Rotate wallpapers

Want to rotate among a number of background images (wallpapers), so that you see a different one each time you start Windows 95? You won't need some obscure shareware program to do it. All you need are some bitmaps and a little time to edit your Autoexec.bat file. Here's the first part of this technique, sent in by A. van Aardt:

First, note the names of the bitmaps you want to use for this wallpaper rotation. (Tip: If you want the images to fill the entire screen, you'll need to create bitmaps that are the same size as your current desktop resolution--for example, 800 by 600. Otherwise, you'll have to settle for tiled or centered images.)

Next, open Paint--select Start, Programs, Accessories, Paint. One at a time, open each bitmap and save it in your Windows folder, using the names 1.bmp, 2.bmp, and so on. Close Paint.

Right-mouse-click the desktop and select Properties. On the Background tab of the Display Properties dialog box, you should see 1.bmp, 2.bmp, and so on in the list under Wallpapers. Select any one of them (it doesn't matter which) for your current wallpaper and click OK. (Note: If any of the bitmaps are smaller than your current screen resolution, select Tile or Center to define how you'd like those images to appear on-screen.)

All the prep work is done. In our next tip, we'll discuss how to edit your Autoexec.bat file to rotate through these wallpapers.

Open each one in Paint and save it in your Windows folder using the names 1.bmp, 2.bmp, and so on; then open the Display Properties dialog box, select one of these new wallpapers, choose Tile or Center (unless all bitmaps are the same size as your current desktop resolution), and click OK. Now for the second part of the technique--editing your Autoexec.bat file. (If you don't have an Autoexec.bat file, create one in your root directory.)

Select Start, Run, type sysedit and click OK. In the System Configuration Editor, select the Autoexec.bat window. Add the following lines to the end of this file (this example uses five files--adjust the number of lines for the number of files you're using):

• cd\windows
• ren 5.bmp x.bmp
• ren 4.bmp 5.bmp
• ren 3.bmp 4.bmp
• ren 2.bmp 3.bmp
• ren 1.bmp 2.bmp
• ren x.bmp 1.bmp

Select File, Save to save your changes and close the System Configuration Editor.

And that's it! Now every time you start Windows 95, you'll see a different wallpaper on your desktop (one of five choices, in the example above).