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Natural Desktop 2006

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Natural Desktop 2006

One of the coolest desktop enhancements on the net has been updated!

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

Stardock has released Natural Desktop 2006 v1.5 today.  Natural Desktop is a desktop enhancement program that looks at your current local weather, the time of day, the time of year and then applies a wallpaper, sound track, and animations based on that data.

If you're stuck inside working on a summer day, Natural Desktop is just the cure for that.  Listen to morning doves singing in the morning or cicadas in the afternoon, crickets in the evening. The sound tracks were put together by famed composer, Mason Fischer to sound just like what one would expect if they were outside.  The wallpapers were created by Ryan Bliss, owner of the well known wallpaper site, Digital Blasphemy.  The unique animated weather elements were designed and programmed by Matt Crocket, well known here as "Tiggz".

The program is immensely configurable with users turning on and off various elements of Natural Desktop along with being able to add their own sound tracks, wallpapers, and other parts to the included library of sounds and graphics.  Version 1.5 is a nearly complete rewrite by Laurence Parry who has gone through and implemented a host of optimizations and new features.  Natural Desktop is only $9.95. Proceeds from it help pay for WinCustomize.com and support other unique, cool projects of this kind.

New features & changes include:

  • Fast zip-code lookup that gives the user the option to find multiple local weather stations to choose from.
  • Will display an extended 5-day forecast for most places in the US.
  • Enhanced support for European and other international locales for weather reporting
  • Links to infrared and satellite images now available.
  • Clouds move at a speed based on the local weather conditions (wind speed)
  • Preferences now stored in local directory rather than registry for faster performance.
  • Lots of fixes, tweaks, etc.   

Screenshots:
  

Website:
www.naturaldesktop.com   

35,363 views 71 replies
Reply #51 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, you could certainly set the wallpaper for the season and time of day - the wallpapers are appropriately named and are in the Natural Desktop\AppData folder, so you would just need to adjust the seasons and time, then specify a single wallpaper. For example, you could set the AutumnNight.jpg file to come up in Morning during Summer, if you so wished. The colour of the window's background can be set in a similar way, although it does not vary with the time of day.

Dual-monitor won't be possible until there's some feature in DesktopX to access it, which could take a while.
Reply #52 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, dunno what you did, but it doesn't work here at all. Just sits in the corner frozen and eats up resources. Moreover, I can't kill it even with the task manager, have to reboot to get rid of the bastard.


You're using the latest beta, 1.50a? If so, please tell me all of the settings from your regional and language options (all tabs) and I will try and duplicate your problems here. You could also try wiping the Natural Desktop\AppData\{8AACBEAC-7CD7-4C45-BD0E-DA535AFE641A}.DXScriptLocal file, which contains settings, in case those have become corrupted and are causing the new build to freeze too.
TouchTasks - Access tasks with ease on Windows touchscreens.
Reply #53 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Yep, latest beta. All regional settings set to English (US), I never ever change those

Deleting the file hasn't changed anything I'm afraid, still hangs at startup.
Reply #54 from WinCustomize Forums Top
This thing would really be revolutionary if it gradually changed the desktop, like the sun slowly moving from east to west, stars moving, trees blowing, etc. That would be very, very cool. I know I'd pay some duckies for that.


Yeah, there's a Konfabulator widget that has the sun and moon move across your desktop, according to your geographic location. Comes with different images that you can select for the sun and moon. Very cool idea, but unfortunately, doesn't play well with WindowBlinds.

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #55 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, you could certainly set the wallpaper for the season and time of day - the wallpapers are appropriately named and are in the Natural Desktop\AppData folder, so you would just need to adjust the seasons and time, then specify a single wallpaper.


No, what I meant was, now it is summer, lets say I feel like I want to "play that it is winter and night" outside, then it would be nice to have an option to manualy set the "current season". Much like you can set the "Conditions" an options for setting the current season / time of day would be nice.

// MickeM
Reply #56 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Mackintosh: Are you using any virus or script-checking software that could be interfering? Not sure why it would be causing problems if it worked before, but I guess it's a possibility . . .

You could also try reinstalling the Windows Script Engine, as if that's not working then there's definitely going to be problems.
Reply #57 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I too am haveing a problem my sounds dont work the older version of Natural desktop worked now this one wont everything works but the sounds to me thats the best part...
wendi
Reply #58 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Wendi: Sounds like something odd is up with the MP3 player component, then! You could try doing a reinstall with the following procedure:

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.

If that does not do it then go to Start | Run | Type "regsvr32.exe l3codeca.acm"
Reply #59 from WinCustomize Forums Top
GR, I'll give your suggestions a go when I have the time and report back on IRC. For now, I've rolled back to the archived version and all seems well.

~Mack
Reply #60 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Take the Natural Desktop poll.

Link
Reply #61 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Does anyone still read this forum? I purchased the Natural Desktop and it's a pretty cool program for a little bit of money. Worth it I think. However, it will not change the wallpaper automatically. Anyone have some things for me to try to fix it so it does? Thanks
Reply #62 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Do you have the latest version from Stardock Central, 1.50c? Tried doing a full uninstall and reinstall?
Reply #63 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I am not at home right now, but I will uninstall and reinstall when I get there. I do have the latest version. It's a pretty cool program. I will let you know what happens. Thanks for the quick response.
Reply #64 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, I uninstalled and then reinstalled the program and it still won't change wallpapers. The funny thing is, if I go to the desktop, right click, then click on desktop, the correct wallpaper is shown. Clicking ok will then bring up the correct wallpaper. I can't help thinking there is something, somewhere, checked that shouldn't be checked.
Reply #65 from WinCustomize Forums Top
If you can figure out what is doing it, let us know. We had another guy with exactly that problem. Natural Desktop is changing the wallpaper, but Explorer isn't reloading it for some reason.

You've not got Active Desktop on, by any chance? Anything else that could be affecting Explorer?
Reply #66 from WinCustomize Forums Top
GR, shouldn't you be working on GalCiv2?

Posted via WinCustomize Browser/Stardock Central
Reply #67 from WinCustomize Forums Top
As soon as you mentioned Active Desktop, I started checking on things. It had been so long since I did anything with that, it took awhile to even find it. I'm using XP home and it was a bear to find out how to even disable active desktop. But I finally found it and that has taken care of the problem. Wallpaper is now changing like it should. Thanks for all the help. I have to say, I have quite a few programs from Stardock and whenever I have a question, it's always answered fast and friendly. I really appreciate it.
Reply #68 from Stardock Forums Top
sk8man101: Good to know the problem could be solved.

Zubaz: Quiet, you! I am working on it - when I get time off from Natural Desktop, DirectSkin, and all the other pies I have my fingers in . . . mmm, pie.
Reply #69 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Love the update GreenReaper! Any chance of an Aero look in the future?
Reply #70 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Love the update GreenReaper! Any chance of an Aero look in the future?