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rocksdanister/lively

★ 18,837C#Audience · vibe coderComplexity · 2/5ActiveLicenseSetup · easy

TLDR

Free Windows app that turns videos, GIFs, shaders, and games into animated desktop wallpapers, with smart pause when you game.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((Lively))
    What it does
      Animated wallpapers
      Auto-pauses gaming
      Multi-monitor support
    Content types
      Videos and GIFs
      YouTube streams
      Web pages
      Shaders and games
    How to use
      Drag and drop
      Library browser
      Per-monitor config
    Tech stack
      C# and WinUI 3
      GPU rendering
      Windows native

Things people build with this

USE CASE 1

Set a looping video or animated GIF as your desktop background without slowing down games.

USE CASE 2

Run a live shader or interactive game as your wallpaper that pauses automatically when you launch fullscreen apps.

USE CASE 3

Display different animated wallpapers on each monitor in a multi-display setup.

USE CASE 4

Stream a YouTube video or live webpage as your desktop background with automatic audio muting.

Tech stack

C#WinUI 3GLSLWindows

Getting it running

Difficulty · easy Time to first run · 5min
Use freely for any purpose under the Microsoft Public License; you may modify and distribute as long as you include the license notice.

In plain English

Lively is a free, open-source Windows application that lets you use animated content as your desktop wallpaper. Instead of a static image, you can set your desktop background to a video file, an animated GIF, a YouTube stream, a live webpage, a GLSL shader (a type of GPU-rendered visual), or even a Unity or Godot game running silently behind your open windows. The clever part is performance: Lively automatically pauses wallpaper playback when you run a fullscreen app or game, dropping CPU and GPU usage from the animated wallpaper to essentially zero so your games are not impacted. You can also configure it to always mute audio, pause on specific apps, or span a single wallpaper across multiple monitors. Dragging and dropping a video file or a URL directly onto the Lively window is all it takes to set a new wallpaper, no complicated setup required. You would use Lively if you want a visually dynamic desktop on Windows without paying for commercial alternatives. It supports multiple monitors, lets you run different wallpapers on each screen, and includes a library view for browsing your collection. It is built in C# as a WinUI 3 native application, licensed under the Microsoft Public License.

Copy-paste prompts

Prompt 1
How do I set up Lively to use a video file as my desktop wallpaper and make it pause when I play games?
Prompt 2
Can I run a GLSL shader or Unity game as my desktop wallpaper using Lively, and how do I configure it?
Prompt 3
Show me how to use Lively to display different animated wallpapers on each of my multiple monitors.
Prompt 4
What are the performance settings in Lively to prevent my wallpaper from slowing down my gaming?
Prompt 5
How do I add a YouTube stream or live webpage as a wallpaper in Lively?
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Generated 2026-05-18 · Model: sonnet-4-6 · Verify against the repo before relying on details.