Suggestion/request: Slideshow wallpapers

[iliadaili]

Hi! I installed auto Dark Mode and, after installing it, I saw that it had the option to set up different wallpapers for light mode and dark mode. I thought that was very cool, but I ended up deciding not to use it, because I like having a slideshow wallpaper for Windows and I would lose that option if I opted for Dark Mode's light and dark mode wallpapers. So, my suggestion is precisely for the addition of an option to set up two different slideshows for light mode and dark mode, being able to choose two different image folders to be presented in each theme. I don't know anything about coding, but this seems like it would be very complicated, so I'm really just throwing this out there and I'll understand if it's a very low priority addition. Thank you for this great app!

[Armin2208]

You can use Windows Themes switch, just switch the mode at the top UI.

[Spiritreader]

Essentially, what we need for slideshows is:

Backend

• A new WallpaperType called Slideshow
  

  Windows-Auto-Night-Mode/AutoDarkModeLib/ComponentSettings/Base/WallpaperSwitchSettings.cs

  Line 42 in f34801f

  public enum WallpaperType

• A new class in the WallpaperSwitchSettings.cs file that has the following properties:
  • Interval: Integer for slideshow interval
  • Shuffle: Boolean whether the slideshow should shuffle
  • ImagesRootPath: String to point to where the slideshow directory is
  • OPTIONAL for now (can implement later) ItemPaths: List of strings that contain which items in a directory should be selected
• Logic in the Wallpaper switching class to handle a new wallpaper type
  • TypeNeedsUpdate logic to determine if the slideshow config has changed
  • HandleSwitchByType switching logic to set slideshow and log it via LogHandleSwitch
  • Write logic to retrieve initial slideshow state

Frontend

• New type dropdown menu called slideshow on the wallpaper picker page
  
• File picker for slideshow folder
• OPTIONAL: File picker for specific images
• List of files or mosaic preview of images (depending on feasibility)
• Logic to update the config file with new slideshow config data

If anyone wants to help or contribute, feel free to reach out.

[Matthysse]

I don't know if it's an issue on Windows or the app itself, but creating two custom Windows 11 themes for dark and light, with both of them having two seperate or the same diaporama for the desktop background totally break the diaporamas and create weird results (going back to single images, diaporama stopping and not moving anymore etc.) when switching modes (with the app or not). So maybe this could be a great solution.

[Syberyah]

I applied separate light and dark themes within the AutoDark app and both themes are set to do a slideshow that updates every day, but whenever it switches from light to dark or vice-versa it reverts back to whatever is the first image in the folder, so unless I manually switch it (right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background") I only ever get one picture for dark mode and one picture for light mode. I don't know if this is a problem with Windows or with the app or if there's anything I can do about it.

[Armin2208]

I applied separate light and dark themes within the AutoDark app and both themes are set to do a slideshow that updates every day, but whenever it switches from light to dark or vice-versa it reverts back to whatever is the first image in the folder, so unless I manually switch it (right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background") I only ever get one picture for dark mode and one picture for light mode. I don't know if this is a problem with Windows or with the app or if there's anything I can do about it.

Do you have picture shuffle enabled?

[Syberyah]

Yes, I do have them on shuffle. I meant to include that in the post, sorry!

…

On Sun, Jan 21, 2024, 1:01 PM Armin Osaj ***@***.***> wrote: I applied separate light and dark themes within the AutoDark app and both themes are set to do a slideshow that updates every day, but whenever it switches from light to dark or vice-versa it reverts back to whatever is the first image in the folder, so unless I manually switch it (right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background") I only ever get one picture for dark mode and one picture for light mode. I don't know if this is a problem with Windows or with the app or if there's anything I can do about it. grafik.png (view on web) <https://github.com/AutoDarkMode/Windows-Auto-Night-Mode/assets/32982430/3ec371d2-fbaa-40f9-8654-bdd88e91284a> Do you have picture shuffle enabled? — Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#247 (comment)>, or unsubscribe <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/BFP3ZMK7BAWJNSIYL7I6CFLYPVJV7AVCNFSM5CIAPO4KU5DIOJSWCZC7NNSXTN2JONZXKZKDN5WW2ZLOOQ5TCOJQGI3TCMJVGAYQ> . You are receiving this because you commented.Message ID: ***@***.***>

[Spiritreader]

I applied separate light and dark themes within the AutoDark app and both themes are set to do a slideshow that updates every day, but whenever it switches from light to dark or vice-versa it reverts back to whatever is the first image in the folder, so unless I manually switch it (right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background") I only ever get one picture for dark mode and one picture for light mode. I don't know if this is a problem with Windows or with the app or if there's anything I can do about it.

I don't think that's actually fixable with windows themes at all because they don't remember the wallpaper state that they were in before. Putting it into shuffle should work but probably not if the slideshow time is set so high that the first image stays around for too long. The thing is, ADM isn't really a wallpaper switcher, and more of a theme switcher.

So it's out of scope for this project to re-create a program that switches wallpapers, as opposed to switching your wallpaper when the theme switches once per day.

If that is truly a windows limitation, there's nothing we can really do when it comes to the issue you're facing.

[Syberyah]

Okay. Thanks for reaching out! I'll play with the settings a bit more and see if anything works, but I understand there's nothing you can do. The app does help me a lot, though, so thank you for creating and maintaining it (and making it free)!

[Spiritreader]

Okay. Thanks for reaching out! I'll play with the settings a bit more and see if anything works, but I understand there's nothing you can do. The app does help me a lot, though, so thank you for creating and maintaining it (and making it free)!

Sure thing! As soon as we're aware of any fix, we'll of course implement it.
One thing that we could possibly do:

You mentioned the "right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background" function.
If you can find an API call we can make (automatically call this via command line or something) we could at least integrate doing the "next desktop background" switch automatically when a user selects a theme with a slideshow. It would still briefly show the first wallpaper in the collection, but then fix itself. As a possible workaround.

[zlrc]

You mentioned the "right-click the desktop and click "next desktop background" function. If you can find an API call we can make (automatically call this via command line or something) we could at least integrate doing the "next desktop background" switch automatically when a user selects a theme with a slideshow. It would still briefly show the first wallpaper in the collection, but then fix itself. As a possible workaround.

Hiya! I was doing some research on this and managed to implement it as an AutoHotkey script. I uploaded my code with extensive comments on how it works here: https://gist.github.com/zlrc/2e452daac77ff87d321198e0d8414cbf

Turns out, automating this sort of functionality was a lot more complicated than I thought, as existing scripts I found online were written for an older version of AutoHotkey and were esoteric in their implementation. Fortunately, I learned a few things that I hope would be valuable for implementing the workaround in Auto Dark Mode.

Basically the method you're looking for is IDesktopWallpaper::AdvanceSlideshow, which is declared in shobjidl_core.h of the Windows API. In my AutoHotkey script, I had to call this function by its virtual method table index.

The Windows API isn't my area of expertise, so I'm sure someone else here might have a better idea on where to proceed. I did happen to find a stackoverflow answer that goes into a bit more detail on the IDesktopWallpaper interface, in case that might be of any informative use.

Anyhow, I see that the Discussions board is the proper place for ADM scripts. If there is any interest, I can add my script and it's yaml configurations to that repository when I have time later.

[Spiritreader]

@zlrc That is really cool!
Pretty much exactly what we're looking for!

Turns out, automating this sort of functionality was a lot more complicated than I thought,

Sadly that is always the case when interacting with anything Windows & theming 😆

With this we can send a "next slideshow element" command automatically when the shuffle toggle is enabled to ensure a different picture shows up. That should manifest in direct improvement!

Anyhow, I see that the Discussions board is the proper place for ADM scripts.

This was absolutely the right place to let us know, but of course if you like you can create an adm userscript hook for it!

I'm at 99,9% capacity with work, university and some sysadmin stuff I'm involved in, so I'm not sure when I'm going to have time to implement it. But this is a huge help, thank you!