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WallBlaster Version 1.2 Freeware Edition -- 31 January 1991 WrightWorks 1322 Second Avenue Suite 2A1 New York, New York 10021 (212) 288-2942 CIS: 76244, 312 BIX: JETMAN GENIE: KIDFLASH Author: Jethro Wright, III Software and documentation: Copyright (c) 1991, WrightWorks Introduction WallBlaster is a Microsoft Windows 3.0 utility program that changes the desktop wallpaper from a library of images contained in a .ZIP archive, under its standard (286) and 386 Enhanced operating modes. WallBlaster selects images from its library at random and will make changes according to a timed interval or only on demand by the user. Besides making one's workstation environment visually more attractive, WallBlaster conserves hard disk storage used for wallpaper files, since full-screen color VGA bitmaps (.BMP files) require 150 KB per picture. If that weren't enough, there are commercial editions of WallBlaster with more advanced capabilities, including user-definable buttons on the desktop. WallBlaster is freeware, so the program won't bother to ask you to purchase a license for the full program. All of the fundamental facilities of the program are included in this edition, but you are encouraged to order the commercial version of WallBlaster, as it possesses additional features like alternate library files and a DDE interface. But more about this later.... WallBlaster can be obtained your favorite BBS. If you'd like the latest version of the freeware edition of WallBlaster, see the end of this document for further details. You'll receive this document in hard-copy form and a pristine copy of the program on disk. License and Disclaimer The freeware edition of WallBlaster is available at no charge from many electronic bulletin board systems (BBS), including CompuServe, BIX, and GENie. Other than normal BBS com- munications and service charges, it may not distributed for a fee, or combined with any commercial software or hardware product, without the express written permission of WrightWorks. The sole instance where a fee, which can be no more than ten (10) dollars, may be charged for the freeware edition of WallBlaster is when WallBlaster is distributed by public domain software dis- tributors, who as part of normal operations distribute public domain and other freeware works for the cost of the media and its distribution. In order to distribute the freeware edition of WallBlaster, all files associated with the program, including do- cumentation and program executables must be included as an indivisible unit. No warranty of any kind is implied and the user of WallBlaster is solely responsible for the protection of all files and documents on his/her computer system. Use of WallBlaster WallBlaster Manual Page 2 does not imply any responsibility on the part of WrightWorks for any claims due to damages of any kind, including but not limited to consequential and incidental damages. WallBlaster must not be distributed where existing city, county, state, or federal laws/regulations would invalidate any part of this license/disclaimer. All rights are reserved by WrightWorks. Use of WallBlaster implies full agreement and understanding of all parts of this license and disclaimer. MS-DOS, Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Excel are trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. PKZip and PKUNZip are trademarks of PKWare, Incorporated. Northgate Elegance is a trademark of Northgate Computer Systems, Inc. Actor is a tradmark of The Whitewater Group, Incorporated. ToolBook is a trademark of Asymetrix Corporation. CompuServe is a trademark of CompuServe Incorporated. GENie is a trademark of GE Information Services Incorporated. BIX is a trademark of McGraw-Hill Incorporated. WallBlaster Manual Page 3 Installation Simply copy the WallBlaster program, WB.EXE, to the sub- directory where your copy of Microsoft Windows resides. You can do this using the appropriate DOS commands or using Windows' File Manager or MS-DOS Executive. Next, you'll need a library of bitmap files, archived in a .ZIP file made by a program compa- tible with PKZip from PKWare, Inc. Consequently, you must already have a copy of PKZip or you must obtain, through your own means, an archive containing Windows bitmaps suitable as wall- paper. You probably already have a copy of PKZip since the pro- gram is normally found on BBSs in a .ZIP file. The freeware ver- sion of WallBlaster will only work with a library file called WBLASTER.ZIP. It should reside in the Windows sub-directory, along with the WallBlaster program itself. Once you've created a library file for WallBlaster, start the program like any other Windows application and you're done. The images displayed by WallBlaster must be normal Windows bitmap files that can be loaded as wallpaper by the Windows Con- trol Panel. Assuming you have a copy of PKZip and would like to create a wallpaper library, all you need to do is move the wall- paper files to an archive (library) called WBLASTER.ZIP. The files MUST NOT include their current path in the .ZIP file, mea- ning the wallpaper library must not be created using PKZip's -p or -P options. An sample PKZip command line for moving two wall- paper files in the current directory into WBLASTER.ZIP is shown below: D:\WINDOWS> PKZIP -m WBLASTER CHESS.BMP PANTHER.BMP One could have used an asterisk wildcard (*.BMP) instead, to move both files, but because Windows possesses bitmaps that can be tiled, you probably want to be very specific when adding wall- paper files to a WallBlaster library. WallBlaster doesn't handle tiled bitmaps, because there's little to be gained by compressing small images. Prior to starting WallBlaster for the very first time, you might want to go into the Windows Control Panel to set the current wallpaper to (None), using the Settings:Desktop... menu option, since WallBlaster will delete the current wallpaper file, to make room for a new file. While you're at it, change the wallpaper orientation to center. When WallBlaster changes the wallpaper, not only will it delete the previous wallpaper file but if will change the corresponding profile string (Wallpaper) in WIN.INI with the complete pathname of the current wallpaper file. A sample of the WallBlaster profile section in WIN.INI, is shown below: WallBlaster Manual Page 4 [WallBlaster] LibraryName=D:\WINDOWS\WBLASTER.ZIP TimerInterval=30 The program automatically inserts those lines into your WIN.INI file when you start it initially, for those individuals who're not comfortable editing the WIN.INI file. You can also invoke WallBlaster from the load= line under the [windows] section in WIN.INI, in order to change the wallpaper every time you start Windows. Operationally Speaking WallBlaster is what I call a "hot-button", meaning that it doesn't use a window equipped with a menu bar -- or other con- trols like buttons -- and always appears as an icon at the bot- tom of your screen. The few commands that the program supports are transmitted via the icon's system menu. A left double-click on the icon immediately decompresses and displays the next image from the library, as if you had manually selected the "Display Next" option from WallBlaster's system menu. WallBlaster's default settings changes your wallpaper once every thirty minutes. A profile string in your WIN.INI file con- trols the interval between wallpaper changes. You can adjust this value manually by editing WIN.INI and changing the TimerInterval profile string in the [WallBlaster] application section. TimerInterval is measured in minutes, so make it equal to 20, for a twenty-minute wallpaper switch. If you prefer to change the wallpaper only once per session or only on demand, make TimerInterval equal to 0. Setting TimerInterval to 999 will enable demonstration mode, where the backdrop will be changed once every thirty seconds. When it starts to extract the next file from the library, the program changes the pointer/cursor to an arrow overlapping two squares that looks like WallBlaster's icon. As a new file is retrieved from the archive, the previous wallpaper file is dele- ted, since it's assumed that the file is already contained in the wallpaper library. The complete pathname for the wallpaper file is displayed in WallBlaster's caption, along with the number of times it's changed the wallpaper during this session. WallBlaster primarily works with full-screen bitmaps, be- cause little is gained by compressing a small graphics image. So WallBlaster doesn't tell Windows to "tile" smaller images, nor does it interpret the contents of any file contained in its li- brary. Tiled wallpaper tends to be displayed more slowly than full-screen wallpaper. The freeware edition of WallBlaster adds a single operational command on its system menu, the Display Next WallBlaster Manual Page 5 menu option displays the next image from the library, chosen com- pletely at random. You can tell WallBlaster to decompress files in the background -- meaning allow other computing activities in Windows to continue while it's decompressing a file -- by setting Bkgd=1, under the [WallBlaster] section in WIN.INI. If you'd prefer to get rid of WallBlaster's caption that displays the name of the wallpaper file, add Quiet=1 underneath the [WallBlaster] section. Either of these settings can be reversed by using a 0, instead of a 1. The following shows the complete [WallBlaster] section of WIN.INI: [WallBlaster] LibraryName=D:\WINDOWS\WBLASTER.ZIP TimerInterval=30 Bkgd=0 Quiet=1 WallBlaster will use D:\WINDOWS\WBLASTER.ZIP as the current wallpaper library, the wallpaper will change every 30 minutes, wallpaper files will be extracted from the library in the foreground, and WallBlaster's caption will only show the program's name. It should be noted that decompressing a complex (dithered) color VGA file is not as fast as simply displaying the same image -- already uncompressed -- directly from the Control Panel. However, performance is acceptable and on a machine with a 20 MHz 386DX CPU, the program will extract and display a 150 KB wallpaper file in about 3 - 7 seconds. If latency is a concern, adjust the TimerInterval to a higher setting like 60 minutes or higher. Files won't decompress faster, but the delay will be less noticeable due to the longer interval. Monochrome (black and white) images decompress in one or two seconds, as do full- color images that are composed of large regions using with a single primary color. Moreover, WallBlaster can decompress images in the background. There's Gold In Them There Hills... The freeware edition of WallBlaster doesn't "nag" you about registering your copy of the program, because it's been adjusted to display only the first six images in its library file. This is adequate for most people, but those who really enjoy the wallpaper feature of Microsoft Windows 3.0 have an incentive to get one of the commercial editions which will allow the use of alternate library files. Another inducement to buy one of the commercial editions of WallBlaster -- called Personal WallBlaster and Professional WallBlaster -- is a DDE interface. WallBlaster Manual Page 6 DDE ? Yes, Personal/Professional WallBlaster support Dynamic Data Exchange, at least the EXECUTE portion of the protocol. Since WallBlaster doesn't really have data of its own, the other parts of the DDE specification don't apply. However, sending commands to WallBlaster via DDE does make a lot of sense.... As an individual, WallBlaster is just a way to make one's electronic desktop more dynamic and eye-pleasing. But there are other potential and practical uses for a dynamic wallpaper dis- play. Just as icons are used to convey information to a user about the purpose of its "parent" application, one can use mul- tiple wallpaper images to indicate a user's current context in a large application system. For example, let's imagine we have an application system for a law firm. This application system is composed of four principal subsystems: client communications, data base and document management, travel planning, and event scheduling. Each of these activities are logically distinct and could be represented by a different wallpaper image that coin- cides conceptually with the current activity. One could scan a photograph of telephone with a rolodex next to it, to create a wallpaper file for activites associated with client com- munications. A photo of a room with file cabinets could be used to depict data base and document management services. Travel planning activities might be shown against a backdrop containing a commercial airliner. The event scheduling subsystem could be represented by a picture of a day-at-a-glance desk calendar. The individual options within a particular application area could be triggered via large buttons containing a bitmap or icon for a specific action associated with the current application area. While individuals might be able to take advantage of this technique, enterprises using sophisticated application systems comprised of multiple programs, will find the meta-application features of Personal/Professional WallBlaster most helpful. Personal WallBlaster has dialog boxes to set run-time op- tions on the the fly, as well as a DDE interface that can change wallpaper on demand. Professional WallBlaster adds full programmabilty to Personal WallBlaster by providing a library of functions callable from C or other development tools for Microsoft Windows, like the Whitewater Group's Actor or Asymetrix' ToolBook. The application designer/programmer can add application-specific buttons to a backdrop (wallpaper image), in addition to the DDE interface already available with Personal WallBlaster. Actually, Pro- fessional WallBlaster is a combination of a programming library along with a copy of the Personal WallBlaster program. The package also includes sample source code illustrating how to use the library. Another use for Professional WallBlaster can be found in kiosks that use touch sensitive screens. Images can be composed using a drawing program, saved as bitmaps, then assem- bled into a hierarchical set of screens that navigate a user through easy-to-use applications like a building/campus direc- WallBlaster Manual Page 7 tory, a personnel data base, or desktop manufacturing applica- tions like the media copiers used to mass-produce software on floppy disk. Since most of the time, one would want to immedia- tely load specific wallpaper files by programmed request, Professional WallBlaster won't extract these files from its li- brary. The designer of the application system simply gives these high-priority files an application-specific name in the WBLASTER.INI file and he/she can quickly switch wallpaper images using a DDE EXECUTE command. Getting Wallpapered Part of the reason for writing WallBlaster was that I had access to a large library of digitized images, available on a number of popular bulletin boards. Most of the images came from GENie, CompuServe, and BIX. Therefore, upon obtaining a copy of WallBlaster, if you need to know how to create your own wallpaper library, here's how it's done. Typically, I've found that the best digitized images are saved in .GIF (Graphics Information Format) files, a format made popular by CompuServe. Since Windows can't directly read .GIF files, it'll be necessary to get a program that will be able to convert these .GIF files into .BMP files. A program that's been very helpful for this task, is WinGIF, from SuperSet Software, in Orem, UT. WinGIF is a shareware program, that can be obtained from most BBSs that have a download library for Windows programs. You can probably get WinGIF via the same BBS from which you acquired WallBlaster. There are plenty of great images in other graphics file for- mats, but you'll have to rely on your own means for getting them converted into .BMP format. Beyond Wallpaper WallBlaster has companion products, including a ZIP archive utility that's a true Windows program. PersonalBlaster can ex- tract, add, and view items from/to .ZIP archive files. ProfessionalBlaster can manage .ARC archives as well. Both pro- grams can handle DDE EXECUTE messages, so most menu options can sent as DDE EXECUTE commands. If you like any of these products, you may purchase them directly from WrightWorks. We offer them via mail-order to keep prices low, so that folks, regardless of their budget, will find them affordable. Technical support for WallBlaster and the Blaster archiving utilities is available via e-mail on CompuServe, GENie, and BIX. WallBlaster Manual Page 8 Mail is collected daily from these systems and is the easiest way of contacting WrightWorks about its products. Naturally, for more immediate assistance you can contact us by phone. WallBlaster Manual Page 9