Python control of desktop properties

[Mediocre Person]

Hello, all.

I'm teaching Python for the first time to some high school students, and
it's going well--Tomorrow's lesson: I'm going to show them how to use a
list comprehension to simplify a task.

One of my students is interested in using Python to control his
(Windows) desktop, and wants to write a program to change the desktop
background or wallpaper. I told him I'd look into this, but I've had to
admit defeat.

Can someone point me in the right direction, possibly post the simplest
Python program that can accomplish this. I understand this won't be
portable. At school, we use Win98SE; the student in question is using
XPHome at home, and I typically use Gentoo Linux/KDE 3.3. If there were
a single solution that would address all three environments, I'd be...
well, shocked.

Merci beaucoup,

Nick.

 

[Mike C. Fletcher]

You want to call the function:
user32.SystemParametersInfo(
SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER,
0,
imageLocation,
|SPIF_UPDATEINIFILE | SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE
)

You can likely do that fairly readily with ctypes. Sorry, don't have
time to do more than point you at it tonight.

Good luck,
Mike
|

________________________________________________
Mike C. Fletcher
Designer, VR Plumber, Coder
http://www.vrplumber.com
http://blog.vrplumber.com

 

[Simon Brunning]

One of my students is interested in using Python to control his
(Windows) desktop, and wants to write a program to change the desktop
background or wallpaper. I told him I'd look into this, but I've had to
admit defeat.

I've been having a play in that area on and off. This isn't well
documented, but might get you started...

Can someone point me in the right direction, possibly post the simplest
Python program that can accomplish this. I understand this won't be
portable. At school, we use Win98SE; the student in question is using
XPHome at home, and I typically use Gentoo Linux/KDE 3.3. If there were
a single solution that would address all three environments, I'd be...
well, shocked.

Me too. ;-)

 

[agarbutt]

To do this on windows you need to import ctypes (which you may need to
download, http://starship.python.net/crew/theller/ctypes/) and win32con
(which you should have already but if not you can get it from
https://sourceforge.net/projects/pywin32/). to change th wall paper
use:

from ctypes import *
import win32con

windll.user32.SystemParametersInfoA(SPI_SETDESKWALLPAPER, 0, r'<path to
your bitmap>', SPIF_SENDWININICHANGE)

for further reference on SystemParametersInfoA goto:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/d...y/en-us/sysinfo/base/systemparametersinfo.asp

Hope this helps

Andy

Hello, all.

I'm teaching Python for the first time to some high school students, and
it's going well--Tomorrow's lesson: I'm going to show them how to use a
list comprehension to simplify a task.

One of my students is interested in using Python to control his
(Windows) desktop, and wants to write a program to change the desktop

 

[Mediocre Person]

One of my students is interested in using Python to control his
(Windows) desktop, and wants to write a program to change the desktop
background or wallpaper. I told him I'd look into this, but I've had to
admit defeat.

Thank to all for the replies--got the code working now.

Nick.