4 steps to turn your monitor into a minimalistic, auto-rotating mini art gallery

As you probably know, on a Mac you can have the computer automatically rotate through a folder of pictures, changing your desktop background for you.

Those of us on Windows computers aren't so lucky, right? Actually, you can have the same thing if you don't have a Mac. Yay! Here's how to change your computer screen from a static, cluttered mess into a minimalistic, streamlined, fluid, auto rotating art gallery!

Here's what the final result looks like:

Please disregard my cluttered desk. I apologize about that. The point is, what you see on the computer is the wallpaper and nothing else. Hooray!

1. Download and install John's Background Switcher. This is a nifty program because not only will it automatically rotate your backgrounds, but you have options of where it gets the backgrounds that it will rotate. You can set it to folders on your computer with pre-downloaded backgrounds, or with family pictures. You can set it to recently popular pictures on flickr.com, or pictures from facebook, among other things.

2. Clear all the icons off your desktop. You don't need them there! Put the few programs you access all the time (internet browser, word processor, whatever you use) in the quick launch bar right by your start button. You can even get rid of the Recycle bin and the My Computer link. They are always accessible in the future via the start menu. Delete all the shortcuts off your desktop.

3. Make your start toolbar auto hide itself. To do this, right click on it, click properties, the auto-hide the task bar.

4. Set the background switcher to whatever interval you'd like to see new backgrounds, tell it from where you'd like your backgrounds, and you are good to go!


I love the way I can constantly go searching for art, and I always have a new surprise when I wake up in the morning to get myself inspired.
You can download the background in my picture here. I've also recently fallen in love with www.wallcoo.com for backgrounds. It's in Chinese, but it's easy enough to figure your way around after a while.

Hope you enjoy!