the 23H2 update for Windows 11, but that didn't happen. Microsoft leaker Albacore says that the dynamic wallpapers feature has been scrapped, and that unfinished parts of the feature were integrated into Windows 11 builds 22H2 and 23H2, but were removed in the latest 24H2 update.

These dynamic wallpapers are very similar to the ones Microsoft uses for the Xbox dashboard, but currently the only way to get animated wallpapers on Windows is to install a third-party app like Wallpaper Engine and Lively Wallpaper. Microsoft supported videos as wallpapers with Windows DreamScene in Windows Vista, so it's surprising that Microsoft would put all this design work into a similar feature and then scrap it.