Your desktop.
Haunted by video.(the good kind.)
Drop in any MP4, MKV or AVI and it floats above your desktop as a translucent, click-through layer — a movie behind your code, a stream behind your spreadsheet. Nothing to render, nothing to configure. Ambient, not intrusive.
You already own the movie. You just never watch it.
Three familiar failure modes — the reason a “watch later” list stays a list, forever.
The player takes the whole screen
One click on VLC and your entire workspace collapses. Windows scatter, focus goes with them. Most days you close it before pressing play.
Picture-in-Picture ignores local files
Browser PiP only fires for streaming tabs. Third-party tools want an account, a subscription, a cloud upload. None of them touch the file already on your drive.
The backlog only ever grows
Episodes you paid for, films you downloaded, series you meant to finish — added faster than watched, because work always wins before screen time starts.
BackDrop_ plays that video. Right there, on your desktop, behind your work. Not instead of it.
Running in under 60 seconds
Signed installer
No account, no cloud step. Windows shows the DigiCert signature. Done in one click.
Point at a file or folder
BackDrop_ starts playing it as a ghost overlay over your whole desktop, immediately.
Set the opacity
Slide from barely-there to fully visible. Match it to code, spreadsheets, a call.
Click straight through
Your mouse and keyboard ignore the video entirely. It just plays, quietly, behind everything.
Everything the idea needs. Nothing it doesn't.
Any format VLC plays
MP4 · MKV · AVI · MOV · WMV · WEBM. No conversion, no re-encode, no wait.
True click-through
Click, drag, scroll, sketch — every input passes straight to the desktop beneath.
Playlist engine
Load a whole folder. Shuffle, repeat, rotate through the day untouched.
Real-time effects
Brightness, contrast, saturation — dialed in live to match your lighting.
Global hotkeys
Hide, skip, fullscreen — full control without ever switching focus away.
Seven themes
The control panel matches your setup, not the other way around.
Why not just use Wallpaper Engine?
A fair question. Here's the actual difference — not a takedown.
| BackDrop_ | Wallpaper Engine | |
|---|---|---|
| Price | $18.99 once | ~$4 + per-item workshop cost |
| Plays over active apps, not just idle desktop | Yes | No |
| True mouse/keyboard click-through | Yes | Desktop only |
| Own local files, any format | Yes | Workshop-curated |
| Steam account required | No | Yes |
| Animated wallpaper marketplace | No | Yes — its strength |
One price. No subscription. Ever.
Try the real thing first. Then buy it outright, once.
No credit card. No account. Full features for 7 days.
- 7 days, fully unlocked
- No sign-up or sync
- Runs 100% locally
One payment. One personal machine. Free updates, forever.
- Unlimited runtime, no expiry
- Free automatic updates
- One key, one machine — no phoning home after
- Direct support from the person who built it
≈ the cost of one takeaway coffee. Yours forever, not for a month.
Also available on Microsoft Store (still v1.1.2 — v1.1.3 update pending Store approval)Real reviews land here as they come in.
BackDrop_ is early. Rather than fabricate quotes, this space stays visibly reserved until it's filled with real ones — first users, this is where you'd show up.
Straight answers
Does this slow down my PC?+
Playback runs on VLC's engine with hardware acceleration where available. Idle cost while paused is close to zero — it's designed to sit behind real work, not compete with it.
Is anything uploaded or tracked?+
No. Playback is 100% local. License activation sends only an anonymous hardware hash to verify your key — nothing about your files or usage ever leaves your machine.
What happens after the 7-day trial?+
The app locks until you buy a lifetime key. Nothing is deleted or disabled beyond that — your settings and playlists are exactly as you left them once activated.
Can I use one key on more than one PC?+
Each key activates on one personal machine at a time. Deactivate on an old machine before moving to a new one, straight from the app's license screen.
Mac or Linux support?+
Not yet. BackDrop_ is built directly on Win32's layered-window APIs for true click-through — Windows 10/11 only, for now.
Your desktop has been static long enough.
7 days free. No card, no account, no pressure.
