WallCycle

WallCycle aims to be a simple wallpaper changer written in plain C. Currently it is only availiable for Windows, but I plan to port it to Linux and possibly MacOS in the future. It works by changing the wallpaper twice a day, so you can have a different wallpaper for the day and the night. This can reduce eye strain and make your desktop look more appealing.

Table of Contents

• WallCycle
  • Table of Contents
  • Installation
  • Building
  • Configure
    • Wallpaper
    • Times
  • Customization
  • Contributing

Installation

WallCycle uses inno Setup to create the installer. This is a free installer for Windows that is easy to use and has a lot of features.

A installer.iss configuration file is provided in the install folder.

To install WallCylcle you can just use the provided installer. It will install the program and create a shortcut in the start menu. (Currently there is no release, because i have to update the CI pipeline to build the installer.)

The installer is not signed, so you might get a warning from Windows. This is normal, as I am not a big company and don't have the money to sign the installer

You can also build it from source if you want to.

Building

To build WallCycle you need make, gcc and python installed. You can use the provided Makefile to build the project. At first you need to create a virtual environment and install the dependencies:

python -m venv .venv
pip install -r ./tooling/requirements.txt

After this you have to build the .ico files for the system tray animation. This is done by using the build_icons.py script from the makefile:

make animation

Then you can build the project by running:

make

Optionally you can build the installer by running:

make release

This will create a WallCycle-setup.exe file in the release folder. You can run this file to install WallCycle.

To remove the created files you can run:

make animation-clean
make clean
make release-clean

This will remove the build and release folders and the .ico files.

Configure

Wallpaper

To change the used wallpapers you can either change day.jpg and night.jpg in the img folder or you can edit the config.ini file.

Times

To customize the times when the wallpaper changes you can use the right-click menu of the system tray icon.
Also you can use the config.ini file to set the times. The format is HH in the 24h format.

Please do not touch the State section in the config.ini file. This is used to store the current state of the program and is automatically updated by the program. If you change this section, the program might not work as expected.

Customization

You can customize the animation of the system tray icon by providing your own .png files.
Note that there have to be 34 frames, starting at Animation00.png for full night and ending at Animation33.png for full day.
The files have to be in the include/src/Animation folder. The frames have to have a transparent or #1E1E1E background as specified in the makefile.

To change the icon of the program you can provide your own .ico file. The file has to be in the include/src folder and has to be named Icon.ico. The icon will be used for the program and the installer.

Contributing

If you have any ideas or want to contribute to this project, feel free to open an issue or a pull request. I am happy about any help I can get.