https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4 DisplayFusion RSS: PC freezes when changing wallpaper Tue, 26 May 2026 03:57:51 GMT en hourly 1 https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/RSS/?TopicID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4 https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#12 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 18:47:33 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#12 DisplayFusion I don't run into that issue here, no. My guess would be that it's either related to your graphics card/video drivers, or some other drivers or software on your machine. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#11 Tue, 05 Jan 2016 12:14:05 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#11 DisplayFusion Hi,
Is it supposed to freeze like that, do you see the same issue?
I've just done a fresh install of Windows 10 over the holidays and I see the same freezing still happening. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#10 Fri, 18 Dec 2015 16:05:22 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#10 DisplayFusion Yeah, DisplayFusion uses the Windows API to set the wallpaper. The hooks should be exiting when you exit DisplayFusion, but if not, you can try disabling DisplayFusion from startup (Settings > Options tab), then reboot. DisplayFusionService will still start, but it doesn't hook anything. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#9 Thu, 17 Dec 2015 21:07:03 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#9 DisplayFusion If by 'exit DisplayFusion', you mean right-clicking the systray icon and selecting exit, then yes it freezes too. But this doesn't stop all the displayfusion stuff. All the open windows still have apphooks and things running, if the process manager is to be believed.

Is displayfusion using the built-in windows wallpaper changing function, or does it have its own method?
Is there a way to debug or monitor the wallpaper change to see where the freeze comes from? ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#8 Thu, 17 Dec 2015 19:51:10 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#8 DisplayFusion DF will still apply the wallpaper when you click OK, even if the image is already set, so that makes sense.

Definitely sounds like something is wonky there, if it's happening through the Windows desktop wallpaper settings as well. If you exit DisplayFusion before trying to set the wallpaper through the Windows Personalize control panel, does it still stutter? ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#7 Wed, 16 Dec 2015 21:44:07 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#7 DisplayFusion Tried that too now, still the same problem.
According to the performance measurements I did earlier, it doesn't seem to be a resource starvation issue. There's SOMETHING going on that just makes the whole computer freeze.
If I right-click the desktop and click 'personalize', I get the the built-in windows wallpaper selection screen. If I select any of these, the PC freezes for a moment too.
I don't know if it's Windows, or some displayfusion hook that has changed stuff, but just changing wallpapers makes the computer freeze.

Edit: There's another strangeness; I have the Advanced Option "Don't load random images on apply" active. If I open the Desktop Wallpaper option on Displayfusion, and then click "OK" without changing anything, I get the temporary freeze also. Even though the wallpaper isn't changing. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#6 Tue, 15 Dec 2015 18:27:12 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#6 DisplayFusion Ok, if you leave that option enabled, but also enable the "Run as a low priority process" option in the Advanced Settings, then restart DF, does that make any difference? ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#5 Mon, 14 Dec 2015 21:32:47 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#5 DisplayFusion I just tried that, unfortunately it makes no difference. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#4 Mon, 14 Dec 2015 21:19:29 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#4 DisplayFusion In the DisplayFusion Settings > Advanced Settings, can you enable "Wallpaper > Use Internal Wallpaper Processing" to see if that helps at all? That will force DisplayFusion to handle the wallpaper changes fully in DisplayFusion.exe, instead of starting up DisplayFusionSettings.exe to do it. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#3 Sat, 12 Dec 2015 12:59:17 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#3 DisplayFusion There's a CPU spike and Disk spike whenever the wallpaper changes.
It looks like DisplayFusion.exe spawns a DisplayFusionSettings.exe upon every wallpaper change, which terminates immediately afterwards.
According to Sysinternals process monitor, there's a Disk usage of 6MB/s on the DisplayFusion.exe, 279 file I/O operations and about 8-10% CPU usage.
DisplayFusionSettings.exe that spawns on every wallpaper change has disk usage of 118KB/s, 1226 file I/O operations and about 2-5% CPU usage.
The disk is a Crucial SSD mSata.
I've tried changing to a folder with smaller jpg files in it instead, but it makes no difference. There's still a 1-2 second complete desktop freeze until the new wallpaper appears. ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#2 Fri, 11 Dec 2015 16:18:43 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4#2 DisplayFusion It runs as Normal priority, so it shouldn't be able to affect the system that bad (from a CPU standpoint anyway). Is the disk usage really high when the wallpaper changes? ]]> https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4 Thu, 10 Dec 2015 22:06:40 GMT Binary Fortress Software https://www.displayfusion.com/Discussions/View/pc-freezes-when-changing-wallpaper/?ID=26a9b2c8-ab38-4667-8a71-5810fc88f6b4 DisplayFusion I'm using Beta 8.0 Beta 1 on Windows 10, and random wallpaper every 30 mins from a local dir of bmp and jpg files.

Every time the wallpaper changes, the whole computer freezes for a second; both sound, picture, mouse movement, keyboard typing, everything just stands still for 2 seconds or so until the new wallpaper appears.

Is the randomization, cropping, scaling, etc. not running in a low priority thread? Or am I having some other problem? ]]>