Active Desktop Wallpapers for Windows

Download

• Version 2.4:
  •  world.time.wallpaper.zip (2.93 MB), including data pack #1 and image pack #1
  •  world.time.wallpaper.lenovo.edition.zip (3.5 MB), including data pack #1 and “Lenovo Vista” image pack #1
• Data packs:
  •  pack #1 (934 bytes), contains data of 9 cities: San Francisco, New York, Buenos-Aires, London, Paris, Moscow, Jakarta, Peking, Tokyo, Sydney.
• Image packs:
  •  pack #1 (2.71 MB)
  •  pack #2 (11.08 MB)
  •  pack #3 (12.23 MB)
  •  pack #4 (13.43 MB)
• Changelog:
  • 12.10.2011 — daylight saving pariod abandoned for Moscow.
  • 26.10.2009 — changed the description of the daylight saving periods for individual setup.
  • 04.15.2009 — fixed daylightsaving period calculation, added Jakarta city.

Description

“World Time” — an active desktop for Windows, based on JavaScript/DOM scripts. At the startup it determines current system language, desktop resolution and plots a dot for every city from data pack on a map with time zones. Currently 5 interface languages are supported: English, Russian, French, Spanish, German.

Features

• Indicates a locale time for world cities (depends on installed data pack).
• Displays a daylight/shadow marker.

Installation

• Unpack an archive to a separate folder.
• Open “Display properties” dialog window.
• Push “Browse” button on a “Desktop” tab and change file type filter combobox to “Background Files” in “Open” dialog. Go to previously selected folder and select “worldtime.html”.

Compatibility

• MS Windows 2000/XP (MS IE 5.x or higher),
• Mozilla FireFox, Opera (for demonstration purpose),
• Screen resolutions: 800x600, 1024x768, 1152x864, 1280x720, 1280x768, 1280x800, 1280x1024, 1440x900, 1400x1050, 1680x1050, 1600x1200, 1920x1200.

Specifics

• MS WIndows 2000/XP shell enables “ActiveDesktop” mode when you start “World Time” wallpaper. So, all desktop icons drop caption transparency, and solid background rectangle appears behind icon labels.

Tuning

To add a desired city on the map open “worldtime.cities.js” file, add the following block into Cities array:

  Name      : { 'en': '‹City name in English›', '‹locale name›': '‹city name in local language›' },
  OffsetX   : ‹0..1400›,   // X coordinate on the map
  OffsetY   : ‹0..1050›,   // Y coordinate on the map
  GmtBias   : ‹-12..12›,   // GMT time offset

  DstType   : '‹ | absolute | relative›', // '' (none) --- for regions without daylight saving periods, absolute --- for regions with fixed daylight saving period.
  DstBias   : ‹-1..1›,     // -1 --- for southern, 1 --- for northern hemisphere, '' (none) --- for regions without daylight saving periods.    

DstStart and DstEnd records should be set according to selected DstType value. If DstType is set to 'absolute', you have to set day and month:

  DstStart :
  {
    month   : ‹1..12›
    day     : ‹1..31›
  },

If DstType is set for 'relative', you have to set month and number of the weekday.

  DstStart  :
  {
    weekday : ‹1..7›, // 1 --- Sunday, ... 7 --- Saturday
    month   : ‹1..12›
    nth     : ‹-2..2› // weekday position (from beginning of the mongth, or from the end)
  },

E.g. if daylight saving time starts on the last Sunday of the March you have to set nth to -1. Otherwise, for the first Sunday you have to set nth to 1.

To adjust time format edit the following section in “worldtime.cities.js”:

var TimeFormat =
{
  en: 12,
  ru: 24,
  fr: 24
};

To change the default background image you can download one of the image sets, then unpack and overwrite images from archive into “/opt” subfolder.

pack #1 (2.71 MB)

pack #2 (11.08 MB)

pack #3 (12.23 MB)

pack #4 (13.43 MB)

If you have any suggestions how to improve this wallpaper, please, email me on axofiber@pin2.me.

Links

• Very detailed and cool wallpaper — Desktop Earth wallpaper by Márton Anka.
• Earth's City Lights (NASA sattelite images).