Originally posted on May 28, 2010 @ 12:45 pm
I better file this under “just because I can.” If you’re wondering where the unused (for a good reason) Dream Scene features found in Windows Vista went when Windows 7 came to the scene, well, it’s dead, Jim.
If you’re looking for a way to integrate video in your desktop, you can try this one hack, with a little help from everyone’s favorite open-source media player, VLC. This isn’t going to help you with productivity, but why the hell not?
If you go to VLC’s preferences and go to the Video button, and you can choose the output type. Choose DirectX video output. You will need to restart VLC, and then you can choose “DirectX Wallpaper” under Video in the toolbar.
Here’s how it works, from Lifehacker:
Not surprisingly, selecting it overlays the video on your desktop so you can watch it full-screen, while you do work on top of it. While some of you might be able to minimize VLC entirely and still watch the movie, I found that took away the video entirely—so I just resized the VLC window really small and stuck it in the corner of my screen. Surprisingly, too, it didn’t bog down my system at all. Everything ran quite smoothly. Note, though, that you might need to re-apply your old desktop wallpaper when you’re finished.
Now I can’t imagine myself using this hack, since I have the attention span of a kid who’s had three glassfuls of sugar, but if you can take a little distraction and still be productive, why the heck not, try this out!