By default, Windows 11 already supports a wide variety of image formats for desktop wallpapers. Users can use JPG, PNG, GIF (static images only, animated images are not supported without installing a third-party application), BMP, TIFF, and HEIC (after installing the necessary codecs). In the future, this list will be expanded with the addition of a new format, giving you even more image options for your wallpaper.
In recent Windows 11 previews, Microsoft has quietly added support for a new format. Specifically, from build 26220.7653 onwards, users can set WEBP images as their desktop wallpaper. This can be done directly in Settings by going to Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background and selecting a .webp image.
WEBP is a relatively new image format that offers several advantages over older, more popular formats like JPG. It boasts better compression, saving storage space, and supports transparent backgrounds and even animations. Recently, WEBP has become a popular choice for websites to optimize image size and quality, and Microsoft is now gradually improving its support on Windows 11.
In fact, even the current stable versions of Windows 11 allow setting WEBP images as wallpapers, but the process isn't very intuitive. Most users are used to right-clicking the image and selecting ' Set as desktop background ', or going directly to Settings > Personalization to change the wallpaper. However, these methods previously didn't support WEBP. Instead, users had to open the image using the Photos app or third-party image viewers like Vissum, and then select Set as > Desktop Background or Lockscreen.
With Windows 11 build 26220.7653 and later, Microsoft has enabled setting WEBP images as wallpapers directly from the Settings app, as well as through the right-click menu in File Explorer. This is a small change, but it's quite convenient and has been a long-awaited feature for many users.
As for more significant changes related to desktop wallpapers, they remain just rumors. There were previous reports that Microsoft would add animated wallpapers or parallax effects, but these features have yet to appear, even in the latest preview updates.