Windows 10: Windows 10 Wallpaper Slideshow Performance Penalty

So I've spent the better part of 3 weeks trying to diagnose a performance issue on my wife's PC.


The Problem

PC Gaming is important to her and having consistent performance while playing her MMO is absolutely critical.

Recently, I decided to be nice and liven up her background with a rotation of wallpapers of her favorite fandom. You'd never think something as simple as a wallpaper slideshow would impact her ability to game but you'd be dead wrong.


You will notice a ticking every minute. Those ticks cost about 15 FPS and would also result in input latency.


Her build

CPU: Ryzen 1600

MOBO: ASUS ROG B350-F

RAM: GSkill 2x8GB @ 3200Mhz CL16

GPU: ASUS GTX 1060 6GB

PSU: 650W Corsair CX650M

Cooler: CoolerMaster MasterLiquid 120

Win Ver: 2004


Troubleshooting

1. Updated Windows2. Updated all drivers and software

3. Rechecked all physical connections to the MOBO

4. Ensured BIOS was up-to-date

5. Disabled overclock to rule out power issues

6. 2 re-installs of Windows. 1 refresh and 1 from install media


The Solution

I started to take notice of the 1-minute interval and googled my symptom until I noticed a few other Window Support thread mentioning the same issue.

https://www.reddit.com/r/windowsins...ring_and_lag_when_background_changes_in_1903/

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...e-minute/5bdb4103-95c4-4bb1-90b7-4dc5906e42d2https://www.reddit.com/r/Escapefrom...ows_slideshow_caused_my_game_to_stutter_once/

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us...g-spikes/0ab3e66e-bdfe-4411-aeb0-b4bcef04f251


Upon disabling the slideshow I stopped seeing 'background ticking' within MSI Afterburner. My slideshow was set to change backgrounds ever 1 minute and that also coincided with my performance dips in-game or just background spikes at idle. Even my system with a 6600K OC'd to 4.6Ghz sees the idle CPU usage spike to nearly 100%

:)

 

Wallpaper slideshow is buggy

Hi,

We would like to know some information to better isolate the issue with wallpaper slideshow:

• Have you done any changes on your computer prior to the issue?
• Please let us know if this happens in Microsoft account or Local account?
• Have you tried a different folder with images and checked if the issue persists?
  
• What troubleshooting steps have you done so far?

We will wait for your response.

 

Bug using slideshow as background wallpaper

I've configured my windows to use slideshow as wallpaper and set the window theme based on color of the background picture. Using windows explorer, when the wallpaper changes if you are navigating through a list of itens then windoes selects the first
item from that list. Its annoying.

 

Slideshow Wallpaper Doesn't Sync. after Shutdown

I had a Windows 10 Pro 1909 and the Problem is, I Created a 24 hour Daytime cycle wallpapers for Slideshow and set it to 1hour Interval BUT, Unfortunately It wont Sync after Shutdown and it will pause to the last wallpaper. Any suggestions how to fix it?