Color Desker, Automated Wallpaper Changer
It is not as if there is a shortage of software to change the wallpaper regularly on the Windows operating system. I have probably reviewed a good dozen of applications that have been designed for that task in past years. This includes the desktop wallpaper changer Wally, Wallpapa or Wallperizer.
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.
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I’m addicted to wallpaper – 1000s of pictures – everything from art to travel and family – randomly changed every half hour or so. A serious waste of resources? Probably – but I enjoy it, and it’s my PC, so there.
I’ve tried quite a few wallpaper changers, and they’ve almost all fallen short in some respect. Sometimes they duplicate the picture files for their own use – and that IS a serious resource waste. Often they have upper limits, the developer obviously never having imagined some lunatic with 50 gigs of pictures. Recently, there’s a move towards web-based changers – I see the point, but it’s not something I want or need.
My current favourite is Steve Murphy’s Automatic Wallpaper Changer (www.smurphy.co.uk). It’s not free (though at 6 pounds it’s not far off) and does almost everything I want – the options list is pretty extensive.
The one problem I’ve always had with all wallpaper changers, including AWC I’m afraid, is with the efficiency of the randomising process. I find I’m seeing some pictures a lot more often than others. This seems common to every wallpaper changer I’ve tried so far. But AWC still stands out for me as the best. I’m not connected with this software by the way, other than as a purchaser.
Hello Jack,
Thanks for your thoughts.
Color Desker uses web to pull the pictures initially but its only onetime. It does store them on your drive and no, it does not have duplication issues. Software only gets the best picture that fits your screen resolution. We would suggest you to use it atleast once and see the quality of your desktop.
Regarding your favorites, we have had that feedback from our users and already incorporated that features. Out of all the wallpapers presented in Color Desker, if you want, you could mark some pictures as your ‘loved’ pictures and change the view to “Loved ones”, that way you will not see the other crap which is not marked as loved ones. Similarly we also have option to hate some pictures or hide them for ever from the view. We also show “Least Used” to those who wants novelty on the desktop, other option is to see most popular wallpapers which means you will see pictures which all Color Desker users like the most!
We understand that we dont have 50 gigs of pictures to offer you, but we believe in quality more than quantity. :) Anyways, Try it once and see if its worth the hype.