I've tried a few wallpaper changing apps in my time, but none of them really had the feature-set I wanted. There's a few main features I wanted in a wallpaper-changing app:
- It should support multiple monitors. I have two monitors on my work computer, but all the wallpaper changer apps I tried only detected the resolution of the first one, so if I set them to "auto-resize", the image would be the same on both. What I ended up having to do was resize the images manually, and set the app to not resize, and "tile" the wallpaper. But that got annoying, cause it meant I had to resize pretty much every wallpaper I downloaded.
- It should set the wallpaper at a certain time every day. The apps I tried all had a "change wallpaper every (xx) hours" feature, but that's not what I wanted. I wanted the wallpaper to change in the night, when I wasn't there. I could set the app to change the wallpaper every 24 hours, but then it ends up doing it at whatever time I set it up, usually when I'm in the middle of something. It's not the worst thing in the world, but the flash the screen gives when it changes is annoying.
- Finally, if I add a new wallpaper to my collection, I didn't want to have to go back to the wallpaper changer app and add it to the list.
So, in true computer-geek style, I wrote my own. And also, in true computer-geek style, I'm uploading it to my website so that others can find it just as useful as I do :)
Now, without further ado... I give to you... Wallpaper Changer verion 1.0! You'll need the .NET Framework v1.1, but once you download, just unzip it to some folder and run it. It lets you set it to start automatically and everything. Features include, but are not limited to:
- Takes multiple monitors into account. If you have more than one monitor, it'll resize the image so that it's big enough to fill all monitors.
- Resizes the wallpaper at a certain (configurable) time every day. I set mine to change at midnight every day. What's more, if you turn your computer off over the night, it'll still change the wallpaper when it starts back up!
- If you add a new image to the folder you've configured for your wallpapers, it'll automatically pick the image up.
Enjoy! And if you like it, leave a comment. If you don't like it, leave a comment. In fact, just leave a comment, damnit!!