Copyright: WinWall 1.1 Copyright 1992 by Don Bradner


WinWall Help Index

For help on any area of the WinWall screen, click the area below:

OTHER TOPICS


OTHERTOPICS
OTHER TOPICS:

Troubleshooting

Saving Disk Space

Bitmaps

Files

Registration

Distribution


 Add Button

The "Add" Button is used to add a new wallpaper to the Wallpaper Queue.  Pressing this button will cause a dialog box to appear which will allow you to browse through your directories looking for bitmap files which you can select to add to the queue.  Files can have either .BMP or .RLE extensions.  When the new bitmap is added to the queue, it will have a centered or tiled property according to the setting that existed at the time the Add Button was pressed.  If you did not pre-select the desired property, you may change it by first clicking on the filename in the Wallpaper Queue and then changing the Centered/Tiled Option.


 Delete Button

The "Delete" Button will be disabled (grayed) unless you have previously selected an entry in the Wallpaper Queue.  If a selection has been made, it will be deleted (CAUTION - no confirmation prompt!).  This will not delete the file from your hard drive, nor will it affect the current visibility of the image if it is showing on the desktop.  It will not come up again in the queue.


 Make Current Button

The "Make Current Wallpaper" Button will be disabled (grayed) unless you have previously selected an entry in the Wallpaper Queue.  If a selection has been made, it will become the current wallpaper and display on the desktop immediately.  The timer will not reset automatically so, if the timer is on, a new wallpaper will still be selected and shown when the timer cycle occurs.


 Remove Wallpaper Button

The "Remove Current Wallpaper Button" will clear any wallpaper showing from the screen.  If you do not want a wallpaper to be displayed when the timer cycles, either close the program or turn the timer off.


 Wallpaper Queue

The "Wallpaper Queue" is a list of bitmaps that are available for use by WinWall as wallpapers.  You can add any appropriate bitmap image to the list via the Add Button.  You can remove a bitmap image from the list by clicking on it and pressing the Delete Button.  You can change the centered/tiled property of a bitmap image by clicking on it and then selecting the appropriate option.  You can make a bitmap image immediately show on the screen by clicking on it and then pressing the Make Current Wallpaper Button.


 Change Delay

The box to the left of the caption "Minutes delay between changes" may be directly edited.  Allowable times are 1 to 999 minutes.  A delay of 5-30 minutes is suggested - there is a noticeable jump-delay on the screen when the wallpaper is changed, and this can be annoying if the timer cycles too frequently.  This setting will have no effect if the Timer on box is not checked.


Timer on
 Timer on/off

The "Timer on off" switch determines whether the wallpaper will change at the interval set in the "Minutes delay between changes" box.  The switch will retain its setting between sessions of the program.  You may wish to turn the timer off if you are working on a project where you would be annoyed by the screen "flicker" that occurs during a wallpaper change.


 Centered/Tiled Option

Wallpapers may be displayed as either Centered or Tiled.  The Centered option means that the wallpaper will be shown once in the center of the screen or alternatively starting at another point (see Saving Disk Space).  Tiled wallpaper that is smaller than the screen size will be shown in multiple images to fill the entire screen.  The position of this switch when a new wallpaper is added to the queue will determine the initial setting for that wallpaper.  To change a wallpaper's setting, select it in the queue and then change the switch.


Registration

Don Bradner

600 F Street

Arcata,CA 95521

WinWall version 1.1 copyright 1992 by Don Bradner.  You may register WinWall by sending $5.00 to the author at the above address.  Your registration and comments are appreciated.  Please address comments/suggestions to the above address or to the author on Compuserve at 76130,1007.


 Current Wallpaper

The Current Wallpaper area at the bottom of the WinWall screen displays the complete path for the currently displayed bitmap.


.BMP

Files with .BMP extensions are bitmapped images created by tools like Windows Paintbrush.  Along with .RLE, .BMP images are the files used by WinWall to create wallpaper.  There are a few .BMP files distributed with Windows specifically for use as wallpaper.


.RLE

Files with .RLE extensions are compressed bitmap images.  RLE stands for "Run-Length Encoded."  RLE files may have an extension of .RLE or .BMP, however the .RLE extension avoids confusion as to whether the file is compressed.  Windows has no problem using .RLE files as wallpaper, but Windows Paintbrush will not load or create them.  A third-party tool must be used.


Wallpaper

Wallpaper is the term used to describe an image being displayed on the Windows desktop as a background.  It can be a small image that is repeated many times, or a single image of any size up to the full screen size.


The Author

(Help files are fun)


Bitmaps

A bitmap is an image stored as a pattern of dots.  These images can be stored in a number of graphics formats, but the only formats which can be used as wallpaper are .BMP and .RLE.

Where to get bitmaps

Several .BMP files are included with Windows for use as wallpaper.  Additionally, you can draw your own bitmaps with Windows Paintbrush.  If you have a scanner, you can scan images and store them as bitmaps.  Online services have thousands of files which can be used as wallpaper.  Most of these files will be in .GIF or .PCX format, which cannot directly be used as wallpaper.  Windows Paintbrush can read a .PCX file and then save it as a .BMP, but .GIF is not supported.  There are a number of shareware graphics viewing and conversion programs that will read these and other formats, and then save as .BMP or .RLE.  The author uses WinGif, a widely distributed program available from most online services with significant file sections.


Files

Several files make up the complete WinWall package.  A brief discussion of each follows:

Files created by WinWall

WINWALL.DAT  This data file holds a list of the images that you have selected as wallpapers.  It will be created in your Windows directory.

Files included with WinWall

WINWALL.EXE This is the program file.  It can be placed in any directory and can be added to any of your program groups as an icon.

WINWALL.HLP The WinWall help file which you are reading now.  For the program's help function to work, this file should be located in your Windows directory.

README.TXT A short text file explaining the nature and installation of WinWall.

MHCM200.VBX

NMHEN25.VBX

MHIN200.VBX

MHML200.VBX

MHTG200.VBX

MHRUN200.DLL

These are "custom-control" libraries that WinWall uses for some of its functions.  These files must be in your Windows or Windows\System directory for proper operation of WinWall.

Files not included with WinWall

VBRUN200.DLL A "runtime" library for programs written in Visual Basic 2.0.  This file is not usually included with programs intended for BBS Distribution, since it is relatively large and you only need one copy.  You can obtain the file from many online sources that carry Windows files or from Microsoft.  On BBS systems, look for VBRUN200.ZIP or VBRUN2.ZIP.  This file should be placed in your Windows or Windows\System directory.

COMMDLG.DLL The "common dialog" library is included with Windows 3.1 and should be in your Windows or Windows\System library.  Without it, you will not be able to use the Add Button to add bitmaps to your Wallpaper Queue.


About this screen:

This is the author's normal working screen.  The shell is Norton Desktop, with the title modified to show the business name and the date and time.  An addition to WinWall is used for this, but is not included at this point - if you want such a feature, address comments to the author.  All of the program icons and groups are placed in the left 1/3 of the screen, leaving the rest of the desktop for wallpaper.  The wallpaper image shown is an original scanned photograph belonging to the author.


Distribution

WinWall is shareware and may be freely distributed as long as all of the files are included and no fee is charged beyond a reasonable fee for distribution.  The files that must be included are:

WINWALL.EXE

WINWALL.HLP

README.TXT

MHCM200.VBX

NMHEN25.VBX

MHIN200.VBX

MHML200.VBX

MHTG200.VBX

MHRUN200.DLL

All rights are reserved by the author (see Registration).


Troubleshooting

Difficulties running the program are generally one of two things.  The first is a missing file, or a file that needs to be in the Windows or Windows\System directory but isn't.  See Files for details.  The second problem is a corrupted WinWall.DAT file.  There is no reasonable way to fix a corrupted file, so the best recommendation is to delete the file (it is in your Windows directory) and start over.  This will not delete any of your wallpapers, but you will have to re-add them to your Wallpaper Queue.  Note that WinWall.DAT will not exist until you have entered some data in the program.


Saving Disk Space

Having a wallpaper changer is most fun when you have a large Wallpaper Queue.  The problem is that each bitmap file takes a large chunk of valuable disk space, so you may want to consider methods to reduce the space used.  Two methods are of interest: Making the images smaller, and compressing the files.  Each method is discussed below.

Using smaller images.

The simplest way to reduce the disk space requirements for images is to use small images and tile them.  The image will cover the entire desktop, but will not use much disk space.  Another way to use small images is to center them, but the center of the screen is often covered.

The screen above shows an image located away from the center of the desktop.  This could be achieved by pasting the image on a full screen background, but the cost in disk space would be significant.  In this case, an undocumented Windows feature was used.  It is possible to specify an upper left corner for the origin of a wall paper.  The wallpaper shown is 410 pixels wide by 440 pixels high, and has an origin of 230 pixels to the right of the left side and 40 pixels from the top.  The image has a background painted in the same color as the desktop, providing a seamless desktop.

In order to specify the origin points, two lines must be added to your WIN.INI file.  They specify the X and Y origins for the wallpaper, and are located in the [Desktop] section.  For the example above, the entries look like this:

[Desktop]

WallpaperOriginX=230

WallpaperOriginY=40

Run the Windows program SYSEDIT.EXE and make the above additions to the file.  Exit and restart Windows, and all of your centered wallpapers will move so that their upper left corners are at the origin point.  Tiled wallpapers will still cover the entire screen.

Compressing wallpaper files.

Normally, wallpaper files are uncompressed .BMP images.  However, Windows can use a compressed bitmap in the .RLE format, which represents savings of space as great as 2/3.  The problem is that Windows Paintbrush cannot read or write an .RLE file.  Therefore you must use a third-party tool to accomplish this goal.  One example of a program that accomplishes a conversion from .BMP (or .GIF or .PCX) file to .RLE is WinGif, a shareware program that is widely distributed via online services.  WinGif will also allow some manipulation of the image, including cropping, rotation, and stretching.  It will not allow paint-type editing however.