How To Enable Desktop Background Slideshow In Windows 10

The desktop background slideshow or desktop wallpaper slideshow feature was first introduced with Windows 7. The feature allows users to configure Windows to automatically rotate the desktop background at a predefined time interval.

In short, you can select a bunch of wallpapers and enable desktop slideshow feature to automatically change the desktop background every minute, every 10 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, or every day. This way, you don’t need to stare at the same desktop background every time you turn on your PC.

The desktop slideshow feature is present in Windows 10 as well, but the feature is not easily visible because of the omission of the classic personalization window. The desktop slideshow feature settings have been moved to the new Settings app.

Enable and configure desktop background slideshow in Windows 10

In this guide, we will see how to enable and configure the desktop background slideshow feature in Windows 10.

Step 1: Right-click on the empty area of the desktop and then click Personalize option to open the Personalization section of the Settings app.

Step 2: Click Background. Under the Background section, select Slideshow from the drop-down box to enable desktop background slideshow feature.

Step 3: Now that you have enabled desktop slideshow, it’s time to choose a couple of pictures. Click the button labeled Browse under Choose albums for your slideshow section, and then select a folder where pictures that you want to see as desktop background are saved.

Note that all photos in the selected folder will be used to decor your desktop background. So if you have a picture or two that you don’t want to see as the desktop background, please move those pictures to a different folder. Also, make sure that all photos under the selected folder are of high-resolution.

All pictures must be in the root of the selected folder. Pictures present in the sub-folders will not be used for the slideshow.

Step 4: Finally, you need to select the time interval for automatically changing the desktop background and choose a fit for desktop wallpaper. By default, Windows 10 rotates background every 30 minutes, but you can change this value to 1 minute, 10 minutes, 1 hour, 6 hours, or 24 hours.

As you can see in the picture, by default, the desktop wallpaper slideshow feature will be turned off when on battery. If you want Windows 10 to automatically change the desktop background when your PC is running on battery, turn on the option labeled Let slideshow run even if I’m on battery power option.

If the slideshow feature doesn’t work, refer to our fix to desktop slideshow not working in Windows 10 guide.

Tip: When desktop background slideshow is turned on, you can quickly switch to the next background in the queue by right-clicking on the desktop and then clicking the Next desktop background option.