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NEWPAPER.TXT
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1990-10-27
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NEWPAPER
by Jim Button
VERSION HISTORY:
Version 1.0 created 7/28/90
The original
Version 1.1 created 7/30/90
Makes automatic choice of tiled or un-tiled wallpaper
Version 1.1b created 8/30/90
No changes. Decided to make the source code available.
Version 1.2 created 16 Oct 1990
NewPaper now records whether tiling is required for each BMP,
This information is stored in WIN.INI.
If it doesn't know about a file, it asks you.
Version 1.2 by Roger Hadgraft.
IT'S TOTALLY FREE
Here's a new program from Jim Button. It's the best kind. It's free! No
obligation, and no strings attached! I donate it to the public domain.
I hope you like it. It sure is useful.
Modifications by Roger Hadgraft, Civil Engineering,
Monash University, Clayton, Vic. 3168. Australia.
hadgraft@civeng.monash.edu.au.
WHAT IT DOES
It changes your desktop wallpaper each time you run windows.
So, you can have several wallpaper files in your windows subdirectory.
Each time you run windows, a different wallpaper will be selected.
REQUIREMENTS
NEWPAPER requires Windows 3.0 or later and one or more BMP files
(to use as wallpaper) in your Windows subdirectory.
HOW TO INSTALL IT
First, copy the program NEWPAPER.EXE into a subdirectory on your PATH.
Then use a text editor to change the WIN.INI file in your Windows
subdirectory. (Make sure that your WIN.INI file gets saved back in
ASCII format when you're finished.)
Inside your WIN.INI file, you should find a line that looks like this:
[windows]
Somewhere in the next few lines that follow the [windows] section, you
should find a line that starts out like this:
load=
There may be some file names following the load= text, for example
load=eyes.exe
If you don't find a load= line, add one.
Add the statement NEWPAPER.EXE to the load= line.
Here are some sample load= lines...
load=newpaper.exe
load=eyes.exe blanker.exe newpaper.exe
Notice that you must have a space between each program listed on
the load= line.
You can use the RUN= line if you wish.
HOW TO USE IT
This is the easy part. After you've installed NEWPAPER.EXE, just
run windows. There's nothing else to do. Every time you run
windows, you should get a different desktop wallpaper.
You can fill your WINDOWS subdirectory with as many bitmap files as
you like. (These are file names that end with the suffix ".BMP").
NOTE: NEWPAPER doesn't actually change the wallpaper you are
looking at. It lets Windows do that. So, if you run NEWPAPER from
your desktop, you will not see a change in your wallpaper. The
wallpaper will get changed the next time Windows starts.
You may have to indicate whether a BMP is to be tiled or centered.
More details are contained in the next section.
HOW IT WORKS
NEWPAPER changes your WIN.INI file each time it runs. There is a
line inside of WIN.INI that says "Wallpaper=", followed by the name of
a bitmap file. NEWPAPER just looks at all the bitmap files in your
windows subdirectory, and changes the "Wallpaper=" line to point to a
new bitmap file. Which new bitmap file? The next one in your windows
subdirectory. After it gets to the last one, it will start again at the
top.
This version (1.2) of NEWPAPER also makes a decision about whether
to put your wallpaper up "tiled" or un-tiled. To do this, it looks
for the setting in the WIN.INI file. If no information is available,
it asks you. Simply click on YES for tiling, and NO for centering.
Click on CANCEL for don't know, and you'll get centering, and you'll
get asked the same question the next time that bitmap is to be used.
Hopefully you'll know which choice to make next time! After NewPaper
has been once through all your bitmaps, you won't hear from it again
unless you add a new bitmap.
The program only runs for a brief instant when Windows starts up. Then
it goes away. So it doesn't waste any memory or CPU cycles after it
has done its work.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks to Jim Button for the original version.
CAUTION
You use this program at your own risk. While I have tested it, I
have not tested it formally (with a team of beta testers, etc.).
I've tested it extensively myself. I hope it works for everyone else!
Note (30 August 1990): there are now several thousand known users
of NEWPAPER. No problems have yet been reported.
ADDENDUM
Yes, I co-invented the Shareware concept. But simple, easy to create
utility programs like this should be donated to the public domain.
After all, it only took me two hours to create this little gem. And
it wasn't two hours of lost time... I learned more about Windows
programming in the process. So please enjoy!
Isn't Windows fun? Suddenly, computing in the DOS world is exciting
again!
Jim Button
July 28, 1990