rSlide

A lightweight desktop slideshow and video player for Windows that turns your photo and video collection into an animated live wallpaper.

What it does: rSlide runs fullscreen behind all your windows, continuously displaying your images and videos with smooth transitions and cinematic effects. Perfect for showcasing your photo library on a second monitor, digital photo frame, or as an ambient desktop background.

Why it's different: Unlike traditional screensavers or wallpaper tools, rSlide never interrupts your workflow—it stays behind your windows, supports both images and videos, handles huge collections (100K+ files on network storage), and requires zero configuration beyond pointing it at your folders.

Features

• Mixed media playback — Supports both images and videos in the same playlist
• Extensive format support — 14 image formats (JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, WebP, HEIC, HEIF, AVIF, etc.) and 7 video formats (MP4, WMV, AVI, MOV, M4V, MKV, WebM)
• Background operation — Runs behind all windows as a live wallpaper; never steals focus
• Smooth transitions — 5 transition effects (Crossfade, MorphZoom, SoftWipe, ParallaxReveal, ScaleDissolve) plus Ken Burns slow pan & zoom
• Smart performance — Background directory scanning, preload caching, stale task cancellation, optimized decode resolution
• Zero dependencies — Uses built-in WPF and Windows Media Foundation; no external codecs required
• Multiple playback modes — Random, Newest-first, Oldest-first, Sequential
• Network folder support — Scans UNC paths and slow network storage without blocking the UI

Requirements

• Windows 10/11
• .NET Framework 4.8 (pre-installed)

Installation

1. Copy rSlide.exe to any folder
2. Run it once -- an rSlide.ini config file is created
3. Edit rSlide.ini to add your image folder paths
4. Run rSlide.exe again

Configuration (rSlide.ini)

[Paths]
; Bare paths, one per line. Scanned recursively.
; Supports both local and UNC paths. Mix images and videos freely.
C:\Users\Public\Pictures
\\server\photos

[Display]
DisplayDuration=8.0           ; seconds per image (videos play to completion)
TransitionDurationPercent=20.0

[Playback]
; Random | NewestFirst | OldestFirst | Sequential
PlaybackMode=Random

[Transitions]
; Uncommented lines are enabled. Comment out (;) to disable.
; Comment out ALL for instant cuts.
Crossfade
MorphZoom
SoftWipe
ParallaxReveal
ScaleDissolve
KenBurns
;
; KenBurns parameters (uncomment to change defaults):
; KenBurnsDuration=10.0
; KenBurnsMaxZoom=1.3

Controls

Click the slideshow window to give it keyboard focus.

Navigation

Key	Action
Right / Left	Next / Previous file
Ctrl+Right / Ctrl+Left	Seek video forward / backward 5s
Home / End	First / Last file
PageUp / PageDown	Skip forward / back 10 files

Playback

Key	Action
Space	Pause / Resume (works for images and videos)
Up / Down	Increase / Decrease display duration (images only)

Modes

Key	Action
R	Random mode
N	Newest-first mode
S	Sequential mode
K	Toggle Ken Burns effect

Display

Key	Action
I	Toggle info overlay
D	Show desktop (minimize other windows)

File Management

Key	Action
O	Open current file in Explorer
Delete	Delete file (with confirmation)
Ctrl+Delete	Delete file (no confirmation)
Escape	Exit

Right-click the system tray icon for quick controls.

Technical Details

Supported Formats

Images (14 formats via WIC):

• JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
• PNG (.png)
• BMP (.bmp)
• GIF (.gif)
• TIFF (.tif, .tiff)
• WebP (.webp)
• HEIC/HEIF (.heic, .heif)
• AVIF (.avif)
• Windows HD Photo (.wdp, .jxr)
• ICO (.ico)

Video (7 formats via Windows Media Foundation):

• MP4/M4V (.mp4, .m4v)
• Windows Media (.wmv)
• AVI (.avi)
• QuickTime (.mov)
• Matroska (.mkv)
• WebM (.webm)

Performance Optimizations

• Background scanning — Directory enumeration runs on a background thread with progress reporting
• Preload caching — Next image is decoded ahead of time (current + 1 ahead in cache)
• Cancellation tokens — Rapid navigation cancels in-flight preloads to avoid wasted work
• Decode scaling — Images decoded at screenWidth * kenBurnsMaxZoom to prevent upscale artifacts at peak zoom
• Frozen bitmaps — All decoded images are frozen for cross-thread safety and performance

Video Behavior

• Videos play to completion (ignore display duration timer)
• Silent playback (volume = 0)
• Auto-advance after MediaEnded event
• Smooth crossfade transition when entering a video
• Ctrl+Left / Ctrl+Right seeks within the current video
• Left / Right always navigates to the previous/next file

Building from source

cd rSlide
build.bat

Output: bin\Release\rSlide.exe (x64, .NET 4.8 WPF)

License

MIT License — see source code headers for details.