A general notice to those Updating to Windows 11 24H2 and using Wallpaper Engine

[𝔸 ℕ 𝕋 ℝ 𝕆 𝕏]

As of September 30th Microsoft has confirmed an issue with wallpaper customization apps not working on 24H2.

Read fully here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2#3370msgdesc

 "After installing Windows 11, version 24H2, some 
wallpaper customization applications might not launch or function correctly. Multiple applications are affected, and symptoms can include wallpapers not appearing correctly, icons disappearing from the desktop, loss of desktop preview functionality, issues with virtual desktops, or error messages displayed by the application." 

Currently there are two solutions to solving this: Wallpaper Engine devs need to update the application for compatibility, or a more hands on solution would be try restarting explorer.exe.

[Tim]

We already made some changes to Wallpaper Engine to ensure compatibility, some other apps might not work. Are you personally having issues with Wallpaper Engine on 24H2 or is this just a general heads-up?

[Kozero]

I upgraded to 24H2 yesterday, and Wallpaper Engine will seemingly reload every few seconds. I've tried enabling/disabling "protect against crashes" and "safe start", but it makes no difference.

I've uploaded a short recording here: https://files.catbox.moe/eq5tt7.mp4

Nvidia Driver: 565.90
OS Build: 26100.1882

An observation I just noticed is that if I have the Wallpaper Engine UI open, the wallpaper works fine. Once I close it I get the reloading issue.

[𝔸 ℕ 𝕋 ℝ 𝕆 𝕏]

Originally posted by Tim:

We already made some changes to Wallpaper Engine to ensure compatibility, some other apps might not work. Are you personally having issues with Wallpaper Engine on 24H2 or is this just a general heads-up?

Just a general heads up. Is the changes implemented yet? I know other people are having issues though.

[Lorien]

Yes just updated to 24H2 and Wallpaper Engine is not usable anymore, looks kinda like wallpapers are crashing and reloading every few seconds.

[wbino]

This folks is why you ALWAYS stay an OS behind.

[𝔸 ℕ 𝕋 ℝ 𝕆 𝕏]

Originally posted by wbino:

This folks is why you ALWAYS stay an OS behind.

Or just delay updates. Also never manually update unless you know for sure everything is going to work fine, there is a reason Microsoft gradually rolls out big feature updates for most people, and the most common reason is compatibility if there is known compatibility issues with different systems then you wont get the update until its fixed. Most times microsoft will tell you the common bugs on the latest version on their website.

In other words: read!

[WhiteSalt]

Wallpaper Engine doesn't work properly on Windows 11 24H2

I just updated Windows 11 24H2, version 26100.1742, and since then Wallpaper Engine is unable to play wallpapers automatically after booting up the PC, the wallpaper program is already started in the background, and any wallpapers set after opening the main interface will not play.
Unless I go into Windows settings and manually switch themes once or restart explorer.exe to resume wallpaper playback, I need to do this every time I start the PC, which is obviously very inconvenient :(

[Tim]

We worked pretty closely with Microsoft to get the app to work on Windows 11 24H2 and we did not have any issues on our local setups anymore, so these problems might be limited to certain hardware / driver / software combinations.

If you experience any issues on 24H2 (stable, not Windows Insider), it would be super useful if you could send a log file from our analysis tool:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool_support.html

Any additional videos or descriptions are also helpful. We'll take a look.

[𝔸 ℕ 𝕋 ℝ 𝕆 𝕏]

Originally posted by Tim:

We worked pretty closely with Microsoft to get the app to work on Windows 11 24H2 and we did not have any issues on our local setups anymore, so these problems might be limited to certain hardware / driver / software combinations.

If you experience any issues on 24H2 (stable, not Windows Insider), it would be super useful if you could send a log file from our analysis tool:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool_support.html

Any additional videos or descriptions are also helpful. We'll take a look.

I guess my question would be is this fix implemented into the stable version of Wallpaper Engine or the beta version?

[WhiteSalt]

Originally posted by Tim:

We worked pretty closely with Microsoft to get the app to work on Windows 11 24H2 and we did not have any issues on our local setups anymore, so these problems might be limited to certain hardware / driver / software combinations.

If you experience any issues on 24H2 (stable, not Windows Insider), it would be super useful if you could send a log file from our analysis tool:

https://help.wallpaperengine.io/en/debug/scantool_support.html

Any additional videos or descriptions are also helpful. We'll take a look.

I am currently using the stable version of 24H2 and have sent an email containing the logs.

[WhiteSalt]

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/release-health/status-windows-11-24h2#3370msgdesc
Update: Microsoft confirms that this problem exists, see section “Wallpaper customization applications might not work as expected”.

[Tim]

Older versions of the app are largely completely broken, this also applies to other similar apps. However, the stable release of Wallpaper Engine already contains significant fixes that we worked on with Microsoft, so I assume Microsoft's warning isn't directly related to Wallpaper Engine 2.5 or newer.

However, if there are any issues that remain, we will definitely check it out. @WhiteSalt, I have replied to your email, thanks!

[Kozero]

Looking at the logs as suggested, I can see LockScreen::SetImageFileAsync being called every 5-10 seconds.

Disabling both the "override wallpaper/lockscreen image" in Wallpaper Engine settings fixes the issue.

Will email my logs shortly.

[Lorien]

Also just sent in the requested Logs, hope it Helps.

[Lorien]

Just saw your Post Kozero, deselecting both override functions did fix the issue also on my side ! Awesome!