Wallpaper in Windowblinds
Saturday, February 21, 2004 by bmetelsky | Discussion: Skinning
If I want to have a certain wallpaper load with a certain windowblind, what do I name the file (jpeg) within the skin directory? Thanks in advance.
SelfExiled
Reply #2 Sunday, February 22, 2004 4:36 AM
Reply #2 Sunday, February 22, 2004 4:36 AM
Yes, and you want to have it in bitmap form. Or, active desktop will load and you'll have other problems, or the wall may not load at all.
bmetelsky
Reply #3 Sunday, February 22, 2004 2:58 PM
Reply #3 Sunday, February 22, 2004 2:58 PM
I haven't had any problems using jpeg's as wallpaper.
Shameless Designs
Reply #4 Monday, February 23, 2004 4:17 PM
Reply #4 Monday, February 23, 2004 4:17 PM
ChasUGC, you continually post on this board that wallpapers need to be bitmaps. Your assertion would only be true in the rare case that someone doesn't have the latest Service Pack for their version of Windows installed, or in the case of Win98 have a very old version of Internet Explorer (IE 4.x or lower) and no SP for the older version of IE.
On Windows XP, the use of .jpg as wallpaper has been fixed since SP1 was published over two years ago. XP also supports the use of .gif, .dib, .png, and .htm files and I have routinely used any or all with absolutely no problem.
There are other image quality-related issues specific to the various formats, especially when converting them from the source image. But if the author would save the original wall from the source image program as a .jpg where he/she has control of the compression, the quality of the image would not then be degraded. And we could have much smaller files. I routinely convert the huge .bmp files to .jpg using PS or PSP with no discernible loss of image quality and no problem whatsoever using those .jpg files as desktop wallpaper.
On Windows XP, the use of .jpg as wallpaper has been fixed since SP1 was published over two years ago. XP also supports the use of .gif, .dib, .png, and .htm files and I have routinely used any or all with absolutely no problem.
There are other image quality-related issues specific to the various formats, especially when converting them from the source image. But if the author would save the original wall from the source image program as a .jpg where he/she has control of the compression, the quality of the image would not then be degraded. And we could have much smaller files. I routinely convert the huge .bmp files to .jpg using PS or PSP with no discernible loss of image quality and no problem whatsoever using those .jpg files as desktop wallpaper.
Shameless Designs
Reply #5 Monday, February 23, 2004 5:40 PM
Reply #5 Monday, February 23, 2004 5:40 PM
ChasUGC, I apologize for my previous post. I just discovered through Skin Studio that WB does require the wallpaper to be a .bmp if you include the wallpaper in the skin. Since I always change my walls through display properties, I have never used this feature in WB.
Why WB does not accept .jpg is a question I will ask in the windowblinds newsgroup.
Again, I apologize.
Why WB does not accept .jpg is a question I will ask in the windowblinds newsgroup.
Again, I apologize.
SelfExiled
Reply #9 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 4:02 AM
Reply #9 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 4:02 AM
WindowsXP doesn't seem to work well with Active Desktop. Many people have complained of problems using jpeg's and gif files as wallpaper. Some people here have complained about system corruption using jpegs and gif files as wallpaper. I also had that problem. The easy solution to the problem is just to use bitmaps(.bmp) as wallpapers.
kongit
Reply #10 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 7:21 AM
Reply #10 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 7:21 AM
interesting. I have never had that problem. It is also interesting that windowblinds won't work with jpgs as wallpapers.
Koasati
Reply #11 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:33 PM
Reply #11 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 12:33 PM
I'm using a jpg as the wall right now, and Active Desktop is not running............
Sput
Reply #12 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 8:09 PM
Reply #12 Wednesday, February 25, 2004 8:09 PM
Hmmm, we have hundreds of users, most using jpgs as wallpapers and as yet I've never come across a problem with this on XP. I guess there must be something else behind whatever problems have been reported which interact to cause the problem.
Shameless Designs
Reply #13 Friday, February 27, 2004 12:43 PM
Reply #13 Friday, February 27, 2004 12:43 PM
I've never experienced a problem in XP with using .jpgs as walls, but then I've always changed my walls through display properties. But in Skin Studio, under the Personality section, the attribute Desktop Wallpaper has the constraint of a BMP image. When I tried to use a .jpg, SS gave me an error. I tried editing the file in notepad to use a .jpg, but when I loaded the skin, the wallpaper would not apply, as if the attribute were being ignored. When I used a .bmp, the wall loaded just fine, so I am concluding that .bmp's are required by WB if we want to include a wall in a skin.
I find it really odd that WB would have a constraint that XP, for most people, doesn't have.
I find it really odd that WB would have a constraint that XP, for most people, doesn't have.
mr.bo
Reply #14 Friday, February 27, 2004 2:31 PM
Reply #14 Friday, February 27, 2004 2:31 PM
I believe the main reason is that DesktopX doesn't (or atleast didn't) work with active desktop. They don't play nice at all. Because WindowBlinds is made to be part of Object Desktop it only stands to reason that it would be made to be as friendly as possible with the other applications in the suite. Therefore having wallparers be biitmaps means Active desktop will never HAVE to be turned on. 
(of course this may have changed as DesktopX has grown, but I remember that this used to be the case, and is why I stopped using JPGs as wallpaper.)
(of course this may have changed as DesktopX has grown, but I remember that this used to be the case, and is why I stopped using JPGs as wallpaper.)
Sput
Reply #15 Friday, February 27, 2004 4:53 PM
Reply #15 Friday, February 27, 2004 4:53 PM
Frugus - oh yes! I remember that problem back along...I too quit using jpgs so that I could run DesktopX for a while. I've been running XP so long now that I'd forgotten that.
I wonder if this is the case, if SkinStudio might be revised in the next version, and WB add the ability to take a jpg in a skin and render it as a BMP if active desktop is turned off on a machine? That way, WB wouldn't inadvertantly kill Active desktop/desktop X when applying a jpg wallpaper, but skinners would be able to include a wallpaper without bloating a skin?
I wonder if this is the case, if SkinStudio might be revised in the next version, and WB add the ability to take a jpg in a skin and render it as a BMP if active desktop is turned off on a machine? That way, WB wouldn't inadvertantly kill Active desktop/desktop X when applying a jpg wallpaper, but skinners would be able to include a wallpaper without bloating a skin?
Shameless Designs
Reply #16 Friday, February 27, 2004 5:35 PM
Reply #16 Friday, February 27, 2004 5:35 PM
Windows XP does not require Active Desktop to run .jpgs, and has not required Active Desktop for some time, since the release of SP1 I believe. I routinely use .jpg's on my desktop and Active Desktop is not running. I also run Desktop X at startup and rarely shut it down, and it runs just fine using a .jpg wallpaper.
Sput
Reply #17 Friday, February 27, 2004 6:19 PM
Reply #17 Friday, February 27, 2004 6:19 PM
#16 - true...WB would need to check it wasn't running on XP SP1 if the "render BMP" code was to be included to protect those aflicted with active desktop syndrome from jpgs...
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Reply #1 Saturday, February 21, 2004 10:43 PM
Digital Trucker helped me out on IRC. You need to use skinstudio to specify the wallpaper you want to use.