WimpWall is the free automatic wallpaper changer for those too wimpy to be bothered with complicated stuff.
System Requirements
- Windows 95/98/ME/2000/XP
Features
- Runs automatically at startup, then terminates. Most other wallpaper changers hang around in your system tray, taking up valuable resources.
- Chooses random image for wallpaper from folder(s) you nominate. Yes, you can specify multiple folders.
- Recurses folders, to find more images. If you sort your images into folders, then this is a great time-saver.
- Can automatically tile small images, whilst letting large images stretch or centre.
- Displays jpeg (.jpg) and bitmap (.bmp) images
- Gives opportunity to postpone wallpaper change, in case your desktop already has one you particularly like
- Does not require Active Desktop
- No program installation required
Tips
- WimpWall works with folders, not individual images. If there's a particular image you want to set you can use Display Properties in Windows or the Set as Wallpaper option of your web browser.
- WimpWall was designed to change wallpaper at startup. Returning from Standby, Suspend and Hibernate do not count as starting up. If you normally hibernate instead of shutting down then you might prefer another wallpaper changer. Or see the next two tips for an alternative.
- To make WimpWall run at times other than startup you can copy the WimpWall shortcut from the startup group of your start menu to your task scheduler.
- For a one click shortcut to change the wallpaper whenever you want, just copy the WimpWall shortcut from the startup group of your start menu.
- If you update or move WimpWall then you must run it and save settings to relink it to the shortcut that runs at startup.
Possible future changes
- Support for more image types, such as GIF and PNG. I haven't added this so far because I don't have any GIF or PNG wallpapers, and in a cursory search on the Internet, JPG seems by far the most common format.
More fun!
Visit the fun homepage for information about other freeware offerings.
News
11-Sep-2006
Like WimpWall? Then you'll love its successor Fleace, which obtains its pictures from the online photo-sharing site Flickr.
3-Oct-2004
v0.3 released.
- Added option to remove countdown to wallpaper change
- More details
26-Aug-2004
v0.2 released.
- Improved handling of faulty jpeg images
- All error dialogs now close automatically (after a delay)
6-Aug-2004
v0.1 released.
Download
version 0.3 (236kB).
Wallpaper Changer Links
Winwall - the major freeware wallpaper changer available today.
Benefits vs. WimpWall:
- change wallpaper at times other than startup
- visual effects (I'm partial to 'blur' and 'spray')
- downloads new images live from the Internet
Drawbacks compared to WimpWall:
- folder monitoring does not recurse
- difficult to make terminate after running
- confirmation dialog does not timeout (WimpWall assumes you want to change if you don't respond in 5 seconds)
Windows XP Desktop Wallpaper Changer PowerToy - sounds promising from its web page description, though I haven't used it myself. Given the excellence of the other PowerToys, I'd expect this to be similarly useful. And it's free too!
The Small Print
It's free!