Microsoft has quietly made a small but welcome change to the desktop personalization pipeline: recent Insider flights now accept .webp images as first-class desktop backgrounds, removing the longstanding need to convert web-sourced wallpapers to JPG/PNG before applying them. This change appears in the Beta/Dev preview flight identified as Build 26220.7653 (KB5074157) and has also been noted in Canary-channel activity and community posts tied to higher build numbers. The practical upshot is immediate: if your device has the relevant preview build and the feature flag enabled, you can pick a .webp file in Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background and have it behave exactly like a JPG or PNG wallpaper. (
blogs.windows.com)
Background / Overview
Microsoft’s Insider program is the primary way the company tests incremental and experimental changes to Windows 11. Some changes are rolled out broadly via the Beta or Dev channels, while riskier platform work appears first in Canary. The build that explicitly documents WebP wallpaper support in Microsoft’s official blog is Build 26220.7653 (delivered as KB5074157), announced to Insiders on January 16 and 21, 2026, and reproduced in the Windows Insider blog posts for Beta and Dev channel flights. That announcement lists WebP support for Desktop Background under the “Changes and Improvements” section. (
blogs.windows.com)
Community and editorial coverage independently confirmed the change across editorial outlets and forum threads. Windows‑focused sites and Insider community posts reported the same behavior: Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background now accepts .webp files as wallpapers in builds carrying the feature, and distribution is being managed using Microsoft’s Controlled Feature Rollout (CFR) model. That model means the feature is often visible to a subset of Insiders first and may be gated by server-side toggles, hardware entitlements, or region.
At the same time, enthusiasts have continued to sniff out an experimental capability for video wallpapers in other Insider traces, but that remains distinct from the WebP wallpaper story: WebP support is documented and rolling out in Beta/Dev, while video wallpaper functionality is still experimental and gated behind internal flags in earlier Dev/Canary traces. Treat the latter as a work-in-progress.
What Microsoft shipped (clear, verifiable summary)
- Build and distribution: The official Windows Insider Blog names Windows 11 Insider Preview Build 26220.7653 (KB5074157) as the package that includes the change to accept .webp images for desktop backgrounds. The same build binary was published to Dev and Beta with the usual note that some features are gated and rolled out gradually via a toggle in Settings > Windows Update. (blogs.windows.com)
- User-facing feature: Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background now permits .webp images as a selectable Picture source; the UX for applying a WebP wallpaper is the same as applying JPG/PNG — you browse to a file, select it, and Windows applies it using your chosen layout (fill, fit, center, etc.). The release note explicitly calls this out as a supported scenario. (blogs.windows.com)
- Channel spread: The Beta/Dev flight is documented by Microsoft. Separate Canary‑channel flights (higher build numbers in the 28020 series) have also surfaced similar notes in community summaries and forums describing builds like 28020.1495 carrying WebP support and small fixes; those Canary references are community-sourced and align with the same functional outcome: WebP files accepted as desktop backgrounds on devices where the flag is enabled. Because Canary posts can be terse and gated, community reports remain the best corroboration for those particular build numbers.
- Fixes and known issues bundled with the flights: Microsoft’s posts emphasize a modest set of UX fixes (Start menu, Taskbar autohide behavior, Settings crashes, Bluetooth battery reporting, File Explorer quirks, etc.) and list known issues (for example, some secondary-monitor black-screen reports). These are the usual small reliability and stability updates that accompany preview builds and are documented in the same Insider posts that list WebP support. (blogs.windows.com)
Why WebP for wallpapers matters (practical benefits)
WebP is a modern image format designed for the web and widely adopted by sites and wallpaper services because it typically delivers smaller file sizes than JPEG or PNG for comparable visual quality. Adding WebP to the shell wallpaper pipeline reduces friction and improves efficiency in several practical ways:
- No conversion step required — users who download wallpapers from websites that serve WebP can set them as backgrounds directly from Settings rather than opening an editor to "save as" JPG/PNG first. This eliminates a repetitive, user-level chore that introduced needless friction for many power users and themers.
- Smaller storage and sync footprints — for high-resolution wallpapers and theme packs, WebP’s superior compression reduces disk usage and makes cloud-syncing or centralized wallpaper distribution lighter on bandwidth and storage. That benefit compounds for theme stores, wallpaper apps, and enterprise deployments distributing branded imagery to many devices.
- Cleaner authoring and distribution — wallpaper designers and administrators can publish a single WebP asset instead of bundling multiple legacy formats (JPG/PNG). This simplifies packaging for theme creators and imaging teams.
- Alignment with modern web ecosystems — browsers and many apps have supported WebP for years; bringing parity to the personalization shell closes a notable gap between how images behave in browsers and on the desktop.
Technical verification and implementation questions
Microsoft’s Insider post is explicit about the supported user behavior (you can now set .webp images as desktop backgrounds), but it
does not publish internal implementation details about the wallpaper pipeline. That omission leaves two technical questions open:
- Does the shell now decode WebP natively at render time (pure native decode), or
- Does it transcode WebP into an intermediate bitmap and cache that for the wallpaper pipeline?
Community hands‑on testing indicates that the Settings picker accepts WebP files transparently and that applied WebP wallpapers behave the same as JPG/PNG in terms of layout and caching. However, the presence or absence of a native decode path, the specifics of caching (where the file is cached and whether the raw WebP is preserved), and memory/decoder implications across GPU/driver combinations remain undocumented by Microsoft. Until Microsoft provides platform engineering notes or a public documentation update, treat internal decode-path claims as
unverified and flagged for caution.
Why this distinction matters:
- Native decode could imply a lower CPU/memory overhead for some scenarios and better fidelity for alpha/animated WebP variants.
- Transcoding to a cached bitmap may impact disk usage differently and could influence the behavior of features that rehydrate the wallpaper (e.g., theme sync, logon background restoration).
- Enterprise management and imaging tools that inspect or manipulate cached wallpaper assets may need to account for file-type differences.
We attempted to locate a published Microsoft engineering note or support article explicitly describing the wallpaper decode pipeline for WebP and did not find one at the time of writing; that absence is explicitly called out in both Microsoft’s user-focused post and community summaries, so any detailed inference should be presented as provisional. (
blogs.windows.com)
Cross-checks — independent corroboration
To meet journalistic verification standards we cross-referenced Microsoft’s official Windows Insider blog with independent coverage and community testing reports:
- Official confirmation: Windows Insider Blog post for Build 26220.7653 lists WebP support under Desktop Background. This is the authoritative statement from Microsoft that documents the user-facing behavior. (blogs.windows.com)
- Editorial corroboration: WindowsLatest, Windows Central, PureInfoTech, WindowsReport and WindowsForum threads reproduced and tested the change, reporting that WebP files can be selected and applied like other images. These outlets also emphasized the staged rollout (CFR) and noted that the update is primarily a Beta/Dev preview at this point.
- Community corroboration for Canary traces: Forum threads and Reddit posts document a Canary build in the 28020.* series (community writeups referred to builds such as 28020.1371 and community notes referencing 28020.1495) that also mention WebP support and other small fixes. Those community records line up functionally with the Beta/Dev announcements but are not substitutes for an official Canary announcement when it’s missing. Use caution when citing build-specific KB numbers for Canary flight threads without an official Microsoft blog link.
Enterprise and IT pro implications
This is a low-risk, high-utility change, but administrators should still evaluate implications before broadly adopting preview bits in a managed environment.
Key considerations:
- Controlled Feature Rollout fragmentation: Microsoft’s CFR means identical devices may show different behaviors during preview. Do not assume uniform visibility when piloting or scripting deployments. Test on representative hardware and account configurations. (blogs.windows.com)
- Automation and imaging: Existing scripts, Group Policy templates, or management workflows that set wallpapers programmatically may assume JPG/PNG/BMP. Audit those scripts to confirm they accept .webp or update them to do so. Some provisioning tools validate file extensions or MIME types and may need tweaking.
- Bandwidth and storage: If you run a centralized wallpaper service for thousands of endpoints, switching to WebP can save substantial disk and network resources. Validate quality and compression settings during a pilot before a large-scale rollout.
- Accessibility and compatibility testing: Verify Narrator, high-contrast themes, and other assistive technologies behave as expected when the new wallpaper format is in use. Modern WinUI updates in the same flights mean some other UI flows are changing too; test those together. (blogs.windows.com)
- Lock screen pipeline: Microsoft’s announcement was specific to the Desktop Background personalization path. Do not assume the Lock screen pipeline or assigned access wallpaper behavior changed in the same way unless you validate it. The lock screen and desktop path are often separate in implementation.
Video wallpapers — why they’re not part of this story (yet)
There’s a compelling community narrative around native video wallpapers (a modern DreamScene), and pieces of that capability have been observed in earlier Dev/Canary leaks. But that capability remains experimental and is not part of the verified WebP wallpaper change we're reporting:
- The WebP wallpaper change is documented in Microsoft’s official Insider notes; video wallpaper traces have been discovered by community sleuths in other, earlier builds and often require feature-flag tools or experimental toggles to expose. Microsoft has not announced a general rollout for video wallpapers, nor published guidance on codecs, battery impact, or enterprise controls for such a feature. Treat native video wallpaper as “in development” rather than “shipped.”
- If and when Microsoft decides to ship video wallpaper as a supported scenario, expect them to publish engineering notes (supported codecs, power/battery implications, enterprise controls, and accessibility guidance) because those are the areas that need explicit guardrails for broad adoption.
How to try WebP wallpapers today (step-by-step)
If you are an Insider and want to test WebP wallpaper support, here’s the straightforward sequence:
- Enroll a non-essential test device in the Windows Insider Program (Beta or Dev channel recommended for the documented build).
- In Settings > Windows Update > Windows Insider Program, choose the Beta or Dev channel and enable the “get the latest updates as soon as they’re available” toggle if you want faster visibility of staged features. (blogs.windows.com)
- Check Windows Update and install the latest preview cumulative update. Confirm your build number: open Settings > System > About or run winver. The Beta/Dev blog post references Build 26220.7653 (KB5074157) for the WebP change. (blogs.windows.com)
- Open Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background. Choose “Picture” and click Browse — navigate to a .webp file saved locally. Select and apply it. If the file is accepted and applied like a JPG/PNG, the feature is enabled on your device.
Troubleshooting tips:
- If the Settings picker does not show .webp files, your device may not yet have the CFR flag enabled for the feature even if the binary is installed. Wait a day, check for an updated flight, or try establishing a device with a clean Insider enrollment for testing. (blogs.windows.com)
- On Canary devices, follow community changelogs and the Insider blog for the exact build KB; Canary builds move quickly and can contain transient regressions — use Canary only in isolated test labs.
Strengths, limitations, and risks — critical analysis
Strengths
- User convenience: Eliminates a repetitive conversion step for large numbers of users who download wallpapers from the web.
- Storage/bandwidth savings: WebP’s compression reduces payload sizes for wallpaper galleries and corporate theme packages.
- Consistency: Harmonizes desktop personalization with a widely used web image format, lowering the cognitive load for users and creators.
Limitations / Unknowns
- Implementation details undisclosed: Microsoft did not publish whether the shell decodes WebP natively or transcodes to an intermediate cached bitmap; that technical gap means corner-case behavior (decoder quality, alpha handling, caching) is not yet verifiable. Proceed cautiously if you depend on precise decode semantics.
- Staged rollout and fragmentation: CFR means not all devices will behave the same way even on identical builds; this complicates pilot plans and automation testing. (blogs.windows.com)
Risks for IT
- Automation breakage: Scripts or management tools that assume specific extensions may fail to handle WebP unless updated. Review and test.
- Preview instability: If you test on Canary or Dev channel devices, expect potential regressions in unrelated areas (File Explorer, display drivers, etc.). Canary is for early experiments and should not be used in production.
Recommendations for users, enthusiasts, and IT teams
- Consumers and enthusiasts: Try WebP wallpapers on a test device if you’re an Insider; this is a low-friction enhancement that improves day-to-day convenience. If you’re not an Insider, wait for the feature to arrive on public channels via general servicing.
- Enthusiasts looking for video backgrounds: Keep watching the Dev/Canary traces and community tooling — but treat the video-wallpaper story as experimental. Until Microsoft publishes a formal blogpost with supported codecs and policy controls, rely on third‑party tools for production use.
- IT/Enterprise: Pilot the change in a lab environment. Confirm that automation, MDM/Intune policies, and imaging scripts handle .webp assets correctly, and audit your wallpaper distribution pipelines for compatibility and compression settings. Don’t push Canary builds into staging or production images. (blogs.windows.com)
The bottom line
This is a small, practical win for Windows 11 personalization: native WebP wallpaper support removes an annoying, repetitive step for users and helps align the desktop with the web’s dominant image format. Microsoft’s official Insider release notes for Build 26220.7653 document the capability, and independent outlets and community testers have verified the behavior on devices where the feature flag is enabled. For most users the change is a convenience upgrade; for IT professionals it’s an operational efficiency that warrants a short pilot to verify automation and distribution pipelines. Meanwhile, the more ambitious idea of native video wallpapers remains experimental — interesting, but not yet shipped as a supported feature.
If you’re an Insider and want to test the change, use a non‑critical device: install the preview flight, confirm the build, and try selecting a .webp image from Settings > Personalization > Desktop Background. If you’re an admin or imaging engineer, validate your distribution scripts and MDM profiles before rolling WebP wallpapers into broader deployments. And if you’re waiting for the feature on production systems, expect it to appear in stable channels only after Microsoft completes the staged CFR ramp and resolves any remaining reliability concerns. (
blogs.windows.com)
Conclusion: a modest, well-executed polish that improves day-to-day workflows — and a reminder that some of the most appreciated UX wins are the ones that eliminate a little everyday friction.
Source: Neowin
https://www.neowin.net/news/windows...ebp-support-for-desktop-backgrounds-and-more/