I thought I would give a brief tutorial on how to create slideshows using wall paper backgrounds as Geekbeat.TV has released some new wallpapers. For the wallpapers I am going to use to create the slideshow, I went to Geek Beat TV Wallpapers and downloaded the ones I wanted.
To download the wallpapers I wanted for my backgrounds, I used the following steps:
1. First, I clicked the download link below the wallpapers as shown below.
2. The next step requires right-clicking with the mouse and selecting the Save Picture As… option.
3. The Save Picture dialog window will open and you can choose where to save the wallpaper. I created a new folder for the wallpapers so that it would be easier to select just the images I wanted for my slideshow.
4. After selecting the folder to save the wallpaper in, type in a file name for the image you are saving and click on Save.
After saving the images I wanted, I right-clicked on the open space on my desktop and left-clicked on Personalize to open the Personalization window. To select the images for my slideshow, I used the following steps:
1. In the Personalization window, click on the Desktop Background option in the bottom of the window.
2. In the Desktop Background window, select the images you want for your slideshow. If you need to, browse to the folder you saved the Geek Beat TV wallpapers in. Also, if you want all of the wallpapers included in the slideshow, click the Select all button before saving your changes. The selected wallpapers will have a checkmark in the box in the top left corner of the image thumbnail. Select your Picture position option and duration option for how often the wallpaper will change. I chose to use the Picture position option of Fill and a duration of 30 minutes. I also chose to have the images shuffle so the order of the wallpapers was more random. After selecting the options you want, click on the Save changes button.
3. Next, you will need to save your slideshow theme. In the My Themes section, you will see a theme titled Custom or Unsaved Theme. In this case, Custom was the name used for the theme. Right-click the Custom theme and select either Save theme or Save theme for sharing. Save theme allows you to choose a name for your theme. Save theme for sharing allows you to save the theme as something called a theme pack which can then be shared with others.
4. For this step, I chose to use the first option and save the theme.
5. The name of the Custom theme will now show the name I selected.
Alternatively, I could have used the Save theme for sharing option. If I want to save a theme for sharing, the first two steps above will remain the same but starting with step 3, use the steps below instead.
1. To save a theme for sharing, when right-clicking the theme you will need to use the Save theme for sharing option.
2. The Save Theme Pack As dialog window will open. Select the location for saving the Theme Pack. By default, your Documents folder is where the theme pack will save. I chose to change the save location to my Desktop. After selecting the save location, enter the file name for saving the theme pack and click the Save button.
3. After clicking the Save button, the theme pack will be saved to the location chosen.
To use the themepack on another computer, copy the themepack to that computer. When I copied the themepack to my laptop, the theme automatically installed. The themepack can also be manually loded on the computer if needed by right-clicking on the themepack and then selecting the option called Open. The themepack will then show up in your My Themes section in the Personalization window.
To manually change to the next background in the theme, go to your computer’s desktop and right-click somewhere in the open area of the desktop. Next, click on the Next desktop background option to change to the next image in the theme.
I hope that this tutorial will help people in creating slideshows for the desktop backgrounds. Any image file can be used in creating a background for the desktop so you are not limited to just the files I used from Geek Beat.
