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Last post Author Topic: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition  (Read 47244 times)

Nighted

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Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« on: September 26, 2005, 06:21 PM »
Awesome free wallpaper manager with excellent, clean GUI: Wallpaper Master

Great for people who hoard wallpapers in the thousands. :-[
Although it's the freeware version, it's still the best
wallpaper changer on the web, trust me, I've wasted countless
hours trying them all ;). After trudging through one sloppy app after another
with mediocre features and atrocious user interfaces as well as questionable performance, I
finally found this application, not quite believing it. It looks great, has tons of cool features, is
backed up by a friendly developer and is constantly in update mode going though many version
changes in the last few months. This doesn't mean the program is buggy, it's not, but this is obviously
a labour of love for the author, who is consistently tweaking and tightening up the code.

# Store multiple wallpaper lists as different categories/libraries.
# The ability to rate wallpaper, so better wallpapers are chosen more often.
# Customizable Global Hotkeys - Quickly change/clear the wallpaper with any key combo.
# Very high quality resizing of images to fit the screen optimally and keep their aspect ratio.
# Auto change the wallpaper when windows starts, every x minutes, or use the ratings to choose an interval.
# Change wallpaper in order, in shuffle mode, or randomly according to rating.
# Analyse the wallpaper and automatically choose between Resize, Tile, Center or Stretch.
# Uses very little resources.
# Minimizes to tray area for easy access.
# Easy to use but powerful interface.
# Desktop Wallpaper Master is a free download (freeware)!
# And more!



 
The shareware version has a generous 30 day, nag free
evaluation period that will continue to work in limited function after the time limit
and is very reasonable priced at $15. It has a slicker, more compact GUI:



# Support for many more image types (GIF, PNG, JPEG-2000 (JP2), TGA, WMF and PCX images).
# Now includes a fullscreen Slideshow mode!
# Max wallpapers increased to 64000! (Rather than 5000).
# Automatically change wallpaper at specific times of every day.
# Transparent icon backgrounds (for pre-WinXP computers).
# Skip a cycle if CPU load is too high (useful for when playing games).
# Automatically position portrait images to uncover icons.
# Change the order of images in the list.
# Apply a simple effect to a certain percentage of wallpaper shown.
# Ability to overlay the image's name onto the wallpaper (watermarking).
# A huge performance boost and improved user interface.
# Even more customizable!
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.
« Last Edit: October 19, 2005, 04:16 AM by Nighted »

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #1 on: September 26, 2005, 07:02 PM »
beautiful!! another great find.

Carol Haynes

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #2 on: September 26, 2005, 08:01 PM »
I have used that since it first appeared (including all the early buggy versions). It is now a really cool little app.

clif_notes

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #3 on: September 27, 2005, 01:46 AM »
Hello Nighted,

A most excellent review of a freeware application I've never seen.

May I present this as a "guest" review in an upcoming newsletter, let's say next week? It would be hosted at my FreewareWiki site. If you want to check out the newsletter, you can go to the LivingRoom  and see my post there.

Thanks,

Clif


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Nighted

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #4 on: September 27, 2005, 02:58 AM »
Clif...go nuts!

And thanks for wanting to use it.  :)
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.

clif_notes

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #5 on: September 27, 2005, 09:38 PM »
Clif...go nuts!

And thanks for wanting to use it.  :)

No, thank you for taking the time to share. I like your review because I can feel your excitement and pleasure with this application.

Here's the first draft (freeware only). Do you like the title, it can change. Also, note the red link. This goes to your page. It's usually a bio about the guest reviewer. Do you have websites or personal information you'd like to share here? 

If you are watching Mouser, I'm not happy with what I've written on your bio page behind the DonationCoder link. Any suggestions?

Have fun!

Clif

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« Last Edit: September 27, 2005, 09:41 PM by clif_notes »

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #6 on: September 27, 2005, 10:24 PM »
zaine has been telling me for a while that donationcoder needs a simple concise kind of catchphrase or motto..
i haven't been able to come up with anything perfect yet... anyone have any suggestions?


Nighted

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #7 on: September 27, 2005, 11:31 PM »
Hmmm....I thought long and hard about it...well 4 minutes. I came up with this: 001000100101011101101001011011000110110000100000011000110110111101100100011001010010000001100110011011110111001000100000011000100110010101100101011100100010000100100010
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #8 on: September 27, 2005, 11:37 PM »
 :huh:

Nighted

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #9 on: September 27, 2005, 11:42 PM »
Clif...the review looks good.

mouser...it's binary code.
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #10 on: September 27, 2005, 11:51 PM »
"will code for beer" :)

[this is what nighted's binary message decodes to]
« Last Edit: September 28, 2005, 03:05 PM by mouser »

clif_notes

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #11 on: September 28, 2005, 11:53 AM »
DonationCoder - where user feedback is written into the code

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clif_notes

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #12 on: October 03, 2005, 02:57 PM »
I have published the newsletter and Wallpaper Master was my choice for the best review. I hope the readers enjoyed it as well.

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lanux128

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #13 on: October 09, 2005, 11:46 PM »
hi there Nighted & clif_notes,

i was using Wallpaper Master earlier this year & i quite happy with it except for a slight flaw.

when you tried the "mirror image" option, it overwrites the existing files & changes the time-stamp. imo, this is detrimental to digital photo images because the time-stamp is important for sorting & renaming purposes. so i wrote to the author regarding it and he promised to fix it. but since then i've lost track of the app's progress, until now... so i was wondering if someone could verify whether this bug has been fixed.

btw, what about a wallpaper manager shoot-out? i have some potentially good candidates... ;-)
best regards,
lanux
« Last Edit: October 10, 2005, 12:01 AM by lanux128 »

Nighted

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #14 on: October 10, 2005, 12:04 AM »
I wrote James a while back and he immediately fixed this bug. I'm not sure about time stamping though. But you can be assured it doesn't overwrite your image files anymore when mirroring them.
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #15 on: October 10, 2005, 12:17 AM »
surely the timestamp was due to overwriting the file, so if its not overwriting then it shouldnt be changing timestamp.

lanux128

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #16 on: October 10, 2005, 12:52 AM »
I wrote James a while back and he immediately fixed this bug.... But you can be assured it doesn't overwrite your image files anymore when mirroring them.

well, that's great... kudos to James for his instant response  ;-)

surely the timestamp was due to overwriting the file, so if its not overwriting then it shouldnt be changing timestamp.

yes, that's true, mouser. that's how i noticed that the app was overwriting the original files... a big no-no for me. ;-)


best regards,
lanux

SneakAttack

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #17 on: October 14, 2005, 03:21 AM »
btw, what about a wallpaper manager shoot-out? i have some potentially good candidates... ;-)
best regards,
lanux

  • http://www.wiredplane.com/wirechanger/
    It goes far beyound simple wallpaper changer, but it worth trying. It combined features of different applications like active desktop calendar, misc desktop clocks and widget-enabled apps has very unique feature of generating new images from existing ones (this is just one of the preinstalled widgets in fact). Unlimited trial which can be removed at all by exchanging one of your pictures with other users

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #18 on: October 14, 2005, 03:45 AM »
nice find - wiredplane looks like they have some nice stuff and a good attitude.

lanux128

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #19 on: October 17, 2005, 01:26 AM »
btw, what about a wallpaper manager shoot-out? i have some potentially good candidates... ;-)

aye, SneakAttack... then we can have a list ranking them from simple "do the job & quit" apps to the full-featured desktop replacement types... btw, i'm adding another couple of them... ;-)

best regards,
lanux

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #20 on: October 17, 2005, 04:03 AM »
looks like we lost the inline links in first pic..

Nighted

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #21 on: October 17, 2005, 04:08 AM »
Another...I used this one forever. No bugs, it worked. Nothing fancy though.

Panorama 32: http://ivory.org/panorama.html

...and a cool skinable one. Doesn't work well with large collections so I dumped it pretty fast. Would be nice if someone took it over and fixed up the code.

QuickChange [seems to be abandonware]: http://enclave-i.dreamflow.nl/quickchanger/

yet another with a really original name ;) ....

Wallpaper Changer: http://www.wallpaperchanger.de/
I`m a firm believer in the philosophy of a ruling class, especially since I rule.
« Last Edit: October 17, 2005, 03:59 PM by Nighted »

lanux128

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #22 on: October 17, 2005, 08:23 PM »
looks like we lost the inline links in first pic..
i don't get it... which inline links, mouser?

and thks nighted, i've heard of the other two but i'm going to check out QuickChange as soon as i get some time... ;-)
btw, not to forget our own WP changer by mouser: Temporality Screens

best regards,
lanux

mouser

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #23 on: October 17, 2005, 09:17 PM »
the pictures in your first post - they are gone.  guess they were linked to the original site and the original site took the pictures away?

lanux128

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Re: Wallpaper Master: Freeware Edition
« Reply #24 on: October 17, 2005, 09:47 PM »
the pictures in your first post - they are gone.  guess they were linked to the original site and the original site took the pictures away?
is it one of my screenshots? all my screenshots are hosted at ImageShack®.
maybe they had something to do with it... ;-)
i try not to hot-link from other web-sites...

best regards,
lanux