Roar of Winchester

Alessia's Balcony
Floating Islands

Sunset on Alessia's balcony. Floating islands drift in the distant sky. On your desktop, animated.

$Alessia's Balcony floating islands at sunset$

What's in this folder

wallpaper/

The animated wallpaper video and its thumbnail. Lively imports this directly.

concert-mode/

Two one-click scripts. Hide your desktop icons for a clean view. Restore them anytime.

lock-screen/

Matching still image for your Windows lock screen.

README.html

This file. Open in any browser.

Setup (about 60 seconds)

Install Lively Wallpaper (free)

Lively is the open-source animated wallpaper engine for Windows. It's free, runs from the Microsoft Store, and is signed by Microsoft so there are no security warnings.

Open Microsoft Store

Already have Lively? Skip to Step 2.

Add the wallpaper to Lively

Open Lively, click the Library tab, then either:

Drag and drop: drag wallpaper/alessia-floating-islands.mp4 onto the Lively window.
Or: click the + button (top right of Lively) > File > pick wallpaper/alessia-floating-islands.mp4.

Lively will ask for a title and optionally a thumbnail. Type Alessia's Balcony - Floating Islands, click Add Thumbnail, pick wallpaper/alessia-floating-islands-thumb.jpg. Click OK. Click the new tile to set it as your wallpaper. Done.

To mute the audio: right-click the new wallpaper tile in Lively, choose Customise, and drag the Volume slider to 0. Or use the speaker icon in the bottom-right of Lively.

Optional - Concert Mode

Hide your desktop icons for a clean, unbroken view. The taskbar stays visible.

Double-click concert-mode/concert-mode-on.bat to hide icons.
Double-click concert-mode/concert-mode-off.bat to bring them back.

What it does: sets HKCU\...\Explorer\Advanced\HideIcons to 1 and restarts Explorer. Same toggle as right-click desktop > View > Show desktop icons, just one click.

Optional - Lock Screen

For the full experience, set the matching still as your lock screen:

Open Settings > Personalization > Lock screen.
Set Personalize your lock screen to Picture.
Click Browse photos and pick lock-screen/lock-screen-1080p.jpg.

Tips

Battery and GPU

Lively auto-pauses the video when a fullscreen application is open and can pause on battery. Open Lively settings to tweak.

Multiple monitors

Lively supports per-monitor wallpapers. Either span Alessia's Balcony across all screens, or set it only on your primary.

Troubleshooting

Lively says "File format not supported" - make sure you're pointing it at wallpaper/alessia-floating-islands.mp4, not any other file.
Icons didn't come back after Concert Mode On - run concert-mode-off.bat, or right-click the desktop > View > Show desktop icons.
Video looks soft on a 4K monitor - you're seeing what we're seeing. The source is 720p for V1. A 4K master is on the roadmap.
Other - email hello@roarofwinchester.com.

About

An Enduring Spark is a contemporary fantasy novel by Nicholas Dowbiggin. This Living Desktop is a small free token of the world. The balcony, the sunset, the distant concert - all from the book.

Visit roarofwinchester.com