Even though Windows allows you browse for and select images to use as wallpaper, there is still a lot missing from the whole experience. To address these shortcomings, I wrote my own program to make a wallpaper changer that works the way that I want it to. Given the current state of technologies such as GDI Plus and advanced controls, this incarnation of the wallpaper changer is everything I want it to be.

Features include:

• It allows you to set .bmp, .gif, .jpg, and .png images files as wallpaper
• It has a graphical image browser to help select a particular file, with customizable image sizes
• It offers a list view of image files and allows you to sort by name, size, date, or resolution
• It color codes the image resolutions to easily identify those with the same ratio as your screen
• It has a preview area complete with monitor effects such as inner shadows and a glare
• It has an optional caching system to make loading directories lightning quick
• It allows you to easily delete/copy/rename files, and supports drag and drop
• It offers high quality bicubic interpolation to resample images to your screen resolution
• It has an image viewer mode that shows the picture in its own window, resizable to zoom in/out
• It's resizable so make the directory browser and preview area large or small

Wallpaper XChange doesn't modify or replace any of your source images. Instead, it will make a copy of any image and use that copy for the wallpaper. It can optionally keep thumbnail-sized cached copies of images to speed up directory previews, but these are kept in a separate cache directory underneath the program directory so that it won't interfere with your image directories.

Click on any of the thumbnails below to see a full size image

Large Icon Preview	Small Icon Preview	List of Images	Viewing Selected Image

Here are a few other features with sample screenshots

Image	Description
	A preview of the wallpaper on the monitor with inner shadows and a glare alpha-blended over the composite image to add to the depth and realism.
	Image subsection (left) when Windows resizes a 1600x1200 image to fit a 1280x1024 screen for a wallpaper - look at how jagged the lines are! The same subsection (right) after Wallpaper XChange's bicubic interpolation resampling - no jaggies!
	Screenshot of the image viewer which is resizeable to zoom in and out. Holding down the SHIFT key while resizing ensures that the zoom will be done maintaining the image's original proportions.  The title bar gives you information such as the file name, the image's original dimensions, the current scaled percentage, and the file path.

Download Link

Last Updated on Sunday, 14 February 2010 18:49