How to enable the amazing animation effects Microsoft has hidden in Windows 11

Every -- well, almost every -- new build of Windows 11 has new features, options or settings to explore. Some are obvious, some less so. With the latest release of Windows 11, Microsoft has hidden some seriously impressive new animations.

These animations appear in the Settings app; when you roll your mouse cursor over the icons to the left of the app, they now come to life. But the animations do not appear by default, Even if you have Windows 11 build 25188 installed, there are still steps you need to take to unlock the special animation effects.

See also:

• Microsoft is preparing to release Windows 11 2022 Update -- the update formerly known as Windows 11 22H2
• KB5015878 update broke audio in Windows but Microsoft has a fix... of sorts
• Microsoft is displaying ads in yet another of its apps; Windows-maker gets sneaky in mobile Outlook

It's not clear why Microsoft has chosen to hide these new animations by default. It could be that the company simply feels they are not ready for everyone to see, and it is possible that there are plans to extend the animations to other areas of the operating system such as the Start menu.

As you can see in the tweet below from Neowin's Taras Buria, the animations are a cut above the usual lackluster effects that adorn Windows:

So how can you go about enabling these? Sadly, there is no simple check box for you to enable -- instead you will have to use a special tool to unlock the animations. That tool is Vivetool, something we have mentioned previously.

1. Ensure that you have Windows 11 build 25188 installed
2. Head over to GitHub to download Vivetool and extract it
3. Launch Windows Terminal in Administrator mode, switch to the Command Prompt profile#
4. Switch to the folder to which you have extracted Vivetool, enter the command vivetool /enable /id:34878152 and press Enter
5. Restart Windows and you should see the new animations in the Settings app

Image credit: mundissima / Shutterstock