This has been posted about the web many times, but I wanted to post it here for folks who read this blog as well. I love space imagery, so using the NASA picture of the day as a theme/wallpaper seemed interesting, and I know it had been done but had never really figured out how to do it (I didn’t really try hard, either, but that’s neither here nor there). I managed to make a .theme file that works with the NASA Large Image Of The Day RSS feed, so I’ll post the contents here in the off chance anyone wants to use it. Obviously it can be modified to use any RSS feed containing images, I’d suppose, by changing the DisplayName (for cosmetic reasons) and the RssFeed parameter (for obvious functional reasons). I used the post on this from the Engineering Win7 blog as a guideline, so read that if you want more info.
Here’s the file, in it’s entirety:
;Beginning of file [Theme] DisplayName=NASA LIOTD RSS [Slideshow] Interval=1800000 Shuffle=1 RssFeed=http://www.nasa.gov/rss/lg_image_of_the_day.rss [Control Panel\Desktop] TileWallpaper=0 WallpaperStyle=0 Pattern= [Control Panel\Cursors] AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani DefaultValue=Windows Aero Link= [VisualStyles] Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\Themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles ColorStyle=NormalColor Size=NormalSize ColorizationColor=0X54FCFCFC Transparency=1 Composition=1 VisualStyleVersion=10 [boot] SCRNSAVE.EXE= [MasterThemeSelector] MTSM=DABJDKT [Sounds] SchemeName=Windows Default [Slideshow] ImagesRootPIDL=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 Interval=1800000 Shuffle=0 ImagesRootPath=DesktopBackground ;End of File
Copy that into an empty .theme file, and then once saved double-click it to add the theme. It might take a minute or two to get the first image downloaded (so your wallpaper may go black for a short minute or two). Note the default RSS feed update is one day, so if you use a different RSS feed that updates more frequently, you may want to modify the RSS feed itself to update more frequently (currently you must do this manually, as the theme selector does not have any obvious RSS control that I could find).
Anyway, enjoy – I know I do :).