How to Use Lively Wallpaper

Press Win and search for "Microsoft Store". Open it.

Type "Lively Wallpaper" in the search bar. Look for the app by rocksdanister — it has a blue wave icon.

The app is completely free. Click Get and wait for it to download — it's under 50MB.

Open Lively from the Start menu. On first launch it will add a small icon to your system tray and open the main library window.

Click the Lively icon in your system tray, or find it in the Start menu.

Drag a GIF, MP4, or WebM file from File Explorer directly onto the Lively window. A dialog will appear asking for a title and description — these are optional.

Lively adds the wallpaper to your library and sets it as your background immediately.

To switch between wallpapers in your library, just double-click any thumbnail.

Go to any YouTube video and copy the URL from the address bar (e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxxx).

In the Lively window, click the + button or drag the URL directly onto the window.

Paste the YouTube URL into the input field and click OK. Lively will load the video as a wallpaper.

Right-click the wallpaper in your library → Audio → Mute. Most people prefer silent desktop wallpapers.

Browse our Wallpapers section and click Download on any wallpaper you like. You'll get a GIF or MP4 file.

Drag the downloaded file onto the Lively window. Add a title and click OK.

It will be added to your library and set as your desktop background automatically.

For MP4 files, Lively loops them automatically. For GIFs, looping depends on the GIF itself — most animated wallpaper GIFs are already set to loop infinitely.

In Lively, click the gear icon → Settings → Wallpaper.

Choose "Per Display" to set different wallpapers on each monitor, or "Span" to stretch one wallpaper across all screens.

In your library, right-click any wallpaper → Set Wallpaper → choose which monitor to apply it to.

Yes — completely free and open source. No subscriptions, no premium version. Available on the Microsoft Store and GitHub.

Yes, fully compatible with Windows 10 and Windows 11 (64-bit).

Lively is designed to be efficient. With the "Pause when maximized" setting enabled, it uses virtually no resources while you're working. A GIF wallpaper typically uses under 1% CPU.

Yes — they're completely independent. Lively runs the animated background; Rainmeter overlays widgets on top. Both can run simultaneously with no conflicts.

Right-click the wallpaper in your library → Layout → choose Fit, Fill, or Stretch to match your screen resolution.

Lively uses YouTube's embedded player, which may show ads depending on your account. Using the YouTube URL of a video you own or a Creative Commons video avoids most issues.

By default: C:\Users\[YourName]\AppData\Local\Lively Wallpaper. You can change this in Settings → General → Wallpaper Directory.

Go to Windows Settings → Apps → find Lively Wallpaper → Uninstall. Your wallpaper files in the Lively directory remain unless you delete that folder manually.