BACKGROUND slideshow duration settings do not work in Windows 11

Question

BACKGROUND slideshow duration settings do not work in Windows 11

angela newman 0

No matter what I set the timing to, e.g. 1 minute, 10 minutes, etc., the slideshow changes every 5 seconds. Please help.

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3 answers

Your answer

Answer 1

Hello,

Please check the Slideshow setting in Power Options.

If it is set to “Paused”, Windows will ignore the timing you choose.

Open Control Panel → Power Options
Click “Change plan settings”
Click “Change advanced power settings”
Expand “Desktop background settings”>“Slideshow” Make sure it is set to “Available”.
If the issue still does not improve, create a new local administrator account and check whether the slideshow works correctly there. You can create a new account using these commands: Right‑click Start and open “Terminal (Admin)”. The following example creates an account named TestUser with the password 2345:


   net user TestUser 2345 /add

After typing this, press Enter.


   net localgroup administrators TestUser /add

After typing this, press Enter.

Answer 2

nobuko c 124.7K Independent Advisor

Thanks for the update.

If Slideshow now switches back to “Picture”, the background configuration files may not be loading correctly. Please check the following:

Press Win + R and enter: %localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\Themes
In this folder, what file names do you see? Please tell me exactly what is listed there.

After checking this, also let me know whether the same issue happens in the new local administrator account. This will help determine whether the problem is profile‑specific or system‑wide.

nobuko c 124.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-06-08T02:32:09.95+00:00

To check whether this might be related to an older Windows build, please also run Win + R, type “winver”, and tell me the version and OS build number shown in the window.
angela newman 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T16:33:04.0666667+00:00

The file is Custom, modified yesterday, File Type Windows Theme file, 4 KB

I am running Windows 11
angela newman 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T16:47:26.3866667+00:00

I was able to create a slideshow in my original account, but it still does not honor the interval settings. It does on the first couple of photos, and then starts changing them every 3-4 seconds again. In the test user profile I am having the same issue as my original account, with the background settings not allowing me to select slideshow. If I click on slideshow it immediately changes back to picture. I performed the same troubleshooting checking power options and slideshow is available. BTW this lapltop is 3 months old and I haven't done any setting modifications except trying to set up this slideshow.
nobuko c 124.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-06-08T22:13:28.3266667+00:00

The slideshow interval should work reliably with any value (1 minute,10 minutes, etc.). The fact that your system always switches after 5 seconds means Windows is not saving or applying the timing value at

all. This is not caused by your settings.

To verify this, I tested the slideshow behavior on a clean Windows 11 environment. Even there, the slideshow engine showed unstable behavior:

some monitors switched correctly, others switched later, and sometimes one monitor did not switch at all. This confirms that the Windows 11 wallpaper/slideshow engine can become unreliable in certain builds.

In your case, the timing resets to 5 seconds even on a single‑monitor system and even in a new user account. That indicates a more severe Windows‑side issue where the configuration files are not being created

or the timing value is not being stored.

Once you share the version and OS build number from Winver, we can check whether your device is running one of the affected builds.
angela newman 0 Reputation points

2026-06-08T22:34:19.2566667+00:00

I am running Windows 11, Version 25H2, OS, Build 26200.8457. So you are saying this is a defect in Windows?
nobuko c 124.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-06-09T04:22:44.5133333+00:00
The latest preview update includes improvements that speed up app launches and core shell experiences such as the Start menu, Search, and Action Center.

It is unclear whether these optimizations will directly resolve the slideshow issue, but they may help stabilize some of the underlying shell behavior.

Updating may still be worth trying.

Here is the information from my test environment:

Windows 11 Pro

Version 25H2

OS Build 26200.8524

(latest preview updates installed)

While I cannot make a definitive statement, the behavior I am seeing on my own test system strongly suggests that this issue is caused by a Windows-side bug. On my triple‑monitor setup, the slideshow timing behaves inconsistently and irregularly. The instability also varies depending on whether the system is using a single‑monitor or multi‑monitor configuration.

To verify whether Windows is correctly saving the slideshow configuration,please check the following registry locations.

Confirm that Windows is actually switching to Slideshow mode

Open both:

Settings → Personalization → Background

Registry Editor

Then navigate to:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Wallpapers

Look at the value BackgroundType:

0 = Picture mode

2 = Slideshow mode

After switching the UI to Slideshow, press F5 in Registry Editor to refresh.

If BackgroundType does not stay at 2, Windows is not saving the mode correctly.

Verify whether the slideshow interval is being saved

The actual slideshow timing is stored here:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Personalization\Desktop Slideshow

The value Interval is the timing in milliseconds.

Examples:

60000 = 1 minute

86400000 = 1 day

Temporary mitigation when Windows falls back to Picture mode

Some users have reported that the following steps reduce the frequency of

Windows reverting to Picture mode:

1). Set the background to Picture in Personalization.

2.) Choose any image and apply it to All desktops.

3). Switch back to Slideshow mode.

4). Move or rename the temporary image you selected.

This forces Windows to rebuild some of the background configuration files.

Additional steps you can try

Perform a clean boot to rule out third‑party interference.
How to perform a clean boot in Windows

Use Windows Update to download the latest repair build and apply it.
Fix issues by reinstalling the current version of Windows

If none of these steps improve the behavior, then the issue is almost certainly a Windows defect. In that case, please submit feedback through the Feedback Hub so Microsoft can investigate and address it in a future servicing update.
If none of these steps improve the behavior, then the issue is almost certainly a Windows defect. In that case, please submit feedback through the Feedback Hub so Microsoft engineers will investigate this issue.

Send feedback to Microsoft with the Feedback Hub app
nobuko c 124.7K Reputation points Independent Advisor

2026-06-09T05:02:28.8+00:00

I apologize for the confusion. I added a strikethrough because the previous wording was inaccurate and could be misunderstood.

Answer 3

angela newman 0

Instructions did not help. Now I can't even create a slideshow. When I select slideshow it reverts back to picture and won't let me create a slideshow, Now what

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