Porthole

A simple wallpaper changer that resides in the system tray which features a nice fading effect when switching to the next wallpaper. Choose a folder and Porthole will create a list of all the wallpapers within it and will automatically change the wallpaper at user-defined time intervals.

As with all my applications, the accompaning DLL file contained within the zipped folder needs to be registered unless you've used one of my other programs before.

Please enjoy and let me know if you have any suggestions.

#397400

Before I try this, I have 1086 wallpapers in my Desktop Backgrounds folder, will this affect the performance of the application itself?

#397403

Not really, you might experience a slight delay in the initial startup of the program as Porthole creates the wallpaper list. With a little under 300 wallpapers myself it's hardly noticable (4-5 seconds or so). Once the list is created, it's not a problem.

#397404

Oh great then, downloading

#397405

how much does it uses of resources?

#397410

It varies depending on the frequency of the change. At 5 minute intervals, I'm getting around 2K at idle. While this only applies to what I am experiencing, it should be a good estimate for others.

The best way to see what the resource-usage is like on your computer is to try it yourself.

Edit: It is now at 768 and seems to be steady. 2K was clocked when transitioning.

#397413

Trying this proggie out now Thanks

#397418

so trying it out, registered the dll, started it up, nothing happens...? icon is in sys tray, chose folder and all, tryed next/previous wallpaper... nothin.

#397426

so trying it out, registered the dll, started it up, nothing happens...? icon is in sys tray, chose folder and all, tryed next/previous wallpaper... nothin.

Did you try pointing the Wallpaper Folder to one of you wallpaper folders?

#397431

Did you try pointing the Wallpaper Folder to one of you wallpaper folders?

#397432

Try disabling Active Desktop. Right-click the desktop > Arrange Icons By and make sure Show Desktop Icons is ticked.

#397434

Try disabling Active Desktop. Right-click the desktop > Arrange Icons By and make sure Show Desktop Icons is ticked.

tryed and no go, i did have my icons hiden, but i took that off restarted and still nothing.... this would be awsome to have, if i can just get it working...

edit: well i dont know what changed, but i got it working. would be cool if the transition could be on the desktop and not over it, but its cool anyway.

nicesnake-try regestering the new dll, i saw there is about a 10 Kb change in size in the file.

edit 2: well now its goin on on the desktop and not over it, pretty cool app.

#397436

It isnt working for me also tryed everything from posts above, autoitx is already registered by other of you apps i have installed i suppose (videoshelf, radiofree,netgazette) in walls folder i have around 100 wallpapers but portholoe is saying me that i have -1 walls in collection, looks like problem with rescaning folder

Sry for my english

#397441

Another GREAT program!!!

#397595

i registered new dll and it still doesnt working for me :/ sorry

#397616

i registered new dll and it still doesnt working for me :/ sorry

Sorry, don't know what to tell you. Let me know if it at least creates an ini file when you close. If it did create an ini file, leave me a copy here to have a look at. If not, let me know and I'll mail you over a copy of my ini.

Also, have you tried changing the Wallpaper Position? What version of Windows are you running? What language? The DLL appears to be working if you're getting a menu that shows the collection amount regardless of the total being wrong. The -1 is a bug. If anything it's shown me there's at least one thing to fix.

@Dpsleep: It should remain below the taskbar. I have noticed that it will show above the taskbar if you manually force it to the next wallpaper. Checking to see what is causing that.

I will be adding more transition effects. Probably a Slide Right/Left, etc. Still working all the bugs out but it's pretty much feature complete.

#397628

Haven't got it working yet either.

Thought it might be conflict with Styler...wasn't. No time to get back to it.

A suggestion maybe to search your drives for the dll & unregister all but, one that you probably should place in the System32 directory. Just a quick, caffeine absent thought.

#397771

Just downloaded Porthole. Manually registered the *.dll file and launched the executable. It's working here great! No issues. Only thing I see is that my dock and my AveDesk icons blank out quickly while the new background fades in. They then restore fine, but kind of diminishes the nice effect of the program.

#397808

Great program, I really love it. I could be better it if I was able to set the interval to be faster, say 5 secs or so, but don't let 0 be an option. I can imagine what I computer would do.

Other than that, it runs smoothly (612k on idle and it changes every 1 minute)

#397823

how do you register a dll? this is the first time that i have needed to do this... nevermind, i got it

#397842

Nullsoft makes a really nice installer which comes with an example that will automatically register any COM components upon install (automagically). Might want to consider that.

#398019

Hmm, a very promising app! The only thing is, fading doesn't seem to be consistent. It's always been a simple change, except for the second time the app ran. It still works great, though--thanks!

-NC

#398119

Nice app. How do you register the DLL??? A readme would be a great idea.

Edit : For those who dont know ...

1. On the Taskbar, select Start > Run.

2. In the Open field, type regsvr32 "NameOfFile.extension", where is the directory where the file is located on your computer and NameOfFile.extension is the name of the file. For example:

regsvr32 "C:WindowsSystem32Mydll.dll"

3. Press Enter.

#398140

@Andrew_: I usually use Install Creator which does all of that as well. Haven't used Nullsoft but I might take a look.

@NC: Thanks a lot! Could you explain a little more about the inconsistency issue you're having?

About registering a dll - Google is a great place to begin. There's a whole world out there to learn. I'll make an installer when everything is 100% finished.

#398176

@NC: Thanks a lot! Could you explain a little more about the inconsistency issue you're having?

I haven't continued running the app, but while I was running it, there was no fade effect. One wallpaper and then...*flash*....another! (Note there was no actual flash effect...I mean there was simply no transition between walls, but there wasn't really any flashing either).

This holds true except once, the second time the app changed the walls. At this point, it might not even be an inconsistency anymore--there's simply no fading now whatsoever.

-NC

P.S: Note that VideoShelf was really slow for the fade-in/fade-out effects. It might simply be my graphics card. DirectX 9.0c, ATI Radeon 9000.

#398264