How to Set Up an Image Slideshow in Windows 10

Creating slideshows of your image files is an excellent way to show off your photographs, enhance a presentation, or just create a cool and unique background screen display. Windows 10 has some standard built-in tools for producing slideshows, and there are all kinds of third-party software packages available to give you more extensive slideshow options.

Set up a Desktop Slideshow in Windows 10

One easy way to create a slideshow is to use the slideshow wallpaper desktop options, which we briefly discussed in a “How to Customize the Windows 10 Desktop” tutorial article. With those options, you can add your photo slideshow to the Windows desktop.

Step 1

You can right-click the desktop and select Personalize > Background to open the slideshow options shown directly below.

Step 2

Select Slideshow from the Background drop-down menu. Then press the Browse button and select the folder that includes the images for the slideshow. The slideshow will display all the pictures in the folder. It’s that simple! Just create a folder with the images you want to display and copy your images to that folder; Windows will do the rest.

Step 3

Click the Change picture every drop-down menu to configure how long each image is displayed on your desktop. There are no extra options to select transition effects but you can configure how the images fit on the desktop. Click the Choose a fit drop-down menu to adjust those settings. If your slideshow includes smaller images, you might need to select options such as Center or Fill.

Set up a Screen saver Slideshow

Alternatively, you could set up a photo slideshow as a screen saver.

Step 1

You can set up a screen saver slideshow by right-clicking the desktop, selecting Personalize > Themes and Theme Settings. Then select Screen Saver to open the window directly below.

Step 2

Click the Screen saver drop-down menu and select Photos from there. Press Settings to open the window in the snapshot below. Click the Browse button to choose an image folder for the screen saver. Then you can also select three alternative slideshow speed settings from that window.

Step 3

Press Save to close that window. You can then enter a time in the Wait text box. For example, if you enter 10 the screen saver will play after 10 minutes if you don’t move the mouse. Then press Apply to confirm the selected screen saver settings.

Set up a Slideshow With the Photos App

The Photos app in Windows 10 also has slideshow options. You can open it from the Start menu. That organizes your photographs into albums based on date.

Click Albums on the left of the app window to open a list of albums. Click a thumbnail there to open the album as below. Then you can click the + Add or remove photos button to add some more related images to it. Select an image in the album, click the Pencil icon at the top and then press the Slideshow button to play the album images in a slideshow.

Setting up a Slideshow with LibreOffice Impress

The Windows 10 slideshow options are somewhat limited. It doesn’t include any options for transition effects or subtitles. As such, you might decide to set up a slideshow with third-party software. There are many programs you could set up a slideshow with, and one of those is the Impress presentation application that comes with the freeware LibreOffice suite.

You can add the LibreOffice suite to Windows 10, and other platforms, from this page.

Step 1

Press the Download Now button, and then click Windows as the OS and press the Download Version 6.3.6 button to save its setup wizard. Run through the setup wizard to install the office suite and Impress (open this page for further details). Once you’ve added the suite, click LibreOffice Impress to open the window below.

Step 2

Click the Properties button on the right toolbar to open a selection of slide layouts. Then right-click the Slides sidebar on the left and click New Slides to add new slides. Select a Blank Side layout from the Properties sidebar for all the slides included in the slideshow as below.

Step 3

Right-click one of the blank slides and select Set Background Image for Slide. Choose an image to include on the slide as pictured below. Press No on the Page Setting window that pops up. Add one slideshow image to each of the slides.

Step 4

Now press the Slide Transition button on the right toolbar. That will open a selection of slideshow transition effects as shown below. You can choose alternative transition effects for each of the slides. Alternatively, select an effect and press Apply to All Slides to include the same transition throughout the slideshow. Click the Play button at the bottom of the Slide Transition sidebar to preview the effects.

Customizing Your Slideshow

That sidebar also includes a couple of Advance Slide options. You can select the duration each slide displays for by clicking the Automatically after the radio button. Then input a time value in the text box, and press the Apply to All Slides button again to apply the setting to every image in the slideshow.

The best way to add subtitles to the slideshow is to select the Text Box option on the Drawing toolbar. Then drag and expand a text box on the image and enter some text in it. With the text box selected, click the Properties bar to open the formatting options shown below.

You can further format the text with the options there. You can choose new fonts for the box from the drop-down menu. Press the Bold, Italic, Underline, Shadow, and Strikethrough buttons to add that formatting to the subtitle. Click Font Color to choose a suitable text color.

The best way to add a background soundtrack for the slideshow is to select the first slide, click the Sound drop-down menu and then select ‘Other‘ sound. Then choose a song to add to the slideshow. Don’t click the Apply to All Slides button as the soundtrack will then restart when each slide switches.

You can play your photo slideshow by selecting Slide Show on the menu bar and clicking Start from the first Slide. That will play your slideshow from the beginning. You can press Esc to exit the presentation before it finishes.

Click File > Save as to save your photo slideshow. Alternatively, press the Ctrl + Shift + S hotkey to open the Save As window. You could save it with a PowerPoint file format by clicking the Save as type drop-down menu and selecting a Microsoft PowerPoint format from there.

You can set up photo slideshows with Windows 10 options and apps, Impress, or other additional software. The third-party software will certainly have more extensive options and transition effects, so it’s better to showcase photography with extra freeware programs.