Not to forget that Microsoft added automatic switching of wallpapers in the Windows 7 operating system.

The new desktop wallpaper downloader and switcher Color Desker is a sophisticated program that comes with all the bells and whistles one would expect. The program downloads wallpapers regularly from the Internet. These images are then displayed in the application interface where they can either be selected manually or automatically.

New wallpapers are added by the developer regularly which are then retrieved by the software on startup. A double-click on a photo sets it as the desktop background. From what I can tell, all photos come in high resolution that fit nicely on a hd computer monitor.

Wallpapers can be changed manually with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl-Shift-w or from the File > Change Wallpaper menu. It can take several seconds to make the switch. The program stops responding in that time which is something that the developer needs to work on.

Automatic wallpaper changing options are available in status bar of the application. A click on the pulldown menu at the left side of the bar are options to set wallpaper changing intervals. If set, wallpapers will automatically be changed on the system.

One interesting feature of Color Desker is the ability to rate wallpapers. A right-click on a wallpaper opens a context menu with options to “love” or “hate” the wallpaper. The program will use those information in the automatic wallpaper changing algorithm.

Color Desker is a free program for the Windows operating system. The software requires the Microsoft .NET Framework 4.0. It can be downloaded from the developers Blogspot website.

Pulse looks on first glance like any other wallpaper changer that pulls desktop backgrounds from Internet wallpaper repositories. Unlike other programs of its kind however, it uses a different methodology to pick them.

Most programs that download and display online images give you a category at best that you can pick, like cars, nature or celebrities. Pulse adds nuances to it, by allowing you to specify a keyword. The program then tries to pull only wallpaper images from the online repositories that relate to the selected keyword.

Pulse supports two different online wallpaper sources currently, Wallbase and Rewalls. It is unfortunately only possible to pick one of the two, and it is therefor a good idea to visit those sites to look at their wallpapers before making that choice.

All pictures are downloaded automatically. The wallpaper changer is set to change desktop backgrounds every 20 minutes. The interval can be changed in the options, from every minute to a maximum of every 90 minutes.

Additional options are provided in the program settings. It is possible to skip low resolution pictures automatically, get only pictures with a maximum available resolution and to set the wallpapers as the logon background.

Old pictures are deleted after three days automatically. The interval can be changed as well to delete the pictures earlier or later. Users who want to keep the desktop backgrounds can uncheck the option to delete old pictures.

The free desktop backgrounds changer Pulse works only under Windows Vista and Windows 7. It requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 to be installed on the system. Users who meet the system requirements can download the program from the official project website at Codeplex.

Weather Desktop Background basically does the same for the desktop wallpaper. The program changes the desktop wallpaper based on the weather condition so that users know them on a glance.

How does it work? It begins with a download of the program from the developer page. The program is portable and can be started right after it has been downloaded and unpacked on the system. It has to be noted that the program will only work on Windows 7 (and probably Windows Server 2008 R2).

It begins by selecting a location in the world that should be used for the weather background images. But the location is just the first step. Users now need to specify desktop background images for each weather condition since the default weather conditions display only a text of the condition.

This can take some time considering that the program lists 31 different weather conditions for which the user could add a unique background image. Images are added by clicking on a weather condition and selecting an image from the local system.

The program offers no options to change the temperature from Fahrenheit to Celsius or the wind speed from mph to km/h.

Weather Desktop Background is compatible with all versions of the Windows 7 operating system. Users can download the application from the developer’s Deviantart page. (via)

The freeware Auto Wallpaper Fetcher and Changer offers to automate the process of downloading wallpapers from the Internet as much as possible. It supports both local and remote wallpapers, and can rotate them in intervals as well.

The remote wallpaper feature for instance offers hundreds of categories with thousands of wallpapers. Categories can be selected from a pulldown menu. Popular wallpaper categories like Sunsets, Cars or Models are available as well as niche categories like religious symbols, graffiti or typography.

automatic wallpaper downloader

The section of the program that displays the thumbnails gets crowded quickly, as the program lumps thumbnails of all previously downloaded categories together, making it difficulty to find pictures of one specific category.

Wallpaper thumbnails are automatically retrieved from the hosting servers and displayed in the program interface. A click on any thumbnail image downloads the wallpaper to the local computer system. From there it is possible to set it manually as the desktop background, or by activating the wallpaper changer in the program.

The program does not offer mass downloads of wallpapers, it would have been nice if it would offer an option to download all wallpapers of a selected category at once to the PC.

Auto Wallpaper Fetcher and Changer has a lot of things going for it, it offers thousands of wallpaper images that can be previewed and downloaded with minimal effort. It has some usability issues on the other hand.

The program is available for download at Softpedia. It was tested on a PC running Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. The software had to be started with administrative rights to download wallpapers.

Wally, a cross-platform software for Windows, Linux and Mac is different as it is compatible with many popular Internet image hosting services.

The list of services includes Flickr, Photobucket, Google Picasa, Pikeo, Panoramio, Yahoo, SmugMug and Bing. Wally adds to that the ability to select local folders and files as well.

Wally will launch itself minimized in the system tray. A right-click on the icon displays the available choices. The user can configure the various remote and local desktop wallpaper sources in the settings of the program.

The supported sources are listed on the left side. It is possible to configure one or several sources which will then be mixed in the rotation of new desktop wallpapers on the system.

All remote wallpaper sources are configured the same way. The user selects one of the image hosting sites first, clicks on the green plus icon on the right and adds a search term for a full text or tag based searched.

The general options are displayed on top of the program. Wallpapers will be centered and changed every 2 minutes by default. Photos will not be saved by default but an option at the bottom of the screen can be activated to save the desktop wallpapers locally.

Detailed settings are accessible in the left sidebar below the remote and local photo sources. Several important settings can be configured here. It is for instance possible to select a minimum size for the desktop wallpaper images (does not matter, at least 1/2, at least 3/4, bigger than), use Exif information to rotate the image, only use landscape oriented photos or start the changing of wallpapers immediately after program launch.

A click on Play in the context menu will start the wallpaper rotation. Wally will query the configured photo hosting sites, download the images (and save them if configured to do so), and rotate them according to the user’s preferences.

Wally is an easy to use program with an incredible functionality. It might be the ideal program for you if you are looking for a desktop wallpaper changer that supports local and remote sources.

The interval can be changed to display a new wallpaper after specified time has passed or when a certain time of the day is reached. Wallperizer can resize wallpapers automatically based on an if else statement that might confuse users who do not code.

There is also a tab for basic effects that include normalizing the brightness and setting a gamma level of wallpapers.

More interesting than the previously mentioned options that are more or less integrated in most wallpaper changers are the following features. Wallperizer can display a calendar on the wallpaper. The calendar can be defined in detail including its position and detail level.

This calendar might be interesting for users who would like to see these information on their desktop without having to use a desktop widget or software that is displaying it.

The calendar cannot display customized date or synchronize date with other applications. Users who are interested in downloading the application can do so at the developer’s website.

Here it is that the user adds folders or single wallpapers to the list that are rotated by the program. It is possible to add multiple folders and subfolders to the program in case there are several directories containing wallpapers on the computer system.

It is possible to change the order of the wallpapers or use the shuffle button to change it automatically. The program itself will works its way from top to bottom which is a bit predictable.

Several parameters can be configured. This includes the time period, the wallpaper style which becomes important if a wallpaper does not fit the screen, the resize quality and background color.

Wallpapa has a low resource usage once it has been configured and minimized to the Windows system tray. It uses a little bit more than two Megabytes of computer memory which is acceptable for this kind of programs and usually less than other wallpaper changes need to run in the background.

Take a look at our Windows 7 Wallpapers repository if you are looking for some interesting new wallpapers.

This might however appeal to users to never wanted these features in first place and those who do not want another software program running in the background all the time. Jellybean lists the currently available wallpapers in a list in its interface. Each wallpaper can be previewed and set to either stretch, tile or center. The preview does contain additional information about size, graphics format and size of the image.

New wallpapers can easily with a file browser from the local computer. It is also possible to delete wallpapers in the table or select one for the desktop background. Checking the Shuffle Wallpaper box will add the application to the startup items so that a random wallpaper will be set at every Windows start.

It should be noted that Jellybean does not seem to recognize multi-monitor systems. Single-monitor users who only want to change the wallpaper once per run might want to give it a try.

This is probably the same line of thought that convinced Dario Volaric to create a back to basics edition of this Wallpaper Shifter application. This will probably appeal to many users who are looking for a lightweight wallpaper changer. The application picks a random wallpaper from a directory selected by the user and sets it as the active Windows wallpaper.

Once that has been done it closes down which means that it will not use any system resources from that point on. The application was designed to run during system startup but it can also be run when executed while Windows is running.

It comes with a few options to change the scale mode (automatic, crop, fit, center) and the background (default, blur, edge repeat) but that’s it. If you are looking for a one time a session wallpaper changer then this might be exactly what you are looking for.

Make sure to check out the wallpaper repositories Windows 7 Wallpapers or Windows Wallpapers.

Wallpapers from MSN is not your usual wallpaper manager though. It displays the Windows wallpapers in an image library and gives the user options to add his own wallpapers to the application. Each wallpaper can be processed before it is being used as the Windows wallpaper.

The user can use basic photo editing functions like cutting, rotating or cropping images. More interesting that that is the option to add elements to the wallpapers. Three types of objects are available that can be added to a selected wallpaper: Foreground Images, Graphic Elements and Text.

The changes can be previewed and saved to the library. The Wallpaper Settings menu can be used to pick a permanent wallpaper or to rotate the wallpapers frequently. There is no need to run the application if you want to pick a downloaded wallpaper from the list and use it as a static Windows wallpaper or move it to another operating system.

Wallpapers from MSN is one of those nice to have applications for casual computer users. All effects could be added with a photo editor as well. Most wallpapers are well done and the program can be used to increase the wallpaper collection on a computer rapidly.

He can then change the wallpaper immediately by pressing the corresponding button. This button will open a smaller preview window that is displaying a thumbnail image of a random image that got pulled from Flickr. The image was tagged with at least one tag that have been set in the application itself.

A click on the Change button loads another image. This can be repeated until a suitable image has been found. There is no immediate acceptance button. The user has to wait until the countdown reaches zero which will automatically have the effect that the full image will be downloaded from Flickr and set as the system’s wallpaper.

A click on Install / Save Changes will add the application to the system startup process. This will have the effect that Fleace will be autostarted and display its window so that the user can pick a new wallpaper. If he sets the countdown timer to 0 the whole process of selecting and setting a new wallpaper from Flickr will be invisible to the user. The application will terminate after changing the wallpaper on the computer system.

Fleace is compatible with all Windows operating systems beginning with Windows 95 including Windows XP and Windows Vista.

Dream Wallpaper is a Windows Wallpapers application which provides access to wallpapers in several categories including nature, games & movies and cartoon. It ships with a few wallpapers that are installed with the application itself and provides an easy to use interface to browse those local but also network wallpapers.

Network Wallpapers referring obviously to the wallpapers on their website which according to them contains more than 80K wallpapers. Dream Wallpaper uses two tabs to distinguish between widescreen and normal wallpapers. Each tab contains a column on the left hand that links to local and network wallpapers in various categories.

The local wallpapers are accessible right away, a click on a network wallpaper category loads a preview of six wallpapers from the Dream Wallpaper website. The maximum that can be pulled this way is 54 wallpapers in each category which seems a bit unfortunate but is probably part of the greater plan to bring more traffic to their website.

The Windows wallpapers application has a quirk besides that. There is no information about the supported resolution next to the wallpapers which means that it is possible to end up with a wallpaper that gets stretched or otherwise mangled on the computer desktop.

There is also no direct way to include already stored wallpapers in the application. The only possible solution would be to move the wallpapers into the program folder. This requires however the creation of a thumbnail for the same wallpaper. A far better solution would be to pick the wallpapers that you like from the application and copy them to your local wallpaper folder.

The website is clearly structured and good to navigate. It does contain advertisement but not enough to avoid it. It uses a better structure as well, wallpapers can be sorted by screen resolution or theme. The good thing about this is that Linux and Macintosh users can simply visit the website and download the wallpapers they want which Windows users obviously could as well.

The application would make more sense if it would provide additional options and some comfort in adding local wallpapers that have existed on the system prior to installing the software.

The online services it makes use of currently are Flickr, Phanfare, SmugMug, Picasa, Facebook and Yahoo. That’s a lot of additional – and may I add optional – content for the desktop. Basic controls are always the same. The user pics an interval which can be anything from 1 minute to x days. A border can be chosen for images that do not fit the full screen and settings for multi-monitor systems can be configured as well.

The user can then add pictures or folders from the local computer or pick one or multiple of the services. Wallpapers will be mixed from all sources and one will be randomly selected for each interval.

Several services provide access to free content. The top 250 Flickr photos from the last seven days, from a specific group, or using specific tags can be selected without authentication. The amount of photos can be edited and it is possible to change the time interval as well.

John’s Background Switcher is highly configurable. If you open the advanced settings you can configure pretty much everything. Selecting a minimum width for images, stopping image switching when running specific applications and a hotkey for immediate changes of the wallpaper are only three of the manifold options.

The application is compatible to all Microsoft Windows operating systems starting with Windows 98 including Windows XP and Windows Vista. Even the 64-bit editions are supported. It also requires the Microsoft .net Framework 2.0.

Update

John’s Background Switcher has been updated several times in past years. This includes the addition of new online services that photos and images can be snagged from, support for the Windows 7 operating system and many under the hood settings that have improved the usability of the background image switcher noticeably.

There is also support for additional languages like Russian or Finnish, a new keyboard shortcut to view the previous background image which is handy if you really liked the last picture or the ability to add random image effects to the wallpaper images that are selected as the desktop backgrounds.

Wallpapers are divided into categories like Games, Graphic Design and Photography which can be checked separately. If you only want graphic design wallpapers you leave that category checked and uncheck all other categories.

The bad side of this approach is the limited choice. Wallpapers will only be chosen from the available ones giving the user no control in this matter. It would be nicer if the program would provide a custom category that would allow the user to add his own wallpapers to the program.

Some wallpapers contain information about the artist which some users might not like that much. The Windows version of Desktopia is currently in Beta and requires the .net Framework 3.5 to run. It provides a few additional settings like the interval that the wallpapers should be changed and a buttons to update the application and images.

I personally prefer more control when it comes to wallpapers on my desktop. There is unfortunately no way to download the wallpapers directly from the Desktopia website.

A wallpaper changer however would take the burden of my hands and change the wallpapers automatically in certain intervals. Kana WallChanger is an application that can do that for you. What I really like is the ease of use since you only select a folder with wallpapers and the rest is done automatically.

You can naturally change several options like the interval of the wallpaper changes and add new wallpapers even from different folders. The best aspect is in my opinion the low memory usage of the wallpaper changer. It uses only 2 Megabytes of RAM which is excellent for such an application.

By doing so you build a list of places of this world that you found while browsing the software. The software then looks up images on Panoramio that fit the region and displays them as your wallpaper. This is a great way of taking a look at possible holiday locations or bring back memories of locations that you have already visited in the past.

Instead of using locations you can also use local wallpapers that are changed or the pictures that you added to the favorites while playing around with the Google Maps mashup in World Display. The application is currently in beta and it could happen that you experience bugs or even crashes. It was running without problems for me though.

I’m missing the feature to select a screen resolution which is direly needed. Some wallpapers are stretched on my screen which does not look that good.

ScrollWall offers a very clean interface with only a few options to choose from. You can choose if you want to stretch, center or tile wallpapers that do not fit your resolution and select the frequency of the change.

The option here is to either change the wallpaper automatically at startup or choose the amount of time passed before the wallpaper is changed. This can be anywhere from 1 second to 59 hours. You can add multiple wallpapers at once if they are in the same directory but it is not possible to add folders that contain wallpapers for instance.

The Wallpaper Juggler on the other hand is able to add folders that contain wallpapers but is more limited when it comes to specifying the time that has to be passed before a change.

The Wallpaper Juggler needs about 10 Megabytes of RAM while Scrollwall eats away about 15 Megabytes. I’m not sure why the amount of RAM is that high in both programs.

The main difference that I can see is that Scrollwall lets you change the wallpaper at startup (but not after a set time if you choose this option). If you have a computer that does not have that much RAM you should use the Wallpaper Juggler because it uses less of it. ScrollWall is said to work under Windows Vista while I was not able to find information about Wallpaper Juggler and Vista. (did not try both programs on Vista, only XP)

One last note. ScrollWall asks if you want to install the Delio toolbar during installation. This is not needed to run the program so I suggest you better not install it.

You can find more wallpapers at the following websites which are mostly spam and ad free. (no popups for instance).

• Interfacelift
• Pixelgirl
• Vladstudio
• Caedes
• Backgroundarchives
• Nice Wallpapers
• Free Wallpapers