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Windows Wallpaper Scheduler

Periodically changes the windows desktop wallpaper based on the current period of the day (dawn, day, dusk, night).

Install

  1. Download the files and extract them into a folder
  2. Double-click install.bat
  3. Enter your desired wallpaper location (e.g. C:\Users\<your username>\Pictures\Wallpapers)
  4. Enter the desired refresh delay in minutes (e.g. 30)

From now on, Windows will refresh your desktop background wallpaper periodically. The period is aligned to full hours, i.e. a 10 minute period leads to refreshes at 10:00, 10:10, 10:20 etc.

On each login, Windows will also try to update your local dawn and dusk times.

Managing wallpapers

  • after installing, populate the subfolders dawn, day, dusk, night inside the wallpapers folder (specified during installation)
  • wallpapers need to be in JPEG format with *.jpg extension
  • on each refresh, a random wallpaper will be selected from the subfolder corresponding to your current day period
  • wallpaper resources: https://wallpaperaccess.com/4k

Run force_refresh.bat to update the wallpaper immediately.

Uninstall

Double-click uninstall.bat

Configuration

The configuration file for this program is located at

C:\Users\<your username>\AppData\Local\nmevenkamp\windows_wallpaper_scheduler\config.json

It stores:

  • wallpaper base directory
  • last known dawn and dusk time for your location

You can manipulate the dawn and dusk times manually in case they are not up-to-date (e.g. no internet connection, fetch failed, ...). If you modify the wallpaper base directory, you have to manually create the subfolders dawn, day, dusk, night.

The configuration file and directory are deleted when executing the uninstall.bat.

Schedules

The periodic wallpaper refreshes and on login dawn & dusk time fetches are realized through schedules via Windows' Task Scheduler. These are created by the install.bat batch file. You can view these schedules by starting the Task Scheduler app (e.g. via Windows Search in your Taskbar). In the top left corner of the app, click on Task Scheduler Library. Then you should see, among others, the following three tasks:

  • WallpaperRefresh_LOGON_<your username>
  • WallpaperRefesh_Period_<your username>
  • WallpaperRefreshDawnDusk_LOGON_<your username>

These tasks execute the respective powershell scripts inside the powershell_scripts folder of this program.

You can force an immediate execution of each of these tasks via Right-Click -> Run.

These tasks are removed when executing the uninstall.bat.

Troubleshooting

You can check whether everything is working as intended by running

force_refresh.bat

This will open a terminal and display the following info:

  • most recently known dawn time
  • most recently known dusk time
  • current time
  • inferred current day section (dawn, day, dusk or night)
  • resulting wallpaper directory (e.g. C:\Users\<your username>\Pictures\Wallpapers\day)
  • the chosen wallpaper (or an error message if none was found)