DESKTOP RADAR V1.1

Version History:
1.1.1 - September 6th 2005
Fixed bug in the image list array where the setting would get scrambled.

1.1 - September 3rd 2005
Added ability for program to display up to fifty different images on the desktop at once.  

1.0 - August 25th 2005
First version displayed single radar image integrated into desktop background.

The program is designed to obtain an image from a website (typically radar but could be just about any image) and then applies that image to your desktop. You can have up to fifty different images displayed on the desktop. The program has a user definable timer so the image can be updated as often as you would like. The image is actually embedded into the desktop wallpaper so it will always be below all other windows on your screen. The modified image (with the radar picture) does not affect your actual desktop wallpaper file and windows will restore the original wallpaper when you exit the program. The wallpaper background you use should be the same size as your desktop. If you try to use the program with stretched or tiled images the result will not be satisfactory. The order of the images is that the lowest numbered images are placed on the screen first and higher numbered images after that. 

This program requires the dotnet framework. The program works with Windows 2000 and Windows XP.

Installation:  Simply click on the setup.exe and the program will be installed.  To uninstall the program go to the Add/Remove Programs in the control panel and look for the DesktopRadar entry.

Usage:

When you first start the DesktopRadar program it will launch a small icon on your system tray that looks like the image above. The small "lightening cloud" icon is where you will choose options for the program, view help (this file) or simply exit the program. 

The icons will occasionally change appearance to two small eyes in the system tray. This means the program is currently trying to locate and download the image(s) you have specified.

If you right-click the tray icon you will see three options. Selecting the "options" choice will bring up the options window. The options window allows you to modify the way the program works. 

The top left option is the "refresh interval in minutes" and the numeric entry box to the right. This allows you to set how often the program will update the image(s). You can set the timer from 1 minute up to 1440 (1440 equals 24 hours) minutes. The refresh interval is a global setting and the time will be the same for all images.

Directly below the "refresh interval" is the "image number." You can have up to 50 different images that get updated on the desktop. Typically most people will only use one or two but I decided to increase the number for people who wanted more displays. Clicking on the up/down button will traverse through the settings for each image. 

The "Restore" button will clear the deskop background and return it to the original appearance. This will only be temporary however once the timer fires the images will be refreshed. 

The "Help" button displays the file you are reading now. 

The purple panel in the middle of the screen displays the individual settings for each image. 

To the middle left you will see the "quick size adjustment" area. There are five buttons that you can press to alter the size percentage of the image on your desktop. In other words if the actual image is 640x480 and you select 50% then the image on your desktop will be shrunk to 320x240. Selecting the 100% will keep the image in original size and 200% will double its size. This is also related to the "size of image" selector to the right which allows you a more precise size percentage if the quick sizes are not enough. If you press the quick size buttons the value will be reflected in the "size of image" numeric value. The smallest size allowed is 10% and the largest is 200%. 

The border width numeric value determines the border width that will appear around the image. You can set the value to zero for no border at all. The border color below that determines what the border color will be. Press the "border color" button to change the border color.

The "Left Position" and "Top Position" values determine where on the desktop the image will appear. For example if the values were "10" and "10" then the image would appear in the upper left hand corner of the desktop ten pixels from the left and ten pixels from the top. When you are using more than one image be sure to set these values differently for each image otherwise they may lap over each other. 

The "URL to image" textbox is where you must enter the URL to the image you wish to download. This URL must be directly to an image file and not to an HTM file. For example "www.myplace.com\files\image.gif" would be correct, but "www.myplace.com\files\index.htm" would not. (Note these are example web locations and are not real.) 

The "enabled" checkbox is set for each image. You can enter in images to use and using the checkbox decide whether that image will currently be used. By default empty image settings are not enabled. 

When you close the options screen it will update all the values at that time. 

At the very bottom of the screen are the "save" and "cancel" buttons. Pressing the save button will save any changes you have made and will cause the program to refresh the images. Pressing cancel will ignore any changes you have made and the program will not refresh the display.

NOTES:

Remember to use background wallpapers that are the same size as your desktop. Stretched or tiled wallpapers will not work.

If you select "Desktop Properties" through the control panel or by right-clicking the desktop while this program is running you will see the temporary wallpaper name as the wallpaper. Hit cancel and do not press "ok." Pressing "ok" while the program is running will cause Windows to use the normally temporary wallpaper as the background. If you do this by mistake simply go back into the "Desktop Properties" and browse to the original desktop wallpaper. If you need to make changes to the desktop, exit this program, make your changes, then restart this program.

Where can I find radar image URLs?
I purposely avoided providing any image urls/web addresses in the program to begin with. The main reason was to avoid any copyright violations of those web sites. There are many weather web sites including government (NOAA) as well as various commercial sites. Simply go to a weather web site and locate a radar, satellite or other image. Right-click the image in your web browser and choose "properties." You will see the address or location of that image. Simply highlight that address (drag over with the mouse) and right-click and choose "copy." Next go to the URL textbox in the program and right-click within it and choose "paste." The correct URL will now be copied into the textbox. If the URL is not a valid image address you will be prompted to correct it. This program will not work with animated GIF files.

If the program encounters an error it will write a log file to the "C:\program files\Patrick Dugan\DesktopRadar" folder. Look for a file called "DesktopRadar.log" and open it with any text editor. It will have detailed information regarding any errors. If the information does not make sense then email me with the error log information and a description of what you were doing in the program when the error occurred. 



Desktop Radar was written by Patrick Dugan.

patrickd@netins.net
or
pldugan@gmail.com 
