Paper
Utility to change the wallpaper randomly on start-up of Windows 95 and NT4.
New stuff for version 3.1:
Added context menu with paste option for adding files.
Installation instructions:
Unzip into a temporary folder. Right-click the paper.inf file and choose Install. The paper.exe and paper.txt files are copied into your windows directory and paper.inf is copied into your windows/inf directory. Shortcuts are placed in your startup group and on your desktop. Additionally, the program run's immediately. You may then remove the unzipped files from the temporary folder.
Note: On Window's 95 the temporary folder must not be made up of any long filenames. This is a restriction of Window's 95 and the .inf script files.
Note: On Windows NT4 you need Administrator rights to use the paper.inf installation script. The program itself does not need these rights though. If you don't have these rights then manually copy the unzipped files into a chosen directory and run from there. You will lose the uninstall option.
Uninstall:
Use the add/remove programs applet in Control Panel. There will be an entry for 'Krapplets Paper (Remove Only)'.
Basic Usage:
The program will run automatically after installation.
To add graphic files to the program either;
1; copy your file selection to the clipboard, right-click the list in Paper and choose paste or;
2; select them in Explorer and drag and drop them into the list-box in the centre of the program's window.
Paper will accept both bitmaps and JPEG's.
You may drop multiple files, and the program will automatically block out anything that does not have a .BMP or .JPG/.JPEG extension. Also, if a file is already in the list it will not add it a second time.
Double-clicking an entry in the list-box will select this as the current wallpaper.
Clicking the 'Pick Now' button will set the current entry as the current wallpaper and move the selection down one in the list, this allows you to cycle through every entry by repeatedly clicking the 'Pick Now' button (or pressing 'p').
Clicking the 'Delete' button will delete the current entry, as will pressing the delete key on the keyboard.
'Tile' and 'Centre' specify how to display the wallpaper. The 'Auto' check box, if checked will allow the program to decide whether to tile or centre a bitmap.
It bases it's decision on the size of the bitmap. If the height is greater than a third of your desktop and greater than half the width of your desktop, the program will centre it. Otherwise it will tile it. Hey it ain't perfect, but it works in most cases.
Command line parameters:
/random
This will cause Paper to choose a new wallpaper randomly, change it then quit. It will NOT stay in the system tray.
/alpha
This will cause Paper to choose the next wallpaper after the current one, change it then quit. It will NOT stay in the system tray.
/hide
This will cause Paper to minimise itself and create a system tray icon. Double-clicking the icon changes the wallpaper randomly. Right-clicking the icon displays a menu. The menu allows you to change the wallpaper randomly or in list order. The other options are to restore the Paper window, to open the Timer dialog and to quit.
/timer:n
This will cause Paper to minimise and change the wallpaper randomly every n minutes. For example, to change the wallpaper every 30 minutes, specify /timer:30. To change the wallpaper in list order specify -a after the /timer:n.
If you restore paper wile a timer is running, the timer will be stopped. You will be notified if this is the case.
To restart the timer click the Timer button and click Start. Your previous timer will be remembered.
Example startup parameters:
To change the wallpaper at startup and then set paper to run as a system tray icon.
paper /random /hide
To change the wallpaper at start up in list order and set a timer to change wallpaper in list order every 1 hour.
paper /alpha /timer:60 -a
To change the wallpaper at startup and then set a timer to change wallpaper randomly every 10 minutes.
paper /random /timer:10
Tips & Advanced uses:
It is a cool idea to drop the entire contents of a directory onto the program as only the bitmaps & JPEG's will be added.
If you have added lots of files from a directory and then moved or deleted those files you will have redundant links in the list. If you wish to remove all redundant file links automatically click the clean button and answer yes to the prompt. This will remove any filenames listed that don't point to actual files. A message box will appear to indicate how many filenames were removed.
Known Bugs:
On Windows NT4, if the current wallpaper is set to none the program will fail to change the wallpaper.
It works fine on Windows 95 and seems to be a bug of the NT4 operating system.
The workaround is to use the Display applet in the Control Panel to change the wallpaper to anything other than none and the program will then work fine.
Contact:
This software is freeware, if you like it, send me a mail. If you have a problem with it, mail me and I will endeavour to help. If you wish to include this software on a free CD collection, please mail me so I can tell my friends!
Email: magma@dircon.co.uk
WWW: http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~magma/
Version info:
1.0 First release.
1.1 Now checks the current wallpaper and either highlights it in the list, or offers to add it if it isn't there.
Now checks the size of the bitmap before deciding to tile or centre it, previously checked the file size.
1.2 Added cleanup option to remove redundant file links.
2.0 Added capability for reading JPEG files.
2.1 Added option for choosing files in alphabetical order.
2.2 Added option to suppress display of decompression bar, and clean button. Souped up uninstall script.
3.0 Added system tray icon and timer.
3.1 Added context menu with paste option for adding files.
Bug fix in selection of tile or centre.