How to disable background animations?

[b2007929]

There are flying particles on the background during gameplay and in the main menu.

[GreeN]

You cannot disable them in the menu, but you can press the Insert key in-game to rotate through the levels of graphical detail.

[StepS]

If you install wkSnow, you get the option to turn background stars into snow in the main menu. You can also configure their amount. However, 1 snowflake is the minimum.
Newer versions of SuperFrontendHD will soon allow disabling background debris in the game menus.
The alternative workaround is making graphics\Background Stuff\stars.bmp and spanner.bmp files all-black (which makes them transparent). However, particle simulation will still take place, so the main menu performance will remain at its regular level.