Why does Vista hate GIF's?

[dfcrackhead]

So I remember on XP the default picture viewing program would show gifs and animate them and you could even take a GIF, set it as your desktop background and it would still be animated, you could have a moving desktop.

Now I've found a GIF that is strange and awesome(I have a theme with my laptop, all backgrounds must be rofl or wtf inducing), but this damned Windows Vista willn't let me do it. Any idea why Vista hates GIF's so much, or any knowledge as to how I can go about changing it to make my desktop animate GIF's and get an image viewing program that will also show the animated GIF's?

 

[Penguinness]

Hmm dunno, I hate that when you just scroll through your pictures and gifs dont work.. Is it so hard? What do you do about it? If I really want to view it I drag it into firefox or something.

 

[Chamale]

Vista cut out a lot of XP functionality to ensure it doesn't lag computers even more. Unfortunately, many things that computer nerds need, like GIFs and running older games, were cut so Grandma wouldn't get a computer virus.

 

[Tallim]

Vista cut out a lot of XP functionality to ensure it doesn't lag computers even more. Unfortunately, many things that computer nerds need, like GIFs and running older games, were cut so Grandma wouldn't get a computer virus.

Damn you Grandma! *Fist Shaking*

 

[dfcrackhead]

Vista cut out a lot of XP functionality to ensure it doesn't lag computers even more. Unfortunately, many things that computer nerds need, like GIFs and running older games, were cut so Grandma wouldn't get a computer virus.

Damn grandma's, ruining all my fun....

But is there a solution to these issues?

 

[Midniqht]

It's not just Vista - it's in Win7 also

 

[^=ash=^]

It's not just Vista - it's in Win7 also

it really sucks, I have a tonne of GIFs i could use as my background .. but cursed Win7 won't allow it.

 

[tehweave]

Any idea why Vista hates GIF's so much

Because its Vista? I've never used the operating system, but I have yet to hear a nice thing about it. I bought a brand-new computer a year after vista came out. The computer had windows XP on it. Why? Because this operating system has been bad-mouthed for every possible reason since release. It wasn't until last december that I actually upgraded to Win7. So far, it's worked fine for me.

 

[dfcrackhead]

All of these comments, but no fixes so far, any ideas as to how we can make Vista compatible with GIF's?

 

[oktalist]

Damn you Grandma! *Fist Shaking*

May I take a moment to congratulate you on your epic avatar.

...

Okay, moment over. Please resume being awesome at your convenience.

 

[Low Key]

If you have Vista Ultimate, you can set a video as a background. So if you get a gif maker like Ulead, you could potentially turn it into a video, then set it as the desktop.

That's the best workaround I could find. It seems any other option won't work.

EDIT: This might work...read the third reply. It looks like a lot of hassle though.

http://forums.techarena.in/customize-desktop/1124975.htm

Also, apparently Stardock's Deskscape does the job too.

 

[child of lileth]

I have Vista, and my gifs still animate in the preview window. Sometimes it;ll try to open them in IE or something, but I can usually get them to work without that. I never tried to use one as a background though, so I have no idea if that will still work too or not.

 

[Busdriver580]

Vista hates everything, especially YOU the user.

In all seriousness there's probably some type of obscure option that's switched by default
You could probably convert the GIF into something else, try www.mediaconverter.org

 

[Katana314]

I'm pretty sure you can have an HTML background. Wouldn't that basically allow for it if you paid the least bit of attention in Web Design class?

 

[Swifteye]

Perhaps one should try downloading a program that will ingore the refusal to play gifs. Like some gif player or some program that handles lots of media at once.

 

[Tallim]

Damn you Grandma! *Fist Shaking*

May I take a moment to congratulate you on your epic avatar.

...

Okay, moment over. Please resume being awesome at your convenience.

Why thank you, e-cookie if you know what it is from.

 

[oktalist]

Damn you Grandma! *Fist Shaking*

May I take a moment to congratulate you on your epic avatar.

...

Okay, moment over. Please resume being awesome at your convenience.

Why thank you, e-cookie if you know what it is from.

Of course I do; that was kind of my point.

I've seen Simon Munnery live three times; two of those times were on the same day.

And I'll save you the trouble:

╒═══════════════════╕
│ ☺ I am a cookie ☺ │▒
╘═══════════════════╛▒
 ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

 

[Tallim]

Damn you Grandma! *Fist Shaking*

May I take a moment to congratulate you on your epic avatar.

...

Okay, moment over. Please resume being awesome at your convenience.

Why thank you, e-cookie if you know what it is from.

Of course I do; that was kind of my point.

I've seen Simon Munnery live three times; two of those times were on the same day.

And I'll save you the trouble:

╒═══════════════════╕
│ ☺ I am a cookie ☺ │▒
╘═══════════════════╛▒
 ▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒▒

You are the first person I have come across whose actually heard of him, yay.

 

[obisean]

Vista cut out a lot of XP functionality to ensure it doesn't lag computers even more. Unfortunately, many things that computer nerds need, like GIFs and running older games, were cut so Grandma wouldn't get a computer virus.

Or it could also be that they rewrote the kernel from the ground up and purposely left it out because it is an aging technology. Just a thought.

To be fair Vista is a beta compared to 7, and actually, that's pretty much what Vista was. 7 is to Vista what XP was to 95, the start of something new.

Sometimes we just have to learn to let go. Oregon Trail for the old Apple comptuers on the 5 1/4 floppy was great, but you have to move on with your life. It's not like the old Windows based games don't work, that's why they threw in Windows compatibility mode.

I'm not saying I disagree about the GIF thing though. Was actually hoping that 7 would fix this, but no.

 

[xXAsherahXx]

So I remember on XP the default picture viewing program would show gifs and animate them and you could even take a GIF, set it as your desktop background and it would still be animated, you could have a moving desktop.

Now I've found a GIF that is strange and awesome(I have a theme with my laptop, all backgrounds must be rofl or wtf inducing), but this damned Windows Vista willn't let me do it. Any idea why Vista hates GIF's so much, or any knowledge as to how I can go about changing it to make my desktop animate GIF's and get an image viewing program that will also show the animated GIF's?

Change the extension, or maybe it is just that file.