Winter Wallpaper Changer for Windows XP
Published: November 13, 2003
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It's never too early to deck the halls, especially when you can do it digitally. The Winter Wallpaper Changer is a dynamic and fun tool that puts a rotating series of winter landscapes on your desktop. Best of all, when the holiday season is over you can change the winter scenes to spring scenes. You can even configure the tool to display certain wallpaper images on any day of the year or play a full-screen slideshow of your favorite photos.
This program works with Windows XP only.
View a rotating series of winter landscapes
Looking at the same desktop wallpaper all day is a bore, but manually changing it takes time. The Winter Wallpaper changer keeps your desktop dynamic by changing the scenes for you.
1. | Download and install the program. Note This program is included in the Digital Photography Winter Fun Pack 2003. |
2. | Right-click the Wallpaper Changer icon in the Taskbar notification area and select Configure Winter Fun Wallpaper. You can also double-click the Wallpaper Changer icon to open the program. |
3. | At the top of the Winter Fun Wallpaper Changer Options dialog box, select Change Wallpaper at Intervals. |
4. | Select a folder. The winter images are located in "\My Documents\My Pictures\Windows XP Fun Pack\Winter 2003\Wallpaper." |
5. | When you click on the folder you'll see a quick preview of the images. This does not represent the time interval at which the pictures will change. If you don't want to see the preview, uncheck the Quick preview of all images box. |
6. | Sometimes the shape of the image will result in some background appearing behind the image. Choose the background color from the drop-down menu. |
7. | Click and drag the slider to determine how long you want each image displayed. |
8. | Click Apply or OK. |
Use one still image as you desktop wallpaper
1. | Double-click the taskbar icon or right-click the taskbar icon and select Configure Wallpaper. |
2. | Click the button next to Show One Still Image. |
3. | Click the down arrow to browse for the image you'd like to use. |
4. | Select the image. |
5. | Click Apply or OK. |
You can edit the image currently selected in the File Selection List by clicking the Edit button next to the image file name or by double-clicking the small preview image. The file will open in your default image editor.
Use the Options panel to customize the Winter Wallpaper Changer
Add a folder of your own images to the cycle of ever-changing wallpaper
By default, the Winter Wallpaper Changer shows winter images included with the Wallpaper Changer. The winter images are located in the folder "\My Documents\My Pictures\Windows XP Fun Pack\Winter 2003\Wallpaper". You can change which images display by adding or removing images from the Wallpaper folder or by selecting a different folder of images to use as wallpaper. Here's how to add a different folder.
1. | Double-click the taskbar icon or right-click the taskbar icon and select Configure Wallpaper. |
2. | In the Options window you'll see a list of folders on your computer. |
3. | Browse through the folders that contain images you'd like to use as your wallpaper. You can preview the images by selecting the folder. |
4. | Once you've selected all the folders that contain images you'd like to rotate on your desktop click Apply or OK. |
If you select a large drive or folder containing thousands of files, the search for images can take a long time, slowing the Wallpaper Changer and your computer's speed. For best performance, avoid selecting very large folders or network drives and only check Include All Subfolders on folders local to your computer with a reasonable number of image files (less than 600).
Program the tool to show certain images on special days throughout the year
The Wallpaper Changer has the ability to display special images on any day of the year. For example, you could have special wallpaper images appear on holidays or birthdays.
When you installed the tool it created one subfolder for each day of the year. Just copy the images you want to appear into the folder for that day. If you place any images in that folder, they will override normal wallpaper settings on that day only.
Here's how to have special images appear on a given date.
1. | Double-click the taskbar icon or right-click the taskbar icon and select Configure Wallpaper. |
2. | Check the Override Wallpaper on Special Days checkbox. |
3. | Copy images into the folder for the date you wish them to appear. For example, if you wish to have 4 holiday images appear in rotation on Dec 25th, copy those images into the \My Documents\My Pictures\Windows XP Fun Pack\Winter 2003\Wallpaper\Dec_25. |
If you don't have special images for a particular date, your desktop will display your normal wallpaper.
Play a full-screen slideshow of images
In addition to making your wallpaper more fun, the Wallpaper Changer allows you to view a set of images as a full-screen slideshow.
1. | Double-click the taskbar icon or right-click the taskbar icon and select Configure Wallpaper. |
2. | Browse for your images in the folder selection list. |
3. | Click the Full-screen Slideshow button. |
The images will change every 1-2 seconds, regardless of the speed setting set for wallpaper changing.
