Ever wanted to set video as your desktop wallpaper a la the quickly-ditched Windows DreamScene? With ‘Video Wallpaper‘ it’s easy.
By using Video Wallpaper you will be forfeiting the ability to use the ‘desktop’ as normal – no icons, files etc will show.
Any drop shadows present on panels will also disappear. If you’re tuff ‘enuff to cope, here’s how…
You will need: –
- shantz-xwinwrap (download here)
- zenity (already installed)
- mplayer (click here to install)
- the script (here)
And, not forgetting, a video to set as your wallpaper. I suggest browsing around on deviant.art using the term ‘dreamscene’ to get relevant results.
Once the above have been installed and you’ve moved the script to someone accessible (preferably into your Nautilus Scripts folder (Home folder > .gnome2 > nautilus-scripts) you’re ready to set a video as your wallpaper.
Right click/run the script and, in the dialogue that appears, select the video you wish to use. Click ‘Ok’ and it will be set.
To kill a video just select the script again but when the selection dialogue appears click ‘cancel’.
Performance
The script used around 32% of my dual core CPU which, compared to the real DreamScene from my Vista days, is nothing.
I didn’t feel much lag (if any) and whilst the appeal in a looping desktop wallpaper is lost on me I do know that they are popular with a great number of people. C’mon – the worst you can do is try it out and find it’s not for you.