Do you have Natural Desktop?

http://www.naturaldesktop.com
from WinCustomize Forums

Summer is here and many of us are stuck in doors at times we don't want to.  One of my favorite programs that I highly recommend to others is called Natural Desktop.  Natural Desktop 2006 has been out for awhile now. It's not brand new.  What it does is look at the current weather, the current time of day, your location, and then changes your wallpaper and provides a weather portal.

But that's not the part that I love the most these days.  The killer aspect for me of Natural Desktop are the sounds. Forget the screenshots, you can minimize Natural Desktop so that there is no visual part. It's the audio of it.  Natural Desktop plays nature sounds based on weather, time of day, etc.  So during the course of the day, you'll hear morning doves or cicadas or frogs or whatever.  And it's very subtle and nice. 

The whole program is only $10 ($9 if you have Object Desktop).  The sounds alone are worth that in my (admittedly biased) opinion.  Just having all those natural sounds playing throughout the day while indoors is very nice to have. 

It's website is www.naturaldesktop.com.

9,529 views 26 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Summer is here and many of us are stuck in doors at times we don't want to.

It's winter here...and I've been suffering with the flu for about a week....maybe if I 'cheat' and pretend I'm In the Northern hemisphere I can have Natural Desktop cheer up my day...

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have Natural Desktop (which I adore!) and run it on occation, but my laptop just doesn't have the video hardware for it to run properly. My bad, but hopefully someday I will. I'll buy a new lap, when Vista comes out. Hopefully, that will remedy the situation.
WindowBlinds - Free yourself of the default settings, customize your desktop.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I have it.
I like it.
Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I've had it since the beginning and I don't believe I've ever had the sounds play. Not doing it now with the new version. Otherwise it's pretty cool
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
werewolf

have you tried this: Link
Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Thanks Sir Bichur, I tried this: Type "regsvr32.exe l3codeca.acm" but nothing happened. I also tried this: "Go to C:\Windows\System32\ and rename the file l3codeca.acm to l3codeca.bak. Then open Windows Media Player and go to Help>>Check for Updates. This will re-download the decoder and place a new copy on your system."

but 'Check for Updates' is greyed out...which is a little weird.

Where in Natural Desktop can I do this: "so defaulting the sound to Media Player worked" Does this mean going into WMP and making it the default player for all sounds? Did that. Rebooted just for the heck of it...still no sounds from ND
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I think they meant by that: in wmp - tools, options, file types, select all
or maybe just selecting for mp3/wav
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
make sure the sound isn't muted in ND (right clicking the little circle) and that it's on 'dynamic' - menu / custom
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
done...when into the customizing screen just to make sure
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
what version of wmp? do you have an option to automatically download codec and check for updates in toos/options/player
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
10.00.00.3802 ... and ... yes, it is checked.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I'm still running 9.00.00.3349 - lost 10 when I reformatted and haven't updated.

gonna try and see what happens...

you might want to rename the codec back.
Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I changed it back and registered it. I wonder why 'check for player updates' is greyed out?
Reply #14 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hmmm... works now....didn't change anything since last time it wasn't working LOL I love computers
Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's working?
much better with the sound, huh?


just got 10 installed (dial up) now I gotta update it (10.00.00.3646)
Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I left the sounds on all night it was very relaxing. Sounds are great!! Thanks for you help btw. Appreciate it.

Is there a setting in the player which would cause it to grey out 'update player'?
Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I can't find a setting that does that
Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top
hmm, I thought that perhaps it would be one of the 'privacy' or 'security' settings, but I've enabled everything. What an odd problem. LOL

('thanks for you help'???? geez thanks for YOUR help
Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top
10.00.00.3802

I have 10.00.00.3646, yet when I check updates it says I have the most current and there are no updates. Is yours an 11 beta by chance?
Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top
not by choice or anything I did deliberately. Don't know how I ended up with that number....oh crap, er crud, you don't suppose my WMP got hacked (just li'l ol' paranoid me). Hmm, just tried to dl WMP 10 from MS website and it took me to 11 beta. Can't even DL ver 10. I really don't think I will upgrade to 11. I don't have the 'Urge' (ha ha ha) and don't want it.
Reply #21 from WinCustomize Forums Top
WMP 11 is a huge improvement, IMO, other than they have some resource issues to deal with. Of course, it's still beta.
Reply #22 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Hmm, just tried to dl WMP 10 from MS website and it took me to 11 beta. Can't even DL ver 10.


related links on the right at the 11beta page, "See all Windows Media Player downloads" takes you here: http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download/AllDownloads.aspx?displang=en&qstechnology=
Reply #23 from WinCustomize Forums Top
ahhh thanks so much. There is indeed something screwy with my installation of WMP10. When I close it, the process is still in the process tree and it can't be killed. When I shut down my computer, it's getting hung on WMP. So I'm going to try a reinstall.
Reply #24 from WinCustomize Forums Top
well, just rolled back to 9 then reinstalled 10 and I still have 3802. Haven't checked yet to see if it freezes my system or not.

To fix my 'update player' not being available I went into the reg and fixed it.
Reply #25 from WinCustomize Forums Top
A thunder storm is rolling in so i decided to turn on ND, now i got a storm going on in stereo