Bgcall is a wallpaper changer with multi-monitor support
Bgcall is a free program for devices running Windows that enables you to rotate a set of desktop background images easily on the system.
Microsoft has integrated basic wallpaper changing capabilities into the Windows 7 operating system. This comes as part of the operating systems themes functionality, and what you can use it for is rotate different background images on the desktop. The capabilities have been improved in Windows 8 to add support for multi-monitor systems.
While that is a great step in comparison to previous systems, it is still basic compared to some of the third party wallpaper changers out there.
Bgcall
Bgcall looks like any other program of this kind on first glance. What sets it apart from the majority are a couple of features. You will notice during installation that you can configure it to only run during system start to change the wallpaper.
That's great as it will exit after it has successfully changed the desktop background on the system so that it won't use up memory or processing power. It offers to place icons on the desktop that trigger the changing of the wallpaper, so that you can use it even while the system is running if you prefer to do so.
The first thing you will notice is that it supports multiple lists of wallpapers that you can add to the application. While not necessary, it provides you with options to group themed wallpapers for easier selection. It is however not necessary to do so as you can work with a single list as well if you prefer that.
You can add files or folders full of pictures to a list. If you select folders, all images in that folder will be added so make sure it only contains wallpaper images and not other pictures.
All images are displayed with their full path once added. You can select them here to see a small thumbnail preview of it in the lower half of the screen, or click on preview to display a full screen preview of how it looks like on your desktop.
Here you can also set wallpapers manually if you want which can be useful if you do not want the program to start with Windows.
Before you do, you may want to check the preferences displayed in the lower half and the settings of the program.
- Calendar displays a calendar in the upper right corner of the screen. Change calendar settings, e.g. font, position, colors and holidays.
- Select how you want smaller or larger wallpapers to be handled (e.g. enlarge and shrink).
- Enable random mode which picks wallpapers randomly instead of chronologically.
- Change the margin color.
- Export or import lists.
The program supports the following input formats: bmp, png, jpeg, tiff and gif image files. It can be run from the command line, the following parameters are supported by it:
- /s exit after changing the wallpaper
- /d exit after updating the calendar
- /z ignore execution delay settings
Bgcall is compatible with all recent Windows operating systems. Windows 8 is not mentioned on the authors website, a quick test however revealed that it appears to be fully compatible with Microsoft's latest operating system as well. A 32-bit version and 64-bit version of the wallpaper changer is made available.
Verdict
Bgcall offers two core features that may make it interesting to Windows users. It first runs only when wallpapers are changed which is great if you are running a low-end system or do not want additional programs to run all the time on your system, especially if their functionality is not needed.
The second is support for multi-monitor systems. Thanks to its list system, it is easy to pick wallpapers for different monitor resolutions.
Johns background switcher takes some beating.
http://johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/