Wallpaper Randomizer

by

David C. Elliott

(dce@netcom.com)

After using Aaron Walton's excellent Wallpaper Gallery program for a few weeks, I found that it wasn't quite what I wanted, so I decided to write my own.  This is the result.

Basically, Wallpaper Randomizer will pick your wallpaper from a set of directories.  You control where, how, and how long.  The intent is for you to place the program into your startup list, preferably minimized, and let it change your wallpaper periodically.

Future plans for Wallpaper Randomizer include the ability to generate wallpaper of various types.

Wallpaper Randomizer is free, but it is Copyright 1993 by David C. Elliott.  You can do anything you want with it except sell it for a profit.  Visual C++ source is available for free (why doesn't VC++ put a clean target in the makefile?).

Menus

Controls

Behavior


Menus
File

Save Settings - This saves the settings to wprand.ini

Display Bitmap - This allows you to choose a specific bitmap file to use as wallpaper.  This brings up a standard open file dialog to choose the file.

Exit - Causes Wallpaper Randomizer to exit

Generate

This item does nothing.  In the future, it will contain menu items for generating wallpaper of various types using algorithms.  Suggestions and code are welcome!

Help

This gets you here.


Controls
Bitmap Directories - This is a list of directories that will be searched for  bitmaps.

Add - This pops up a standard file open dialog and allows you to pick a bitmap file.  The directory containing the file is added to the list after the currently-selected directory, and is made the current directory for subsequent bitmaps.

Insert - This works just like the Add button, except that it inserts the new directory before the currently-selected directory.

Delete - Deletes the currently-selected directory.  This button is diabled if there is only one directory in the list.

Timed Change - If this is checked, the wallpaper will change periodically (based on the Hold Time) according to the Directory Order and File Order.

Change Wallpaper on Startup - If this is checked, the wallpaper will change when the program starts.

Change Now - This button changes the wallpaper immediately, based on the Directory Order and File Order.

Directory Order - This determines how the wallpaper directory is chosen.  See Behavior for an explanation of how this works.

File Order - This determines how the wallpaper file is chosen.  See Behavior for an explanation of how this works.

Hold Time - This determines how often, in minutes, the wallpaper is automatically changed.  When this value changes, the timer is restarted.


Behavior
The choice of the wallpaper directory and file depends upon a combination of the order buttons.

If both file and directory order is random, these are both picked at random each time.

If neither file nor directory order is random, the files are displayed in alphabetical order within a directory, and then the next directory is chosen.

If file order is random but directory order is not, there is a 15% chance that the next directory will be chosen.  A random file is chosen either way.

If file order is not random but directory order is, there is a 15% chance that a random directory and file will be chosen.  Otherwise, the next file in the directory is chosen.

If any of these combinations are too confusing to you, avoid them.