Slideshow Wallpapers

Slideshow Wallpapers is a native Win32 Windows 11 app for the desktop background context menu. It registers a packaged IExplorerCommand for Directory\Background, which is the Windows 11 compact context-menu path rather than the legacy "Show more options" path.

The picker reads the configured slideshow with IDesktopWallpaper and shows image files from the slideshow sources as a scrollable thumbnail grid.

• Clicking a wallpaper shows that exact image until the saved slideshow delay expires, then restores the slideshow source list and timing.
• Clicking the selected wallpaper again saves the current slideshow sources and timing in %LocalAppData%\WallpaperSlideshowPicker\lock-state.txt, then temporarily replaces the slideshow with that wallpaper.
• Clicking another wallpaper after a lock restores the saved slideshow before using the new pick.
• On multi-monitor desktops, use the Set on menu to target all displays or the display under the picker invocation before clicking a thumbnail.
• The Change every menu updates the slideshow delay from the picker.
• Wallpapers are ordered newest first by the file added timestamp reported by Windows.

The grid paints without decoding images on the UI thread. It uses background thumbnail loading backed by the Windows Shell thumbnail cache, prioritizes the visible viewport and nearby rows, and avoids blocking scroll input on slow image extraction. When opened from the desktop context menu, the picker is centered on the monitor under the invocation cursor. The app surface follows the Windows app light/dark mode setting.

Build and register

Run this from PowerShell on Windows 11:

.\scripts\Register-Layout.ps1

The script builds src\WallpaperSlideshowPicker.vcxproj with Visual Studio 2022, creates a loose packaged layout under build\PackageLayout, generates the required package logos, and registers the manifest with Add-AppxPackage -Register.

After registration, right-click an empty area of the desktop and choose Slideshow wallpapers from the Windows 11 menu. If Explorer has cached the menu, restart Explorer or sign out and back in.

Remove the development package with:

.\scripts\Unregister-Package.ps1

Notes

• Windows must already be using a slideshow. A single fixed-picture background does not have slideshow sources to choose from.
• Folder slideshow sources are expanded recursively and filtered to common image extensions before display.
• Picking or locking an image does not edit the slideshow source list. The lock path keeps a restore file until a later pick or unlock restores the slideshow.