WinDynamicDesktop is a free, open-source Windows program that brings the Dynamic Desktop feature of macOS Mojave to Windows 10 and 11. Instead of rotating wallpapers on a fixed timer, it changes the desktop image according to the position of the sun at your location. A scene therefore moves from dawn to daylight, dusk and night over the course of a day.
Wallpapers that follow the sun
You give WinDynamicDesktop your location, which it converts to geographic coordinates. The Microsoft Store edition can use the Windows location service instead if you allow it. From those coordinates the app works out the day’s sunrise and sunset and schedules wallpaper changes across all 24 hours.
Each day is split into up to four segments. Sunrise and sunset cover the periods when the sun is within 6 degrees above or below the horizon. Day is the time between them, and night runs from sunset to the next sunrise. Simpler themes use only day and night. The images assigned to a segment appear in order and share its length equally, so their timing shifts as the days grow longer or shorter through the year.
Bundled, downloaded and custom themes
A WinDynamicDesktop theme is a set of numbered images plus a JSON file listing which image numbers belong to each segment. The app includes themes based on Apple’s macOS wallpapers and downloads their files when you first apply them. The Select Theme dialog, opened from the system tray, can also remove a bundled theme’s files so it downloads again.
The project’s online library lists hundreds of free themes alongside paid ones. You can add themes with the theme manager’s import option and delete custom ones from the same list.
Making your own theme needs only numbered JPEG, PNG, BMP or GIF images and a JSON file. The JSON file gives the filename pattern, image credits, the image lists for each segment and the two images used in the preview thumbnail. HEIC files from macOS must be converted first. You can pack a theme and its images into a ZIP archive for sharing.
Displays, lock screen and theme mode
WinDynamicDesktop can apply one theme to every monitor or a separate theme to each display, and it can set a theme for the Windows lock screen. A theme mode setting switches between automatic day and night behavior and a fixed light or dark mode. These actions, along with a wallpaper refresh, are also available as command-line options. Different images on separate virtual desktops are not supported.
PowerShell scripts
Optional PowerShell scripts handle tasks beyond wallpaper changes. After enabling scripts in the More Options menu, you copy .ps1 files into the scripts folder. WinDynamicDesktop runs them each time it updates the wallpaper. It passes the current day segment, the theme mode and the image shown on each display.
Scripts use this to change the Windows app or system theme or the screen brightness.
Editions and settings
WinDynamicDesktop comes as an installer, a portable executable and a Microsoft Store app, and is also available through Chocolatey and WinGet. The app stores settings in a JSON file in its data folder. A path file placed next to the executable can move that configuration elsewhere.
