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DeskTopper v1.0

• Introduction
• Screenshots
• Using DeskTopper
• License
• Contact
• Download

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Introduction

DeskTopper is a fun little app that sits in your Windows system tray and changes your desktop image at the specified interval to a random image retrieved from a Google Image Search based on a list of user defined search queries.

It is a really simply application written mainly as a way to try out a few ideas. I was just playing around with a few concepts at first, but once things got going I decided to go ahead and wrap everything up neatly. DeskTopper is written in C#, and both an installer and the source code are provided below. So feel free to give it a spin, and check out the code too if you're interested. Just keep in mind it started out as just some test code, and was written pretty quickly ;)

Comments and feedback are always welcome. My email address can be found in the Contact section below.

Screenshots

DeskTopper window with the Options tab showing.

DeskTopper window with the Search Settings tab showing.

Using DeskTopper

Using DeskTopper should be pretty self explanatory, but here's a quick and dirty overview to get you started:

The main DeskTopper window has two tabs, Options and Search Settings. The Options tab has a region containing start-up settings, and a region titled Latest Image that displays the last search query used, the image retreived, and a button for saving a local copy of the image [see figure]. The Search Settings tab has a Search Terms box for entering search queries (one per line), and a region titled Options containing settings for customizing your search results, desktop position, and change frequency [see figure]. In addition to these two tabs, the DeskTopper window also provides a large Change Desktop Now! (which obviously changes the desktop...now!).

Both the "Minimize" and "Close" buttons on the DeskTopper title bar cause the application to be minimized to the Windows system tray [see figure]. Right-clicking the DeskTopper system tray icon displays a context menu with options to show the DeskTopper window, exit DeskTopper, and to change the desktop image [see figure].

One final tip worth mentioning is that the search queries function exactly like a standard Google Image Search query, so quotation marks and all other query tweaks apply.

License

This application and its source code are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 license. You are free to copy, distribute, and modify the software under the following conditions:

1. You must attribute the original work to it's creator by mentioning the creator's name and website [see Contact section].
2. For any reuse, you must make clear to others the license terms of this work.
3. You may not use this work or any derivative for commercial purposes.

NOTE: Any of the above conditions can be waived if permission is obtained from the copyright holder.

Contact

Download

DeskTopper currently only exists for Windows (XP/Vista). Other versions may eventually be written (most likely if I'm feeling bored), but due to the nature of this project it is unlikely that this would happen without an external demand. However, feel free to use the source included below do make your own :)

Windows: Installer (Win32), Source Code (C#)

(NOTE: DeskTopper requires the .Net 2.0 platform to be installed)

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