Steam’s popular customization tool Wallpaper Engine is pulling thousands of wallpapers from its Workshop after hackers used the feature to spread malware. The change targets “Application” wallpapers, a category that lets creators run external Windows programs as desktop backgrounds.
The decision follows a security warning from Kaspersky, which found attackers hiding malicious code inside Wallpaper Engine uploads on Steam Workshop. The infected wallpapers looked and worked like normal backgrounds. In the background, though, they could steal Steam accounts and other sensitive data from a victim’s PC.
Why Wallpaper Engine Is Removing Application Wallpapers
In a blog post on Steam, the Wallpaper Engine team confirmed it will permanently remove support for Application wallpapers from the Workshop. The developers said the legacy feature is no longer worth the security risk it carries.
Application wallpapers work differently from standard Wallpaper Engine creations. Instead of rendering entirely inside the app, they can launch external Windows executable (.exe) files. That functionality made them useful for advanced users in the app’s early days, but it also gave hackers an easy way to disguise malware as a desktop background.
The team said Application wallpapers make up just 0.5% of all wallpapers on the platform. Most users never touched the feature at all, since it stays hidden by default inside the app.
Developers Call The Old Feature Too Risky
The Wallpaper Engine team admitted the original design choices behind Application wallpapers have not aged well. “The assumptions we made back then were well intended but quite naive,” the developers wrote.
They added that letting anyone freely share .exe files through the Workshop had become a risk they were no longer willing to accept.
