Wallpaper Cycler - Features

Full High DPI support.

Wallpaper Cycler is now fully High DPI aware, meaning the user interface will scale nicely with high DPI settings without getting blurry. Note that the toolbars don't yet scale with the DPI setting.

Support for 64 bit Windows.

Wallpaper Cycler runs on 64 bit versions of Windows. Only the shell integration is not working on those platforms and no hand cursor is shown when hovering over link targets on your desktop.

Automatically rotate JPEG images based on camera orientation.

Some digital cameras can store the orientation of the camera inside the image (JPEG). Wallpaper Cycler now understands this information and will automatically rotate the image according to the camera orientation that was used when the picture was taken. So, if you took a portrait image with your camera, Wallpaper Cycler will automatically display it in portrait.

Note that this functionality depends on whether or not your camera stores the orientation in the image. If you want to find this out, you can right click an image in Wallpaper Cycler and choose "Show EXIF Data...". This shows all information that the camera stored in your image. It should contain a field called "Orientation" for the auto-rotate feature to work.

Option to manually rotate individual wallpapers.

For each wallpaper you can configure whether Wallpaper Cycler should rotate that image by 0°, 90° clockwise, 90° counter clockwise or 180°. Learn more about rotation.

Automatically assign a default tag to new wallpapers.

A default tag can be configured that will automatically be assigned to all new wallpapers. This tag is by default called "To Be Reviewed" but can be changed.

For example, if you set this tag to "To Be Reviewed" (the default value), then you can use a search folder to easily find all wallpapers with this "To Be Reviewed" tag so that you can review the tags assigned to that wallpaper. Once you've reviewed the tags, you can remove the "To Be Reviewed" tag from the wallpaper.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Option to automatically rerender the wallpaper on resuming from standby or hibernate.

Wallpaper Cycler can automatically rerender the wallpaper on your desktop when the computer is resuming/waking up from standby or hibernate. This is done with a 10 second delay.

New option "Cycle wallpaper when display settings changed".

When the "Cycle wallpaper when display settings changed" option is enabled, Wallpaper Cycler will automatically cycle the wallpaper when your display settings have changed, for example your screen resolution. This is usefull when you have a tablet computer. When you rotate your tablet, the resolution will be changed and with this new feature, Wallpaper Cycler will automatically cycle the wallpaper in that case. For tablet computers, this is also especially usefull in combination with the Smart Orientation feature.

Folder synchronization will detect new folders.

The folder synchronization feature will now detect new sub folders and will automatically create the appropriate categories for those new folders.

More advanced Preview Window.

When selecting a wallpaper image in your imagelist and pressing the spacebar on your keyboard, Wallpaper Cycler will show a fullscreen preview of that wallpaper. This preview window now allows you to use the left and right arrow keys on your keyboard to preview the previous or next wallpaper in that category or search folder. The preview window also optionally shows a small note in the upper left corner explaining the different keys you can use to manipulate the preview. In the lower left corner, Wallpaper Cycler can optionally show information about the previewed image. When you press the ENTER key at any time, the previewed image will be rendered to your desktop.

New Wallpaper Cycler Controller tool.

A new Wallpaper Cycler Controller tool is included. This controller is used by the Wallpaper Cycler Windows Gadget and you can also use it directly to control Wallpaper Cycler. Learn more about the Wallpaper Cycler Controller.

New Info Panel replaces the old Information Bar.

An Info Panel at the bottom of the main window replaces the old Information Bar that appeared on the right side of the main window in older versions of Wallpaper Cycler.

Align images inside wallpaper objects on layouts.

Two new options "Align Horizontal" and "Align Vertical" can now be changed for individual wallpaper objects in your layouts. These allow you to change the alignment of the wallpaper inside the boundary of that wallpaper object. This makes things like "stretch to height + align to right" possible.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Layout objects now have an option 'visible'.

Every object in your layouts has an option called "visible". If this is set to false, that object will not be rendered to your desktop.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Multithreaded rendering.

Rendering the wallpaper on your desktop now happens in a separate thread keeping the user interface responsive during rendering. If the rendering of the desktop was manually triggered by the user, the thread will run at normal priority, otherwise it will run with lower priority to minimize the impact on other running processes. On Windows Vista and later, when rendering was not manually initiated by the user, the rendering thread will also try to use low priority input/output (I/O) to further minimize the impact on other running processes.

New HTML renderer for text objects in layouts.

The HTML renderer for text on layouts has been rewritten to make it more resilient against malformed HTML from news/RSS feeds. Unfortunately the side effect of this is that text on layouts created with older versions of Wallpaper Cycler will now look wrong and you will need to edit those text objects to reformat them.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Folder synchronization will skip certain extensions by default.

The folder synchronization feature will by default skip the extensions .db, .ini, .avi and .lnk. This list of skipped extensions can always be changed in the configuration of Wallpaper Cycler and can always be reset to the default list.

Option to generate only sensible aspect ratio tags.

Wallpaper cycler can generate aspect ratio tags and assign them to newly added wallpapers. These tags look like "Aspect Ratio 16:9" for example. The option "Only generate sensible aspect ratios" will force Wallpaper Cycler to only generate "Aspect Ratio x:y" tags where x and y are both <= 16. For example: it might generate a tag "Aspect Ratio 16:10", but will never create something like "Aspect Ratio 123:36" when this option is enabled.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Layout changes in the editor can now be discarded.

When closing the layout editor, Wallpaper Cycler will now ask you whether you want to save your changes or discard them.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Link text objects in layouts to specific wallpaper objects.

Text objects in layouts can be linked to a specific wallpaper object in your layout. This allows you to use the text commands like %wallpapername% to display information about the wallpaper displayed in the linked wallpaper object.

(Not available in the Lite version)

New features since Wallpaper Cycler 3.5.0.97

Assign tags to wallpapers, categories, layouts, ...

Tags can be assigned to wallpapers, layouts, wallpaper categories and layout categories. The tags system in Wallpaper Cycler works with inheritance. This means that a wallpaper or layout will have all the tags directly assigned to it, but also all the tags assigned to its parent category, the parent of this parent category etc (recursively).

Assigning tags to layouts allows you to create a layout that will be used for wallpapers with certain tags. A wallpaper object in a layout can also be linked to tags to only display wallpapers with that tag. Search folders can be configured to quickly find all wallpapers with certain tags. Learn more about tags.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Smart orientation for portrait and landscape wallpapers.

Smart orientation allows you to tell Wallpaper Cycler which wallpapers to use when your monitor is in portrait mode and which to use when it is in landscape mode. The following predefined tags exist: Landscape, Portrait and Square. Wallpaper Cycler will automatically assign one of these tags to imported wallpapers. You cannot delete, rename or combine these predefined tags. These predefined tags are especially useful in combination with this Smart Orientation feature. Learn more about the Smart Orientation feature.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Use search folders to get a different view on your wallpapers.

Search folders are a powerful tool to create dynamic "categories" which can show you all wallpapers that contain a certain piece of text or that contain certain tags or that are disabled and more. You can also make boolean combinations of any of these criteria. Learn more about search folders.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Windows Vista gadget to control Wallpaper Cycler.

Wallpaper Cycler includes a Windows Vista Gadget that you can add to the Windows Vista Sidebar and which allows you to control Wallpaper Cycler. Through the gadget you can cycle to the next wallpaper, go back to the previous wallpaper, start/stop cycling and more. The screenshot on the left shows what the gadget looks like. Learn more about the Windows Vista Gadget.

COM DLL for controlling Wallpaper Cycler from third party applications.

Wallpaper Cycler comes with a COM DLL. This is a special DLL that third party applications can use to control Wallpaper Cycler. The COM DLL allows another application to cycle to the next wallpaper, go back to the previous wallpaper, start/stop cycling, open the quote editor, open the notes editor, get the number of seconds until the next cycle and much more.

NOTE: This has been replaced by a WPCController since Wallpaper Cycler 3.6. Learn more.

Post Cycling Scripts.

Support for post cycling scripts allows you to execute a script after Wallpaper Cycler has cycled the desktop wallpaper. This can for example be used to create a script to make sure the wallpaper is cycled on every desktop if you are using some multi-desktop application. Learn more about post cycling scripts.

Get global statistics or document specific statistics.

Wallpaper Cycler keeps track of two kinds of statistics. The first are global statistics which are for example the number of times Wallpaper Cycler has cycled the desktop since its installation. The second are document specific statistics. These are specific to the .WCL file that is loaded. Learn more about statistics.

Links on your desktop.

With the Wallpaper Cycler Layout feature you can place active links on your desktop. You can configure what Wallpaper Cycler should do when you click this link on your desktop. This can be useful to put links to frequently visited websites directly on your desktop. The screenshot on the left gives an example of what can be done with this feature. Learn more about this Link Target feature.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Slideshow mode.

When Wallpaper Cycler is in slideshow mode, it will cycle your wallpaper according to the slideshow delay instead of the normal cycling delay. You can also assign a hotkey to quickly enable/disable the slideshow mode. Learn more about the slideshow mode.

Find & Replace wallpapers.

If you move wallpapers on your computer, you can use the Find & Replace feature of Wallpaper Cycler to update your wallpapers in your wallpaper list to point to the new location of the wallpapers. Learn more about the Find & Replace feature.

Older features

Manage all your wallpapers in multi-level categories which can have a description, a shortcut, a specific color, time constraints, ...

Wallpaper Cycler uses a multi-level category system to allow you to easily manage all your wallpapers. Each category can have a little description. A shortcut can be assigned to a category to quickly jump to it. You can assign a specific color to a category which can be used to quickly identify certain categories. Categories also support time constraints which allow you to for example create a category of wallpapers that will only be used during the summer. A category can be linked to a folder on your hard disk to automatically detect new wallpapers in that folder.

Supports tens of thousands of wallpapers without slowing down.

A lot of attention has been given to the performance of Wallpaper Cycler. As a result, Wallpaper Cycler allows you to manage tens of thousands of wallpapers without slowing down. The number of wallpapers in your list is virtually unlimited.

You can add calendars, quotes, notes, webcams, calendar notes bars, news headlines, ... to your desktop.

The powerful layout feature allows you to create your own custom layouts to be used on your desktop. Layouts enable you to freely place any of the following objects on your desktop:

a calendar: show a completely customizable calendar of the current month, previous months and/or future months.
a quote: show a nicely rendered random quote on your desktop.
a note: show some notes on your desktop.
a webcam: show a webcam image anywhere on your desktop.
another wallpaper: add other wallpapers to your desktop, for example: a smaller wallpaper in a corner from the same category as the big wallpaper, or a small logo somewhere on your desktop, ... You can also blend multiple wallpapers together on your desktop.
a calendar notes bar object: show a completely customizable vertical calendar-bar, which can display notes for each day and responds to double clicks on the desktop to quickly change/add/delete notes without using ActiveDesktop objects.
RSS headlines: show news headlines downloaded from the internet on your desktop and quickly launch the site associated with a specific headline.

You can even add an object multiple times on the desktop each with their own settings. For example: you can add 1 calendar for the current month and another calendar to show the next month.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Apply effects to your wallpapers like blur, contrast, grayscale, color tone, mask, texture and lots more.

You can assign any number of combinations of effects to individual wallpapers. The layout system also supports applying effects to your layouts or to parts of your layouts. Some examples include adding a nice frame around your wallpaper, converting your wallpaper to grayscale, making objects transparent, ... A nice example is to blur the background of a note object to make the text more easy to read on different wallpapers or you can blur and color-tone the background of a calendar object to give a nice look to it. Multiple effects can be applied to the same object.
Effects include: bevel, blur, brightness, contrast, color keying, equalize histogram, gamma correction, grayscale, interlace, invert, mask, mirror, tint, transparency, ... There is also an SDK available to create your own effect DLLs.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Includes advanced random selection algorithm.

Wallpaper Cycler includes an advanced random selection algorithm. This algorithm makes sure that if certain wallpapers get picked one time, they will not be picked again until ALL other wallpapers have been picked. Once all wallpapers have been randomly chosen then all of the wallpapers may repeat once again, repeating the process. This ensures that you will see all wallpapers in the list. As a result, Wallpaper Cycler will never have the symptoms that a lot of other programs tend to have, which is that they seem to cycle through certain items of the list but not all or that they might select certain wallpapers multiple times even if some other wallpapers haven't yet been chosen.

Use the screen saver module to show a slide show of your wallpapers with transition effects.

Wallpaper Cycler includes a screen saver module which shows a slide show of all your wallpapers with 40+ transition effects. The screen saver also supports layouts and you can design specific layouts that will only be used by the screen saver module if you wish.

During the screen saver you can use the right arrow key on your keyboard to cycle to the next image in the screen saver. You can use the left arrow key on your keyboard to cycle to the previous image in the screen saver. However, you can only go back 1 image.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Automatically detects new wallpapers in folders on your hard disk.

If you have linked folders on your hard disk to certain categories in Wallpaper Cycler, new wallpapers in these folders will automatically be detected and added to the correct category.

Supports more than 20 different image formats.

Wallpaper Cycler includes support for lots of image formats such as: JPG, JPE, BMP, DIB, RLE, TIF, PNG, TGA, ICB, VDA, VST, JP2 (JPEG2000), JPC, PCX, DCX, PNM, PGM, PBM, PPM, RAS, ICO, ANI, EMF, WMF and GIF.

Supports online images (webcams).

Wallpaper Cycler supports online images, for example webcams.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Create your own gradient wallpapers.

Wallpaper Cycler has a built-in gradient generator that you can use to create your own gradients. These gradients can then be used as a wallpaper or can be used as an object in a layout to accomplish certain effects, like smooth fading from a gradient to a photo.

(Not available in the Lite version)

Supports EXIF data: for example embedded digital camera information in a JPEG.

EXIF (Exchangeable Image File Format) is a standard for storing extra information in an image file. Most digital cameras use this standard to store extra information in each JPEG file, information such as resolution, shutter-time, date, camera model, focal length and lots more. Wallpaper Cycler allows you to quickly view the EXIF data of any wallpaper. You can even specify a global hotkey (shortcut) that can be used to quickly show the EXIF data of the current wallpaper on your desktop without opening Wallpaper Cycler.

Supports different tiling settings.

Wallpaper Cycler allows you to specify a different tiling setting for each wallpaper. You have a choice from center, stretch, stretch (no aspect), stretch to height, stretch to width, stretch when too big and tile. A default tiling setting can also be set which will be used when adding new wallpapers to your list.

Recursively import folder structure from hard disk into Wallpaper Cycler.

You can recursively import a folder from your hard disk into Wallpaper Cycler. Wallpaper Cycler will mirror the layout of your folder and sub-folders with categories and link the categories to the appropriate folders to be able to easily synchronize them.

Flexible cycling settings.

Wallpaper Cycler can be setup to cycle with a specified delay (up to 59 years) or at specific times. The wallpaper can also be rerendered automatically when you start Wallpaper Cycler. This can be useful for example to update a calendar object on your desktop automatically when booting Wallpaper Cycler. There is also an option to automatically rerender the wallpaper when the resolution of your screen changes.
The desktop can also be rerendered with a specific interval which can be useful to update a webcam object on your desktop every x minutes without cycling the wallpaper.

Background/text color settings for each wallpaper.

You can adjust the color of the background for each wallpaper separately or specify a default color to use. You can also pick a color on a wallpaper and use that as background color for that wallpaper or let Wallpaper Cycler automatically calculate the background color based on the wallpaper itself.
The color of the text for the icons on the desktop can also be set for each individual wallpaper or can also be calculated automatically based on the wallpaper.

CPU monitoring.

Wallpaper Cycler includes a CPU monitoring feature. When enabled, Wallpaper Cycler will not cycle the wallpaper when it detects that the CPU is too busy, for example when you are playing a game. Requires administrator privileges.

Drag & Drop support.

You can drag & drop images from Windows Explorer into your wallpaper list by dropping them onto the imagelist in the main window.

You can also open a previously saved image list (.WCL file) by dropping it anywhere on the Wallpaper Cycler main window except on the imagelist.

Cycle once and optionally exit when you login to Windows.

When you enable the "Cycle once and do not exit at Windows logon" option, Wallpaper Cycler will cycle the wallpaper once when you login to Windows. Enable the "Cycle once and exit at Windows logon" option, to let Wallpaper Cycler cycle the wallpaper once and exit when you login to Windows. (See "Cycle once and exit at Windows logon" and "Cycle once and do not exit at Windows logon" in the options)

Easily find non-existing wallpapers.

The "find non-existing wallpapers" feature allows you to quickly find wallpapers in your wallpaper list that no longer exist on your hard disk and to remove them from your list.

Windows Shell integration.

Shell integration allows you to add more wallpapers to your wallpaper list straight from within Windows Explorer by right clicking on an image and clicking on "Add to NuonSoft Wallpaper Cycler...".

Define system wide hotkeys to manage wallpapers.

System wide hotkeys allow you to easily cycle to the next wallpaper, show the main window, start cycling, launch an RSS headline, ... from anywhere in Windows without activating Wallpaper Cycler.

Double click the Wallpaper Cycler icon in the notification area to cycle wallpapers.

You can setup Wallpaper Cycler to cycle to the next wallpaper when you double click on the Wallpaper Cycler icon in the notification area (the icons next to the clock of Windows) (this is disabled by default).

Features

Detailed features

New features since Wallpaper Cycler 3.6

New features since Wallpaper Cycler 3.5.0.97

Older features