Light-hearted Win7 moment

[ChrisGreaves]

... you had to be there.
For years (Win98 at least) I have rotated my desktop wallpaper with a little DOS batch file and over 3,600 image files, one for each second of the hour.
Whatever time I reboot, a batch file captures the minute and second value and rolls the corresponding image into a file C:\Daily.BMP which is set as my wallpaper.
At the next reboot I see a different scene. (I get bored easily).

Here I am in Win7; it doesn't work the same way; we aren't getting on well together at all.
I discover that if I copy my new wallpaper image to TWO files C:\Daily.BMP and C:\Daily2.BMP, I can tell Win7 to switch between the two of them every 15 minutes.
Which means that 15 minutes after I have rebooted I'll see my new wallpaper.

So far so good.

Until this afternoon, when I reboot, fire up Word and settle down for two mentally intense hours work on crafting my algorithm for organizing my collection of DVDs, a bit of Boccherini mumbling quietly away on the netbook off to the left-hand side.
Finished I shut down Word, saving documents along the way, and instead of a photo of a model-railway coaling yard there leaps out at me the biggest meanest toothiest tiger I have ever seen in my LIFE.

Quite un-nerved me for a few seconds.

1.png

[JoeP]

Why not use the slide show to automatically change your wallpaper? Right click an empty area on the desktop and select Personalize. You should be able to setup a slide show by changing the Desktop Background settings at the bottom of the page.

Joe

[viking33]

Instead of messing around in the dark ages of DOS, why not try the free Webshots wallpaper program?
You can have literally many thousands of beautiful jpg photos or use your own for the desktop of choice. Rotating at intervals that you choose, it's updated for Win 7 or any other OS.

http://www.webshots.com" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[ChrisGreaves]

Why not use the slide show ...

I've looked at that (also using an \Images\ folder for screen-savers), but I like the idea of rebooting in the morning and having a wallpaper-of-the-day.
My experience this afternoon tells me that I'm not yet ready for frequent changes!

[ChrisGreaves]

Instead of messing around in the dark ages of DOS, why not try the free Webshots wallpaper program?

Messing?!?
Dark Ages?!!???

My wallpaper images are ones that I have selected over the years for especial interest.
For example, about two dozen are ancient photos of Southern Cross, where I lived as a child; the railway station at Merredin where the train stopped at midnight on the way home from school, and so on.
To a large extent the images are personal memories, or educational.

A generic wallpaper site couldn't supply the emotional attachment.

And I'm conscious that it IS an emotional attachment.

[viking33]

Instead of messing around in the dark ages of DOS, why not try the free Webshots wallpaper program?

Messing?!?
Dark Ages?!!???

My wallpaper images are ones that I have selected over the years for especial interest.
For example, about two dozen are ancient photos of Southern Cross, where I lived as a child; the railway station at Merredin where the train stopped at midnight on the way home from school, and so on.
To a large extent the images are personal memories, or educational.

A generic wallpaper site couldn't supply the emotional attachment.

And I'm conscious that it IS an emotional attachment.

"or use your own for the desktop of choice."
You CAN use your own photos in Webshots or a combination of theirs or yours.
It will convert any JPG into the webshots format. Just suggestions, Chris.

[JoeP]

Why not use the slide show ...

I've looked at that (also using an \Images\ folder for screen-savers), but I like the idea of rebooting in the morning and having a wallpaper-of-the-day.
My experience this afternoon tells me that I'm not yet ready for frequent changes!

One of the frequencies is daily which is what you are doing by re-booting. If you like the idea of re-booting go ahead and do it. However, unlike Win9x and XP there is absolutely no reason to re-boot Windows 7 on any frequency other than required by patches. That still happens almost every month. An ill behaved application can still cause problems but even that is better handled than in the past.

Joe

[ChrisGreaves]

However, unlike Win9x and XP there is absolutely no reason to re-boot Windows 7

Joe, I believe you, and although I *am* an old stick-in-the-mud I don't mean to come across as one, and I certainly don't disdain you and the information & knowledge you provide.

Unfortunately (for me) I have several related processes that depend on a daily reboot, or at least, which trigger a first-reboot-of-the-day response.

A poor example is my use of a daily blotter folder - today T:\Blotter\201101\01\03 which is DOS SUBSTituted to B:, and yes, about six months ago it was suggested that I switch to Net Share (I think), but I struggled with that. B: receives my doodlings and scribblings, starts afresh each morning, and is preserved as an audit trail of folders on my backup drives. The SUBST command of course restricts me; I must reboot to remove the Substitution and free it up for a re-substitution.

Another poor example is (are?) the various services I provide which depend on web pages such as Canada News Wire's "yesterday's releases" (which on Monday is sparse, holding Sunday's releases, but on Tue-Sat holds up to 400 releases). A DOS AUTOexec.bat file that detects that the Blotter folder doesn't exist can trigger a job which downloads and filters press releases and emits emails to subscribers.

Each example I provide can be re-programmed to avoid a reboot, but right now, struggling as I am with other 64-bit issues, I'm too strapped for time to rewrite them all and so I'm going to go with what has worked for me in the past.

The item at the top of the thread was my first bright moment in Win7.

Having the laptop burn out two weeks ago today crippled my plans to learn rudiments of Win7 (admittedly Starter edition) on the netbook, and waddyaknow, we are all back at work today or tomorrow, and there goes my Christmas Break. I am at least one week behind schedule, and not even my personal Christmas cards have gone out yet, let alone my corporate ones.

Thanks again for your ideas. Please be re-assured that I look up to your superior knowledge, and will make use of it down the road. I'm grateful to eileenslounge for preserving every little (and big) tip on computer usage.
Also the Cooking Conference.

[JoeP]

No problem. I just wanted you to be aware that Windows 7 is far superior to prior Windows OSes as far as stability and reliability go. You should take your time to get to know it and migrate at your pace to newer and better methods of operation.

Just to add to your burden of learning , I'd suggest that you become acquainted with Windows PowerShell in your spare time . It is extremely powerful and flexible.

Joe

[ChrisGreaves]

No problem.

Thanks Joe.

... I'd suggest that you become acquainted with Windows PowerShell

Why am I surprised at this?
Oh, Right. I'm not (hah hah).

Yesterday I quickly devised wait.bat as a substitute for the 16-bit wait.com.
Still a stop-gap measure but at <5minutes more efficient than mastering yet-another-scripting language, AND has the benefit of fast-conversion of existing processes.

Code: Select all

TITLE %0
:: 6:58 PM 01/02/2011 A win7 substitute for wait.com, a 16-bitter that no longer runs.
:: http://malektips.com/dos0017.html

	choice /t %1 /c y /cs /d y

REM End of Wait.bat

[Andrew Malek]

And make the following changes to get rid of the "[y]?" prompt, if desired:

Code: Select all

@choice /t %1 /C y /d y > nul

I'll update the referenced tip in a day or two. Thanks for the mention!

- Andrew

[HansV]

Welcome to Eileen's Lounge, Andrew!

[ChrisGreaves]

... the referenced tip ... Thanks for the mention!

Hi Andrew.
I didn't know you were a member here. Welcome.
And obviously Thank You for the tip. I found it by Googling.

Lest anyone think I am 100% angelic I point out that I try to include the reference in any batch file or VBA procedure for TWO reasons:

(1) To acknowledge my source of knowledge. To give credit where it is due.
(2) To remind myself of where the Good Stuff was found.

OK.
(3) So I can go back later when time permits and see what other Good Stuff is available (grin)

[Andrew Malek]

Hello Hans and Chris, and thanks for the welcomes!

No, I was not a member, but I found a tip mentioned here (also by Googling) and decided to add my two cents (or maybe just one cent <g>).

[Hey Jude]

Lest anyone think I am 100% angelic

There went my