S
Silverman
Misery and Disgust!!
I wanted a NICE, SIMPLE, EASY program that does one
thing, one simple thing, one simple IMPOSSIBLE thing:
I want to put some pics in a folder. I want a program to
randomly select a pic from that folder and display it as
wallpaper. I want this to happen once a day. - You may want it
to happen 8 times a day - whatEVER.
The principle is the same: Lemme change wallpaper.
Okies, MS came out with a COOL powertoy called "Wallpaper
Changer" that does JUST THAT. Except for two things:
1. it wants to run all the dang time.
2. it seems to corrupt some pics and make them look
WORSE than they are. ICKY!!
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/experiences/downloads/creat
e_powertoy.asp
( make that all one line to use it )
Well, I found a way around the #1 with the MS Wallpaper
Changer Powertoy - simply set that sucker up, set it to change
every 15 minutes, THEN run it USING THE TASK SCHEDULER - AND -
set it to shut DOWN after 5 minutes.
That way you run it when you want, it'll come up,
change the wallpaper, and then after 5 minutes you have it
shut down because that is what you told Task Scheduler to do
with it.
Easy right?!?!?
Well, no, because I have several pics that look
fine and great at 800x600 and are "set" for wallpaper size and
all but for SOME REASON only MS knows; when they are displayed
by this Wallpaper Changer Powertoy they get "corrupted" or
made to look gross. - That stinks.
So NOW I need ANOTHER program to do this.
Well, there IS a REALLY NEAT, simple, POWERFUL, SMALL,
program called Vueprint Pro - also VuePro - that I still use
into XP. Fast as lightening, simple, cut, paste, convert, just
TONS of stuff.
So I set IT up with a shortcut and the right switches so
it comes up, grabs a pic, puts it as wallpaper, and leaves. -
Case closed! Yay!
http://www.hamrick.com/ - See the Vueprint label.
The BAD THING is that the help for vuepro STINKS. So IF
you decide to try it then you need to know that your command
line for the shortcut you use will look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\VUEPRO32.exe /WALLPAPER /DIRECTORY=E:\PICTURES
\WALLPAPR\CHANGER *.*
( all one line please )
Where "Directory=" should be whatever folder YOU use for
your pics for wall paper.
Once you have the icon set up for wallpaper ( I made a
shortcut and called it 'vuepro wallpaper changer') then you
can, again, use the task scheduler program to run it as often
or little as you want AND you don't have to worry about
telling it to shut up; vueprint will pop up, do it's thing,
and LEAVE all by itself.
NOTE: Don't forget when you use Task Scheduler to run a
program and you direct it to a Shortcut is ONLY takes the
FIRST PART of the command line out of the shortcut and drops
the rest so you will have to manually RE-ENTER the rest:
/WALLPAPER /DIRECTORY=E:\PICTURES\WALLPAPR\CHANGER *.*
after the C:\Windows\Vuepro32.exe.
If ANYONE else is out there trying to do what I now do
then I hope this helps you.)
x-- 100 Proof News - http://www.100ProofNews.com
x-- 3,500+ Binary NewsGroups, and over 90,000 other groups
x-- Access to over 800 Gigs/Day - $8.95/Month
x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD
I wanted a NICE, SIMPLE, EASY program that does one
thing, one simple thing, one simple IMPOSSIBLE thing:
I want to put some pics in a folder. I want a program to
randomly select a pic from that folder and display it as
wallpaper. I want this to happen once a day. - You may want it
to happen 8 times a day - whatEVER.
The principle is the same: Lemme change wallpaper.
Okies, MS came out with a COOL powertoy called "Wallpaper
Changer" that does JUST THAT. Except for two things:
1. it wants to run all the dang time.
2. it seems to corrupt some pics and make them look
WORSE than they are. ICKY!!
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/experiences/downloads/creat
e_powertoy.asp
( make that all one line to use it )
Well, I found a way around the #1 with the MS Wallpaper
Changer Powertoy - simply set that sucker up, set it to change
every 15 minutes, THEN run it USING THE TASK SCHEDULER - AND -
set it to shut DOWN after 5 minutes.
That way you run it when you want, it'll come up,
change the wallpaper, and then after 5 minutes you have it
shut down because that is what you told Task Scheduler to do
with it.
Easy right?!?!?
Well, no, because I have several pics that look
fine and great at 800x600 and are "set" for wallpaper size and
all but for SOME REASON only MS knows; when they are displayed
by this Wallpaper Changer Powertoy they get "corrupted" or
made to look gross. - That stinks.
So NOW I need ANOTHER program to do this.
Well, there IS a REALLY NEAT, simple, POWERFUL, SMALL,
program called Vueprint Pro - also VuePro - that I still use
into XP. Fast as lightening, simple, cut, paste, convert, just
TONS of stuff.
So I set IT up with a shortcut and the right switches so
it comes up, grabs a pic, puts it as wallpaper, and leaves. -
Case closed! Yay!
http://www.hamrick.com/ - See the Vueprint label.
The BAD THING is that the help for vuepro STINKS. So IF
you decide to try it then you need to know that your command
line for the shortcut you use will look like this:
C:\WINDOWS\VUEPRO32.exe /WALLPAPER /DIRECTORY=E:\PICTURES
\WALLPAPR\CHANGER *.*
( all one line please )
Where "Directory=" should be whatever folder YOU use for
your pics for wall paper.
Once you have the icon set up for wallpaper ( I made a
shortcut and called it 'vuepro wallpaper changer') then you
can, again, use the task scheduler program to run it as often
or little as you want AND you don't have to worry about
telling it to shut up; vueprint will pop up, do it's thing,
and LEAVE all by itself.
NOTE: Don't forget when you use Task Scheduler to run a
program and you direct it to a Shortcut is ONLY takes the
FIRST PART of the command line out of the shortcut and drops
the rest so you will have to manually RE-ENTER the rest:
/WALLPAPER /DIRECTORY=E:\PICTURES\WALLPAPR\CHANGER *.*
after the C:\Windows\Vuepro32.exe.
If ANYONE else is out there trying to do what I now do
then I hope this helps you.
)x-- 100 Proof News - http://www.100ProofNews.com
x-- 3,500+ Binary NewsGroups, and over 90,000 other groups
x-- Access to over 800 Gigs/Day - $8.95/Month
x-- UNLIMITED DOWNLOAD