The Desktop Slideshow is one of the features that Microsoft has tucked away in Windows 7, hidden even from testers (at this point in time) including the participants at the Professional Developers Conference in Los Angeles at the end of the past month. But especially from the users that have grabbed a copy of Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 from torrent websites after it was leaked from PDC2008. 

Desktop Slideshow is essentially designed to deliver a new method for Windows users to set up their desktops, while at the same time being half way between a traditional wallpaper and an animated video background. Windows 7 Desktop Slideshow is a handicapped DreamScene from Windows Vista Ultimate, but the fact is that the end users that dealt with DreamScene know that the feature itself was plagued with so many problems that it was virtually unusable. 

Unearthed by Rafael Rivera, Desktop Slideshow was in fact mentioned in the documentation on MSDN earlier this year. For Windows 7 and later, Microsoft planned that "if the slideshow is active, the path can be a path to a folder containing multiple images, or a colon-delimited list of image files."

But the feature will allow users to enjoy an animated desktop background put together via a slideshow of wallpapers stored on the machine. In Windows 7 pre-Beta Build 6801 Milestone 3, Desktop Slideshow is locked by default and currently requires a hack to be enabled. The workaround is not yet available, but I will be sure to provide an update once things change. 

In Build 6801, Desktop Slideshow is yet to be perfected, but the feature is bound to evolve as the development process will move forward. At this point in time, Windows 7 only allows users to pause the wallpaper slideshows when using laptops on battery power, to set a 10 seconds to one day delay as a transition effect and to randomize the order in which images are displayed. The video segment embedded at the bottom of this article will offer you an idea of what Desktop Slideshow is all about.