Introduction
This small article describes how to set the desktop wallpaper. There's really
not much to it. The sample application is a
Windows Forms application and uses the "Wallpaper" class to set the
wallpaper. The class can set wallpaper from most
image sources, including images stored locally or on
the network/internet. To use the sample application, run
it, select an image, and click the Apply button. To test the URL loading, try
selecting an image from a web-page, for example, http://hp.msn.com/global/c/lg/msft_118x35.gif
Using the code
The class for setting the desktop wallpaper
is named, not surprisingly, "Wallpaper". It contains one
public method name 'Set'. This takes two parameters, a URI that points to the image you want to use,
and a "Style" enumeration that specifies how you want the image displayed (tiled, centered, or stretched).
public sealed class Wallpaper
{
...
public enum Style : int
{
Tiled,
Centered,
Stretched
}
public static void Set ( Uri uri, Style style )
{
...
}
}
Points of Interest
The class first saves your image to a temporary file
using a Windows Bitmap format. This allows you to pass other image formats, such
as a gif and jpeg files and have them automatically converted
and used as wallpaper images. The class also allows source images from almost
any location. A URI is passed which describes where the
image is located. Feel free to use this code however you please. The
usual stuff: if it buggers up your machine/life etc. then it's
not my fault!
