SimpnSlide | Windows Simple SlideShow RADomizer

What is it?

Simpnslide is a lightweight Windows app designed with simplicity in mind. It doesn’t include a traditional user interface (UX) and focuses on one primary task: changing the SlideShow folder used by the Windows desktop background. Everytime you run the app it will randomly select a new sub-folder of your Pictures folder.

By default, the app works with your Pictures folder. It expects to find one or more sub-folders containing images. For instance, imagine your Pictures folder is organized like this, with pictures in each of the sub-folders:

Pictures\Nature  
Pictures\Steampunk 
Pictures\Space

Every time you run the app it will pick a different sub-folder excluding the currently selected one as the source for your desktop background slideshow.

Conceptually this is just a quick and easy way to have 'desktop screensaver' themes simply through using different folders and change the current 'theme' by running the app however you choose to run it.

Additional settings let you customize features such as the slideshow’s interval and the default desktop background color.

How to use it?

Just run it however you want to call a windows exe! (shortcut, from streamdeck, doubleclick) Every time you launch it, Simpnslide picks a new folder to use for your desktop slideshow.

Why does it exist?

Simpnslide was created to make it easier to cycle through desktop wallpaper themes. If you have a variety of themed folders, this app automates the process, of going into the Personalization settings to change the current Slideshow folder. Thusly each time you run it you get a fresh desktop experience with minimal effort.

If you use a Stream Deck, you can even set up a button to 'change' the slide show theme with a button presss.

Its doing the same thing you can do in Windows 10 or 11 by using the Windows Settings under Personalization, setting your Background as a 'slidehow' folder, and configuring Advanced Slideshow settings without all of the clicks.

Where is it?

Download: (win32 .net single file exe) simpnslide.exe (v1.0 3/30/2025)

To-Do

Add 'command line' arguments for forward/backward commands or command-line overrides to select a folder.

First-Time Setup

Nothing to do to setup, just run it. If you want to remove it just delete the file and 2 log|config files.
When you run the app for the first time, it creates two files in the same folder as the application, and it will write to both one as a log file and the other as a config and state file.
You can disable the logging but the config file is also used to ensure the last folder selected is not selected next.

Log File (simpndslide_app.txt): Logs folder selections and settings.
Config File (simpndslide_config.json): Stores customizable settings.

Example configuration folder structure for WallpaperRoot: 'Pictures\Wallpapers'

Pictures\Wallpapers\One  
Pictures\Wallpapers\Two  
Pictures\Wallpapers\Three

If these sub-folders exist, the app randomly selects one of the sub folders (One, Two, Three) in this example, each time the app runs.

Note: by default when WallpaperRoot is null it will use sub-folders of the 'Pictures' folder, such as for example Saved Pictures, or Screenshots that are usually here by default.

In this example will cycle through folders under 'Pictures\Wallpapers'. 
{
"LoggingEnabled": true,
"WallpaperRoot": "C:\\Users\\user\\Pictures\\Wallpapers",  
"SlideshowInterval": 60,  
"DefaultBackgroundColor": "0,0,0",  
"DefaultWallpaperPosition": 0,  
"LastPickedFolder": "C:\\Users\\user\\Pictures\\Wallpapers\\one"
}

LoggingEnabled: true by defualt , set to false to turn off logging. The logging lists time and folder selected as the app is run.
WallpaperRoot: If left null, it defaults to your Pictures folder. Otherwise, you can specify a folder containing sub-folders for the slideshow.
SlideshowInterval: Time in seconds between wallpaper changes.
DefaultBackgroundColor: RGB values for the desktop background color. Defaults to black (0,0,0).
DefaultWallpaperPosition: Values correspond to desktop wallpaper positioning:
- 0 = Center
- 1 = Tile
- 2 = Stretch
- 3 = Fit
- 4 = Fill
- 5 = Span
LastPickedFolder: Tracks the last used folder to ensure the app selects a new one during the next run.

Shout-out

Special thanks to 9eck0 for the IDesktopWallpaper-dotNet project from 2022! The IDesktopWallpaperWrapper class made handling the Win32 API's IDesktopWallpaper interface much easier!!

MIT License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy
of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal
in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights
to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell
copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is
furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all
copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR
IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY,
FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE
AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER
LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM,
OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE
SOFTWARE.