A Certain Media Player

Certain operating systems allow a number of various wallpapers to be used, and "rotated" to display a different wallpaper at different times, to display a random image from a directory. If the facility is not available in the OS's wallpaper settings, it may be possible to get an external program which can change the wallpaper at certain times. Microsoft Windows versions 98 through XP allow webpages to be set as frames on the desktop which may be dynamic pages. Adobe Flash can also be used to create dynamic (and interactive) wallpapers as well by setting the wallpaper to an HTML file with an embedded Flash image.

Windows Vista Ultimate also has the ability to use a video as a wallpaper. Users can choose to use their own home videos which loop continuously, or use one already installed.

Certain media players (mplayer) provide the option to output video to the background of X11, making them suitable as an engine for animated backgrounds from a wide range of video formats.

Programs like EarthDesk use Internet connections and graphics calculations to change the wallpaper with real data, such as a shadowed view of the earth, the latest cloud or weather map, or various events. Some media players can redirect video playback to desktop, allowing any video to be used as a wallpaper.