UPDATE: Wallpaper downloads are not available from InterfaceLIFT anymore due to restrictions from the site.
Even though the first basic version of Juggler pretty much did what it was supposed to do, there were few ‘nice to have’ things which were missing. So I updated it with more features. 🙂
Feature set:
Here is the list of features (existing + new) which are now included.
- Its coded and tested to work on Vista and XP SP2 with .Net 3.5. It should work (not tested though) on Server 2008/2003 as they borrow UI code base from Vista/XP. No words for any other OS.
- It runs in background and can be controlled from System Tray.
- It can be configured to:
-
- start with Windows.
- look for wallpapers in multiple folders including/excluding sub-folders. Best results when used with matching resolution wallpapers.
- change wallpaper once every preferred duration between 1 min and 500 hrs. It will understand “000 Hrs/Mins 000 Min” format. It can interpret M/Min/Mins/Minutes and H/Hr/Hrs/Hour as Minutes and Hours respectively.
- confirm before changing wallpaper
- adjust image positioning for odd size wallpapers.
-
- You can also change wallpaper manually by clicking ‘Juggle Now’ menu or by double clicking the icon.
- It allows only one instance at a time.
- It also displays the last updated wallpaper and the time stamp when the next change will occur.
- It displays a confirmation dialog before automatically changing wallpaper. Its configurable to show a confirmation dialog and for how long the message should be displayed.
- “Active” option to enable/disable wallpaper juggling while program is running.
- Last changed wallpaper is a clickable menu which opens the wallpaper in windows explorer.
- You can download stunning wallpapers from interfaceLIFT.com and WallpaperStock.com using “Download Wallpapers” screen right within juggler.
Downloads:
This version uses .Net 3.5. Also, the downloads are posted at codeplex.com.
- Download and install .Net framework v3.5 if its not installed already.
- Navigate to Juggler release page at codeplex to download application and/or source code. The downloads are in Files section.
Uninstall
To uninstall, just remove the files from your PC. There are no special steps required to uninstall this.
Implementation:
Most of the stuff is pretty straightforward. It uses Timer class to invoke code to change wallpaper. The invoked code then uses Win APIs to do the job. But there are few things which may interest you.
- There are all kinds of anonymous method illustrations. You can also find basic as well as complex lambda expressions which, I think, are nothing but fancy anonymous methods invented for LINQ.
- It also demonstrates how to use System.Threading.Mutex to find and avoid if user is trying to run multiple instance of same application. This is the simplest and most accurate approach to create single instance application in C# (VB has some out of the box functionality). There is a catch in this approach which may disqualify this in certain cases.
- While implementing single instance functionality, I needed to warn user that the application is already running. Simplest way is to just display a message box. But I thought if the already running (first) instance can get a notification from second instance then it can show a balloon tip which will tell user where exactly the application is running. This may sound simple but it’s not.
- As both instance are separate processes, we are talking about inter process communication (IPC) here.
- There is no other way than remoting in .Net 1.0-2.0 for IPC. And opening a tcp(forget about http) port seems overkill to me in this situation.
- So I chose a self hosted simple wcf service with named pipe binding. May be I’ll post about using named pipes in WCF for IPC later some time.
As always, please use it at your own risk. Feel free to leave comments. 🙂
Enjoy!
anand prakash 
Hi Anand!Thanks for Wallpaper Juggler, it’s a very nice tool for a restless mind! 🙂A few humble suggestions:1) Make the juggle time completely user configurable instead of the preset 1/2h, 1h, 2h. For example, I’d like a new wallpaper every 8h (workday).2) The time for the next juggle could respect the regional clock format in Windows. It shows with a 12h clock instead of a 24h clock, that I’m using.Those aren’t really problems, your app does what it’s supposed to do already. 🙂Take care,lf
I submitted a couple of patches one of which adds the “user-defined interval” option along with setting juggler to be active/inactive and a menu item to jump to the current background in explorer. Hope you like!
Great features, Paul. I’ll merge the code and publish the updated release for everyone as soon as I can. 🙂ThanksAnand
Hi again Anand!I would like to request support for ping (PNG) images for WallpaperJuggler. I have a lot of wallpapers in PNG format… and I suspect others have that as well.Take care,lf
It’s me again. 🙂I have a special feature suggestion that I’ve never heard of before: associating window colors to specific wallpapers, so that when you switch to a wallpaper, you also get the associated window colors applied in Windows.
Download Wallpapers window must have minimize button 🙂
Good work on the new update, the only thing I miss is PNG support!
can you make it change the wallpaper on startup?
hey anand juggler is a very good software but it lacks one feature which most of the other wallpaper changer software’s also does.it has no smart fit. fit to screen alters the aspect ratio but smart fit doesn’t it dose crop image to fit properly. why don’t you try to put this feature in the next release.
Great little program, but it would be nice whit a option to change the wallpaper on Windows startup and the again after a selected time interval.
Hi, great program!I think there’s a little bug in downloader… The list of sizes in your program is not equal to that on website, for example your program doesn’t include 1280×1024 but includes 1280×1050, but on interfacelift there not wallpapers of that size.. I think 1280×1050 in your list should be 1280×1024 instead.. Maybe?Can you check and eventually fix it?Many thanks, I really would like 1280×1024 wallpapers 🙂
Really awesome program Anand.A few suggestions if you don’t mind.1. A Smart Fit feature would be nice, it’s offered by a few changers out there, not sure how easy it is to implement.2. Maybe a way to make the confirmation ask about changing the wallpaper, if there is no reply it doesn’t change the wallpaper until the interval passes again. This way wallpapers aren’t cycled if I’m not at my PC. So I don’t miss a wallpaper.Just small suggestions, I’ll use the program even without these features tho. Thanks Anand!
Hi Anand, Found your Juggler after I moved to a Vista machine and the Wallpaper Changer Toy from XP no longer worked. I use it to display my own pictures as wallpaper. I really like it. It has several features ont available in the toy. However, there is always a but isn’t there, Iis there anyway it will display the pictures in sequence? That way I get all my Alaska trip in order.Thanks for a great app though. Joann
Excellent.. I was just pondering writing program to do exactly this. Great idea..
This is such an amazing app! Thanks so much Anand! Now if you could create one that gets the ‘dafont.com’ fonts (by category) that would be great!
Would be great if ther’d be an option to juggle @ startup 🙂
Hi Anand – great App!Is there any way I can skip downloading wallpapers I’ve already downloaded and deleted?Cheers,Ipkiss
The main feature I would like for you to add is to be able to NOT download wallpapers i’ve already deleted from the folder. This way, we can get rid of the ones we don’t necesarrily like. Other than that, awesome program.
Anywhere to get some troubleshooting with this program? I can’t change any settings because the Preferences window isn’t sized correctly and there is no ACCEPT/SAVE button. Comes up all screwy. Thank you!
I just read about this program on Lifehacker and I love it! I’ve used InterfaceLIFT for wallpapers for sometime, but having to go to the website and download them one-by-one is kind of a drag. This program letting you just “get a bunch” is a great feature. I’ve used Wallpaper Master (freeware version) for management of the wallpaper. This has some neat features–like being able to next, next, <>prev<>–which would be my recommendation for the next version.Thanks for the great app!
Great app!Please add proxy support for us behind firewalls.
It should work if you can browse sites in IE. Apparantly, the settings which you have in IE are used by windows when apps ask it to connect them to internet.
Proxy support please. My internet explorer connects fine, this doesn’t. On a side note, the BBC News ticker requires me to set the PROXY address.
Cool program! – one minor annoyance – I have my display set to use increase my font size to 125% (Display Properties – Settings – Advanced) and as a result the Juggler preferences dialog box does not display properly.
Hi Anand, Unfortunately we have a Proxy server in our network and I did not found where set the user/password in order to download the images. Is it possible? How?Cheers,Marco
nice program! maybe you could improve the “fit to screen size” option. (i have a 16:9 LCD) it would be great if the picture fit at the top and bottom with a black or with strip (left/right).i saw a similar program, (i think) it colours the stripes (l/r) with a nearby colour! (used wallpaper changer v1.9)thanks 4 the programChristoph (Austria)
hi therenice tool, just trying it out.. it might be nice if i can drag-n-drop folders to the “Look for wallpapers in” section.Regards
Heya.. Just wanted to know if juggler would still work under .NET framework 3.0. Thanks!
Thank you!!! It’s killer feature for me is ability to download beautiful wallpapers.Thank you again!
Excellent application!Would be good if there would be a way to mark wallpaper as favorite.It can write path to current wallpaper and date somewhere in text file.
Hi Anand,First of all, my sincere thanks to you for making Wallpaper Juggler, coupled with the Downloader it’s the kind of wallpaper automatic changer I’ve been looking for quite some time. I am no programmer, but rather a hardware kinda guy, but have worked with developers enough that I can recognize good programming and good programs when I see them, thanks for this again.So Anand, I can’t find where I can report a bug. Where can I do this?If you could tell me I’d like to provide you with some feedback on something that occurs from time to time, it is a specific .NET Framework unhandled exception error and I’d like to make you aware of it.
Hi Anand,First of all, great app – thank you very much.The only thing I cannot get to work is the AutoStart with Windows. Even though it is checked, and I have it saved – it just will not do it.What am I doing wrong?
Thanks everyone for feedback. I coded this app for personal use and thought of sharing if it can serve someone else too. Glad few of you liked it and using it to keep your desktop gorgeous.I’m keeping a note for every issue or suggestion and will try to put them in as soon as I get some time. Really busy these days. Sorry. 😦-Anand
Nice app still its sad that i cant choose what wallpepers juggler will download it would be nice to somehow point what i wan like car wallpapers or nature wallpapers (by tags maybe or by doing my own setup files for even other pages with wallapapers)
I’d love an option to delete the current set wall and juggle.
Awesome program, thanks for it. However interfacelift has changed its design slightly and now I can’t download wallpapers from it 😦Can you please fix it?
Any idea on when a new version will be out that fixes Interfacelift? they changed there page and the downloader doesn’t work any more. Great program btw.
I’ve fixed the interfaceLIFT issue. Go grab the latest release from codeplex.com to keep downloading stunning wallpapers.
Very nice but is it possible to configure 2 differents wallpapers in case of double-screen use??
When downloading wallpapers I’m getting this error message: Error occurred. The remote server returned an error: (404) Not Found.http://i41.tinypic.com/egbr5s.jpg
It seems interfaceLIFT found about the tool and they keep changing the URLs and code. Given that they can see how its coded to download wallpapers, they can figure out what to change to make it stop working.That said, I’ll change things so that it will work even if they change URLs and code. Sit tight.-Anand
Multi monitor juggler?
“Multi monitor juggler”: What do you mean?
Wallpaper downloads are not available from InterfaceLIFT anymore. Read details < HREF="https://anand-prakash.net/2009/02/wallpaper-juggler-downloads-are-not.html" REL="nofollow">here<>
Hi Anand,Why will it not auto start with Windows even tho the checkbox is checked?Thanks a million for your reply!
It adds an entry in registry and windows pick it from there to start. I’d start with checking if the entry exists in registry for Juggler at: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Run. I haven’t seen this problem ever so really not sure about the reason. You may want to check if UAC is an issue (if you are using Vista).
As I knew you would – you had the correct answer. Thanks, Anand!
HiThanks for your good works !Suggestion now 😉It will be great to only download a new wallpaper just at change time.Seems thats wallpaper have a number, perhaps a ramdom number ?With such solution, big users download will be avoid.
Hi Anand!This is Toni from http://WallpaperStock.net (your other source of wallpapers). Please get back to me as soon as possible: tonixx [at] gmail [.] com
Hey, love the program but I have this weird error. It doesn’t seem to want remember to center the image, it seems to default to tiling.
Thanks for this new sofware.I’ve download it yesterdayYesturday, I download a few wallpaper with wallpaperstock (interfacelift does’nt work)And today, I tried to download again but doesn’t work anymore. I tried with 2 computer, vista and XPDoes anybody know if the two URL are down
Hi Anand,Thank you for this great app!A small suggestion:– Make an option in juggle to remove a wallpaper you don’t like, this is convenient for wallpapers downloaded from WallpaperStock or other sources.Many thanks!Vern
Hey nice app!What about adding a nice fading effect, like the built-in wallpaper changer in Windows 7??? That would be sweeet. Anyways amazing app! Thanks
Hello Anand,I had all of the gorgeous pictures from InterfaceLift and I did not get a chance to back them up. My PC got some thing called a rootkit, and of course Gateway said I had no choice but to reformat.There was also no way to retrieve my 7000 mp3’s (they were backed up, thank goodness) But I lost a lot of school work and SO sadly those gorgeous photos fromInterfaceLIFT. I could kick myself for that one. So just now I tried the other Wallpaper Stock and it says I am forbidden. =/ Do you have anything to fix Wallpaper Stock, or are they mad at us, too? However, most importantly, thanks so much for Juggler. I love it. I look forward to when I get to use it again.You <>ROCK<>!
Hi, Great App.. few of my wallpapers keep repeating very often..would be nice to have an option to select as random or in sequence..
thanks, kumaran
Thank you very much for the application.That’s great!!!
Hi Anand,
You rock! Thank you very much for your kind program. I wish you much success and notoriety in creating this handy wallpaper juggler.
Best wishes to you in 2010.
Norm,
I would like to uninstall Wallpaper Juggler. How do I do this? I don’t see it in the Windows Control Panel uninstall programs area.
Thanks,
Rhonda Bartlett
This is great, but I’d like to have the ability to ‘scale’ images to a specific dimension, too.
The Stretch function always annoyed me… I’d prefer to have a scaled image centered on my desktop. Unfortunately, I have to deal with 2 monitors and always Windows always scales for the wrong one (which is why I’d like to set the dimensions of the final photo myself).
Alternately (and I’m sure this would be a chore) it’d be cool to set different wallpapers for each monitor…
Regardless, good job and thanks!
I have been using wallpaper juggler for awhile now. All of a sudden it doesn’t want to work on my laptop anymore.. Both of my computers work on xp and it worked fine and now doesn’t.. Here is the copied problem from the windows error message.
Error Signature———————
EventType : clr20r3
P1 : juggler.exe P2 : 0.5.2.0 P3 : 49a5ea5d
P4 : system.configuration
P5 : 2.0.0.0
P6 : 4889de74
P7 : 1a8
P8 : 4d
P9 : ioibmurhynrxkw0zxkyrvfn0boyyufow
———————————–
I don’t know much about how this program is made or works so I have no idea where in it crashes.
Any help would be nice thanx
any way to uninstall this program?
Hi 🙂
nice tool – but how can i uninstall it?
If you are having the problem that Juggler crashes at startup, I figured out how to fix it…
Go to “C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Anand_Prakash\” and then keep going deeper into the folder that is in there until you are inside the folder “0.5.2.0”. Then just delete the “user.config” file.
Now you can start Wallpaper Juggler, and it will work. You will have to reset your preferences, because they will be set to defaults.
I added a few changes for myself. I can go one picture back. In the menu I can open the picture right away in photoshop elements. But I was surprised to see how many code there is for just one simple program. This program one of the few that does support subfolders. I really like it.
Hi Anand! I love your little program, it does just what it’s supposed to do. There is only one suggestion that I would like to make. Because I don’t see too well, I had set the Dpi for the screen to Large (120). With that setting, the text on your preferences box gets scrambled, and the Save button disappears. Resetting the Dpi to Normal (90) solves the problem, but maybe you can come up with a solution within the program?
Hi Anand
Just love your program – however _ I just upgraded from Vista to Windows 7 and now my juggler does not work. I would like to uninstall the old program and reinstall hoping this will fix the issue. I can’t find the program so that it may be uninstalled. I have tried installing a new program over the old to no avail. Can you help -please?
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Juggler is the best program to change my wallpapers ! Only if you could repair InterfaceLift crawler, it doesn’t work for me, WallpaperStock works great ! Also, other wallpaper websites could be added to the crawler, if it’s not that hard, like WallpaperHere, DesktopNexus, HDW, etc. And maybe add less minutes than 30 minutes for interval. Thank you, Anand ! All my friends are using Juggler now, even my dad !!! It’s lightweight, fast and portable !
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