SlideShow Desktop Release History

Version 2.8 - Released 30th November 2003

• Version 2.7 may fail to run on Windows 2000. Resolved in 2.8.
• Improved compatibility with Windows 2003 Server.
• Improved Auto Slide Show options screen.
• Improved menu icon transparencies. Windows 98/Me/NT4/2000 did not display with transparent backgrounds.
• Version 2.8 delivers a new set of sample sound files, removing the previous Ali G samples, and including 11 great samples from The Simpsons, Woohoo! During installation of 2.8, all contents of the 'Waves' folder are backed up to the 'OldWaves' folder.

Version 2.7 - Released 12th November 2003

• New millisecond slideshow frequency. It is now possible to update your desktop wallpaper every 10ms on Windows NT/2000/XP, or every 55ms if running on Windows 98/Me. Actual update times are dependant upon your computers processor speed, amount of memory installed, and the size and format of the image file. For instance, on a Pentium 4 it may be possible to update your desktop with a series of 50kb JPEG files as quickly as 30 frames a second. However, if attempting to update the desktop with a series of 2mb bitmaps, it is more likely to take a number of seconds to display each photo.
• New frequency controls. Slide change frequency is now selected using a slider control and drop down list.
• New "File Associations" screen, enables you to register SlideShow Desktop as the default application for given file extensions (.jpg, .gif etc). Doing so enables you to take advantage of a powerful new feature, "Apply as Wallpaper" from Windows Explorer. Right clicking a registered format enables you to instantly apply any of 14 image file formats directly to the desktop as an optimally sized wallpaper. Changing your desktop wallpaper has never been so easy.
• New Email Slide feature. It is now possible to send your photos as email attachments through SlideShow Desktop.
• New Print Slide feature, enables you to print your favorite photos directly from SlideShow Desktop, and from Windows Explorer. Your photos are automatically scaled to the chosen paper size. Correct landscape/portrait orientation is also automatically chosen for you. Printing your photos has never been so easy.
• Modified controls in full screen mode for changing the desktop display style. Previously it was necessary to cycle through each display style in sequence. A new panel in full screen mode makes it easier to select the required display style.
• Pressing F1 now launches the help file.
• New improved help file.
• Improved the File menu. It now tracks the most recently used slide show (.ssl) files on the File menu.
• Smaller download size.
• Renamed the Re-Registration screen to "Enter Serial Number". You are no longer required to restart SlideShow Desktop in the event of entering your license details incorrectly.
• Improved Rename Slide feature. Rename Slide no longer advances to the next slide immediately afterwards.
• New option "Remember slide style between sessions". When enabled, SlideShow Desktop will remember the desktop style you last used, between sessions.
• New trial period style. Previous versions of SlideShow Desktop worked for 14 days from day of installation. It now operates fully for 14 unique days, and under restricted functionality for a further 14 unique days.
• Reworked and reworded many of the menu items and options screens text for clarity.
• Improved keyboard shortcuts.
• Improved Auto Slide Show feature when using Save As.
• Improved the right click context menu from the browse window. Now includes options to search drives and folders without the need for drag and drop.
• Improved Instant Updater error messages.
• New support options beneath the Help menu, enable you to email support requests and suggestions directly from SlideShow Desktop.
• Removed "Check for Updates" from tray menu.
• The filename of the currently displayed slide is now written to the registry and also to a text file in the SlideShow Desktop program folder. So it is now possible for external software/scripts to determine the name of the current slide displayed on your desktop. Refer to the help file for more information.
• Improved tray menu. You can now change the desktop slide style directly from the tray menu.
  show/hide icon issue on sys tray resolved ?
• New "Recommend SlideShow Desktop" option beneath the "Share" menu, enables you to send an email of recommendation to a friend directly from SlideShow Desktop.
• Improved the Instant Updater settings dialogs and options.
• When Instant Updater is first run, it now launches the Internet Settings dialog.
• Renamed "Hide/Show Windows" options, to "Default Settings".
• Renamed "Default Slide Show" to "Auto Slide Show".
• Instant Updater no longer forces check for update when trial period expires.
• Bug fix - fixed a GDI resource leakage under Windows 98/Me.
• Bug fix - Restore Desktop did not update the current wallpaper name in the SlideShow Control Panel - it does now.
• Bug fix - Add Slides screen, pressing the Skip button whilst a preview was being generated could cause the application to hang. Not any more.
• Bug fix - tray menu tooltip would report any converted slide as "slideshowimage.bmp". It now only shows this if slideshowimage.bmp is on the desktop at the time you start SlideShow Desktop. Converted files now show the original file name during playback.
• Bug fix - launching a .ssl slide show from Windows Explorer failed if the folder/file name contained whitespace. Not any more.
• Bug fix - desktop icons were sometimes not hidden when entering full screen mode. Fixed.
• Bug fix - Restore Desktop now updates the color pickers in the SlideShow control panel.
• Bug fix - when renaming a slide, if you hit return after renaming the slide, the process was cancelled. Hitting return now has the same effect as pressing the OK button.
• Built with Visual Studio.NET 2003.

Version 2.6 - Released 23rd April 2003.

• 'Downsize Fit'. This style will downsize any slide larger than the current desktop so that it fits the desktop proportionately. However, images which are smaller than the desktop are not resized.
• Drag multiple .ssl files, folders and drives onto the slide show list window, from Windows Explorer.
• Improved context menu functionality within Windows Explorer (when right clicking a drive or folder from within an Explorer window).
• Now when you select "View a slide show of images in this drive/folder", identified slides are added to the current slide show. Previously this feature only worked if SlideShow Desktop was not currently running.
• Now you can launch a saved .ssl file from Windows Explorer whilst SlideShow Desktop is open. You will be given the option to merge the new slide show with the current slide show, or to start with a new slide show.
• Improved user interface in a number of Windows, including the Refresh Folders and Add Slides windows.
• Improved slide name sort, now sorts very quickly.
• Improved feedback to the user of the operations SlideShow Desktop is undertaking. Now displays "Converting image format", "Resizing Slide" etc, so that you know what is happening during slower slide changes.
• You can now restore your original desktop settings from the system and tray menus. Previously the desktop could only be restored when SlideShow Desktop was closed.
• 'Caching Display Modes' is now only displayed when SlideShow Desktop is run for the first time. The display modes supported by your graphics card are now cached permanently, removing the need to perform this at every startup.
• New 'Merge SlideShow' option available from the File menu. This feature enables you to open a subsequent slide show without deleting the contents of the current slide show. This allows you to merge two or more slide shows.
• Improved the random feature. The images should now be selected more randomly than before.
• Improved the application icons. Also, the tray icon now flashes when a slide change is in progress.
• The preview thumbnail shown in the 'Add Slides' window now shows correctly proportioned thumbnails. Previously, the image was stretched to fit the preview window.
• Fixed a bug with the radio buttons in the Slide Names options screen. Selecting from one group caused a deselection in the other group. The two sets of radio buttons now correctly behave as two groups.
• Fixed a bug which caused the desktop style to be centred at startup, when you had specified best fit or frame fit.
• Fixed a bug preventing SlideShow Desktop from starting up when running under Windows 98 First Edition. The error "Missing library oleacc.dll" is no longer displayed and SlideShow Desktop now works on all versions of Windows 98.
• Fixed a bug where the slide count displayed in the control panel window was not correctly updated when deleting an image from the slide show list.
• Fixed a bug preventing startup and shutdown screen preview thumbnails from being displayed in the options screen under Windows 98/Me.
• Numerous other enhancements, visual refinements and bug fixes.

Version 2.5 - Released 17th February 2003

• You can now instruct SlideShow Desktop to pick a desktop color which approximately matches the image being displayed. It does this by calculating an average color from the border region of the image, and changes the desktop color to the average color.
• You can now re-register SlideShow Desktop using the re-registration screen (F9). This resolves the problem whereby Web Store purchased keys were invalid in version 2.4. Please note, that you will need to re-register SlideShow Desktop using the serial number / order number you received when registering version 2.4 to reactivate version 2.5.
• The 'Frame Fit' feature was previously only configurable in 10% increments, from 10% to 90%. Version 2.5 allows you to specify increments of 1%, from 1% to 99%.
• A bug introduced in version 2.3 would automatically start your slideshow whenever you pressed the next slide / previous slide buttons. This has now been resolved in version 2.5.
• Improved the "Restore desktop at exit" feature.

Version 2.4 - Released 27th January 2003

• 'You now have the option to continue your slide show from the last slide displayed, when you exit and restart SlideShow Desktop. For users with large slide shows in sequential play mode, this will be a very useful option.
• A new 'No Save at Exit' option, instructs SlideShow Desktop to exit without prompting you to save your slide show.
• The Instant Update functionality wasn't working correctly for everybody in version 2.3. This affected users who had used Instant
• Updater to update the application previously. Potentially, it crashed when asking you to overwrite the existing (previous) update file. Any previous update is now automatically deleted without prompting you, which fixes the problem.

Version 2.3 - Released 19th January 2003

• Rotating a slide caused the current slide show to start playing, even if you weren't currently playing your slide show ... this has now been fixed.
• The 'Add Slides' window, displayed after search operations, could take a while to populate the preview list on slower systems. There is now an option to cancel or skip this screen before the list population completes, making the addition of slides to the current slide show even easier.

Version 2.2 - Released 13th January 2003

• Slide changes weren't working with Active Desktop enabled. This problem was introduced in version 2.1. This has now been fixed, and slide changes work in both Active and Classic desktop modes, just as they should ...
• Desktop patterns applied to an Active Desktop were lost after a slide change. This problem has always been present and has now been resolved.
• Your original desktop pattern, if changed whilst running SlideShow Desktop, was not restored at exit correctly when using an Active Desktop. It worked fine using the Classic Desktop, but now works correctly in both modes.
• CTRL+O is now used as the shortcut key to select the Slide Advance options screen.

Version 2.1 - Released 3rd January 2003

• You can now rotate your slides directly from your slide show. Simply right click on the appropriate slide, and choose to rotate the slide either clockwise, or counter-clockwise by 90, 180 or 270 degrees.
• Introduces two new display styles to complement the existing centre, tile and stretch modes.
  • Best Fit - resizes the image to best fit your desktop without distorting the image.
  • Frame Fit - enables you to choose a percentage of your desktop on which to paint the image. As the resized image is always centred, you can use this feature to ensure that your slide is framed by the current desktop color and any desktop pattern you may have applied.
• Changed the Save functionality so that it now saves with just one click of the save button. The previous save implementation now exists as "Save As".
• Introduces a new view mode for the slide show list window. The previous view mode of displaying slide names in their entirety (full path name followed by file name) is now the "Full Name" view. You can now also toggle to a "Short Name" view which is configurable. You can configure the view to just show the filename of the slide, and optionally you can specify a maximum folder depth to display also.
• Three new options screens.
  • Slide Name Options - enables you to configure the appearance of slide names in the "Short Name" view, and also the appearance of slide names displayed as tooltips when hovering the mouse over the system tray icon.
  • Resize Image Options - enables you to choose which algorithm is used when resizing your images in Best Fit and Frame Fit modes, and also when rotating an image. There are 16 algorithms available, each providing a different level of quality at the cost of processing time. On slower computer systems, you may want to use Triangle, on Faster systems you may want to use Quadratic. Also use this screen to specify the percentage of desktop to be painted when utilising Frame Fit mode.
  • Slide Advance Options. There are now two distinct modes for displaying a slide show.
    • Show-advance. This mode displays the currently highlighted slide, and then highlights the next slide. However, the slide that has just been displayed is no longer selected, so if you want to resize or rotate the currently visible slide, you will need to click on it again.
    • Advance-show. This mode highlights the next slide in the list, and then displays it. This is the default, and the most useful mode, but causes your slide show to start at slide number two in the list. However, the slide that is currently on your desktop is the slide that is highlighted, so you can rotate and resize the currently highlighted image in realtime.
• Slide Name captions are configurable to the current view mode.
• In Full screen mode, you can now hide the play controls by pressing the Tab key. Pressing the Tab key again will redisplay them.
• You can now change desktop icon colors in Windows XP. Previously the desktop icon color pickers were disabled when running SlideShow Desktop under Windows XP ... but not anymore. You can also toggle the Windows XP-only 'drop shadow' icon style. Note that it is necessary to turn off drop shadows on your desktop icons before you can change the text color of your desktop icons.
• SlideShow Desktop has had a visual overhaul. Users of Windows XP will notice that SlideShow Desktop now uses the latest XP themed controls throughout.
• The options screens have been completely overhauled. Gone are the multiple rows of property sheet tabs. The options screens are now based on a tree control and are more elegant and easier to use.
• Your desktop icons can now be hidden automatically when starting SlideShow Desktop.
• Can now hide the "Caching Display Modes", and "Refreshing Folders" banners displayed at startup.
• SlideShow Desktop now exits quicker.
• The save list prompt displayed when exiting without saving now defaults to Yes.
• Improved the appearance of system tray icon tooltips.
• Improved the preview pane of the Add Slides window.
• Removed installer for SuperBar from SlideShow Desktop's installer. The SuperBar installer was introduced to version 2.0 and was an optional install. However, many users installed it without realising they were about to, and this tainted their experience of using SlideShow Desktop. It has now been removed, never to return.
• Bug Fix. Active desktop slide shows were not working correctly for non bmp, jpg, dib & gif format slides. Your first slide would be shown, but subsequent slides would not be displayed until you displayed another bmp, jpg, dib or gif format slide. Some users had reported seeing the image update on the small monitor on the Windows display properties screen, although the desktop itself was not reflecting these changes. Version 2.1 resolves this problem.
• Bug Fix. System tray tooltip name was not updated to reflect the new slide name, after renaming a slide.
• Bug Fix. Found a memory leak when displaying images in the preview pane of the Add Slides window.
• Bug Fix. The list windows horizontal scroll bar could disappear after certain operations. Not anymore ...
• Bug Fix. Slide Name and Slide Number captions in full screen mode did not work if you chose black as the text color. It does now ...
• Bug Fix. Some menu wording was different when using icons on the system menu, to the text displayed when not using icons on the system menu. The menus have been updated throughout for clarity and consistency.
• Bug Fix. The right click help text available on certain options screens was sometimes truncated. The help text is now displayed in it's entirety.

Version 2.0 - Released 20th November 2002

• SlideShow Desktop now displays a countdown timer so that you can see when the next slide change will take place.
• Improvements have been made to the installation process. Your previous installations options and settings are no longer overwritten. So now an 'update' is exactly that ...
• Bug fix. Hours were firing after 6 minutes. They now correctly fire after 60 minutes.
• Bug fix. A potential crash when exiting SlideShow Desktop has been resolved.
• Bug fix. SlideShow Desktop 1.9 could potentially hang with the message "Please Wait". This is no longer possible.
• Bug fix. It was possible to exit SlideShow Desktop while refreshing folders at startup. Not anymore.
• Bug fix. The rename slide feature allowed you to enter invalid or duplicate file names. It also appeared to crash at random. This feature now works correctly.
• Bug Fix. Instant Updater sometimes displayed the error "This application has requested the runtime to terminate it in an unusual way". You shouldn't see this message again.

Version 1.9 - Released 7th November 2002

• Improved the Refresh Folders feature. When refreshing folders at startup, or refreshing folders silently by hiding the 'Refresh Folders' window, this feature could generate duplicate entries in the slide show list. This has now been fixed, and the feature now works correctly.
• When running SlideShow Desktop on a PC without Active Desktop installed, such as Windows 95, Windows NT4 and Windows 98 first edition, SlideShow Desktop could fail to start by reporting the error "An unrecoverable error has occurred. SlideShow Desktop will now exit.". This problem was introduced in version 1.7 and has now been fixed in version 1.9.
• Open/Save slide show feature not working in Windows 95 and Windows NT4. This problem was caused by rebuilding SlideShow Desktop with Visual Studio .NET in version 1.7. It has now been fixed in version 1.9.
• The number of slides displayed above the slide show list did not decrease when slides were deleted from the list. The number is now decreased appropriately.
• If you chose to remove a slide from an empty list and then quit SlideShow Desktop, you would be prompted to save the empty slide show. You are now only prompted to save a slide show after it has contained files.
• When you choose to shutdown, restart or logoff Windows, if you have an unsaved slide show, you will be prompted to save it before Windows completes the shutdown. If you select "Cancel", the shutdown/restart/logoff procedure will be cancelled.
• When you insert/remove a cd, or a new network drive becomes available/unavailable, the browse window is automatically refreshed to display the currently available drives. This feature stopped working in version 1.7, but now works again in version 1.9. Please note : it is possible to hide your floppy and network drives from the 'Hide/Show Windows' options screen. If you have selected to hide these drives, then this feature will only work when inserting or removing cd's.
• Improved the option screens layout and appearance.
• Improved the "Default Slide Show' prompt, show when saving. It is now possible to select to refresh your slide show at startup from this screen.
• Modified the "Minimize at Startup" feature.
• Improved shutdown process. Closing SlideShow Desktop could occasionally display errors under Windows 98/Me. SlideShow Desktop now waits for all threads to terminate before shutting down, which resolves this problem.

Version 1.8 - Released 27th October 2002

• When trying to save in version 1.7, the error "unable to open file" is displayed, preventing you from saving your slide show. This may also result in SlideShow Desktop crashing. This has now been fixed.
• Selecting an item from the context menu in an empty list window (i.e. empty slide show) would cause SlideShow Desktop to crash. This has now been fixed.

Version 1.7 - Released 24th October 2002

• It is now possible to hide network drives from the browse window.
• It is now possible to refresh the default slide show list when opened at startup, ensuring the list is always up to date, and does not list missing or duplicate slides.
• It is now possible to rename a slide in the list by right clicking on the slide and giving it a new name.
• There is now a 'mute' button on the control panel which enables you to quickly turn on/off slide sounds.
• Improved the 'Default List' window displayed when saving a slide show.
• Bug Fix: when dragging an item from the browse window, a transparent image of the item being dragged should be displayed to make it obvious which item is being dragged. This wasn't working in versions 1.5 and 1.6. It works properly again in version 1.7.
• Bug Fix: the Refresh Folders feature didn't work when you chose to hide the Refresh Folders window. It works now.
• Bug Fix: refreshing a single folder didn't work ; the process would complete successfully but the slide show list was not updated with the results. It is now.
• SlideShow Desktop has been rebuilt using the latest Visual Studio .NET technologies, which should improve the entire application in terms of stability, speed, aesthetics and compatibility.

Version 1.6 - Released 6th October 2002

• Fixed a bug with the new 'default list' prompt when saving. If you chose to make the list your default list when you saved, the default list was either given a blank name, or the name of the previously loaded list.
• Fixed a bug preventing the 'Minimize at Startup' feature from working. It works again now ...
• Fixed a bug which could cause SlideShow Desktop to crash at exit. This seemed to affect users of Windows NT4, Windows 98 and Windows Me.
• Fixed a bug preventing the saving of slide show lists under certain circumstances.
• The 'Details' button in the Download Manager screen now shows details of an update by opening up a link to history.htm on this website, rather than by showing plain text in a text box.
• Created a new application called HideIcons.exe, found in the SlideShow Desktop program menu group. This is a simple application which can be used to hide or display your desktop icons. This is provided in case SlideShow Desktop fails to restore your desktop icons (although it shouldn't anymore hopefully).
• Desktop Patterns now also work when using Active Desktop. Previously, you could only apply desktop patterns in 'classic' desktop mode.

Version 1.5 - Released 26th September 2002

• SlideShow Desktop can now be configured to automatically play back a slideshow of your choice when started. You can also configure the default style for playback (tile/centre/stretch/default).
• Slideshow lists can now be refreshed using the new 'Refresh Folders' options. These features are useful for updating your slide shows to reflect any changes to the number of images in a folder. Selecting the 'Refresh Folders' button will list each of the folders in the current slide show list, enabling you to select which folders you wish to refresh. You can also choose to refresh a single folder by right clicking any image from that folder in your slide show list.
• Slideshow lists can now be sorted alphabetically by file name using the new 'Sort' button. The list no longer sorts automatically.
• Slideshow lists are now updated in a separate thread of execution, with a progress displayed. This ensures the interface remains reponsive when adding large numbers of slides to a list (such as when adding an entire disk drive of images).
• Slideshow list now displays the number of slides it contains.
• All searches and list updates are now performed in separate threads of execution, ensuring the interface remains responsive.
• The name of the slide, and also it's numerical position in the list can now be displayed on the screen in full screen mode. You can also configure the colors and size of these captions from the 'Appearances' options screen.
• The 'Sounds' popup menu now has a new item : "Random Wave". Selecting this causes SlideShow Desktop to randomly pick a wavefile from the waves directory, each time a slide is shown. So you are no longer limited to always using the same sound effect.
• The Mini Control Panel (Full Screen mode) now contains an additional button, allowing you to change the desktop tile style whilst in full screen mode. You can cycle between Tile, Centre and Stretch with the click of a button.
• Improved loading of large slide show lists. Even those in excess of 40,000 slides, are now loaded in just a few seconds.
• Improved the 'Add Files' window, by populating the list in a separate thread, ensuring the interface remains responsive.
• Improved file search performed in separate threads of execution, ensuring the control panel remains responsive at all times.
• Improved menu appearance, which can now be configured to display icons and accelerators, or not, whichever style you prefer.
• Improved list saving functionality. After saving a list, you are now prompted if you would like to make this your default list, and whether or not you would like to start with this list in future. This prompt can be turned off, or reinstated on the 'Hide/Show Windows' options screen.
• Improved Windows Explorer integration. Launching a slide show directly from Windows Explorer now always uses long path names instead of short path names (eg. now lists 'C:\Program Files' instead of 'C:\Progra~1').
• Improved slideshow list window by removing auto-sort. Slides are now listed in the order in which they are added to the list, so you can now order the slides as you wish, and save the selected order for future playback. The list can still be sorted using the new Sort button on the control panel.
• Improved stability and restore desktop functionality. SlideShow Desktop will now close gracefully in the unevent of an unrecoverable software or operating system error. If it crashes, your desktop is always restored. See point below.
• Previously your Windows screen saver was disabled each time SlideShow Desktop was started, preventing your screen saver from operating while you are watching a slide show. There is now an option to re-enable it, should you still want your screen saver to operate. This option is available from the General options screen. Note, by default, screen savers are still disabled.
• In the unlikely event that SlideShow Desktop crashes and is unable to recover your desktop settings, you will now find a new application available in the SlideShow Desktop program group named "Restore Desktop". Running this application at any time will restore your desktop back to the state it was in when you last started SlideShow Desktop. Note that this can be run at any time.
• Improved keyboard shortcuts. Clear slide show list now F6 instead of backspace (so that you can use the backspace key to edit the slide frequency field).
• Improved keyboard shortcuts. Promoting/demoting the position of a slide in the slideshow list is now done using CTRL+Up/Down cursor keys instead of just Up/Down cursor keys (so now you can navigate the list using the keyboard without having to move the currently selected item).
• Improved Instant Updater. Possible delay when not connected to the Internet and checking for an update has now been resolved.
• Improved the Mini Control Panel. In full screen mode, the panel can now be moved by clicking on it and dragging with the mouse.
• Improved the thumbnail view in the Add Files window. Thumbnails are now now displayed much much quicker.
• Improved conversion between image types. Image conversion now performed in a separate thread of execution, ensuring the interface remains responsive during conversion.
• Improved InstallShield setup process. SlideShow Desktop no longer starts automatically by default when you login into Windows.
• Improved the slideshow list. Slide file names now capitalized.
• Improved the Registration process.
• Improved progress windows.
• Improved the startup process. SllideShow Desktop queries your graphics card to see what screen resolutions are supported at startup. In version 1.4, this operation could take a while to complete, resulting in SlideShow Desktop appearing not to start, or taking a long time to start. There is now a message displayed which reads "Caching Display Modes" at startup. The delay cannot be avoided and may still be there, but at least now you know it is still working.
• Improved stability by pausing the slideshow whenever an options screen, search results or file open/save window is displayed. The slideshow is automatically restarted once the operation has completed.
• The Mini Control Panel (in Full Screen mode) can now be moved from the bottom left corner by dragging it to where you like. You must left click on the border of the panel, not on a button.
• Bug found in image file conversion. It was possible for SlideShow Desktop to crash when trying to display a 0 byte image file, an unreadable image file, or an image file where the height and width was not calculable. Fixed !
• Bug found when displaying certain greyscale jpeg images - the conversion could distort the image. Fixed.
• Bug found with disabled buttons losing their icons. Now they show 'greyed out' icons.
• Bug found when restoring an Active Desktop back to a wallpaper of '(None)' when closing SlideShow Desktop. It failed, leaving the last slide displayed. Fixed.
• Bug found when selecting exit from the system tray menu, while a secondary window was still open (such as Open/Save or the Add Files window). SlideShow Desktop would close, but the secondary window would remain open. Can no longer select exit from system tray while a secondary window is open.
• Bug Found when using the Next/Previous Slide buttons from the control panel. If these were pressed rapidly, it could cause SlideShow Desktop to crash. This bug has been fixed.
• Bug Found with the slideshow timer. Updating the frequency for the slideshow did not always work. The slideshow is now stopped and restarted whenever you change the frequency, which fixes the bug.
• Known issue in full screen mode where area behind the Windows task bar was not getting refreshed has now been fixed.
• Numerous other minor enhancements, tweaks and bug fixes.

Version 1.4 - Released 16th March 2002

• Added a new Options screen enabling you to replace the Windows startup and shutdown screens with your own images.
• Improved the Add Files dialog. The preview thumbnail now looks better and can be disabled.
• Improved the visual style of all menus, which now look like Windows XP menus, complete with icons and shortcut keys.
• Improved the layout and visual style of the Options screens.
• Improved accessibility through keyboard shortcuts. All of the main features and play controls are accessible using the keyboard.
• Improved the 'Random Wallpaper at Startup' feature. It is now possible to select a default wallpaper style to apply to the randomly selected wallpaper, or you can specify to use the current system setting. Previously, it was always centred, regardless of the current setting.
• Improved the registration screen.
• Improved the system tray menu style, and also added a new popup menu to it.
  • Sounds Popup Menu. You can now configure the sound to be played on each slide change directly from the system tray menu. The popup menu allows you to enable or disable the sound, and it also lists all the .wav files found in the 'Waves' directory so that you can quickly change the sound played. A browse item is also available allowing you to extend this menu by copying your own .wav files into the 'Waves' directory.
• Version 1.1 and 1.2 shipped with 45 sample sounds. These were removed in version 1.3 to make the installation executable smaller. By popular demand, these files have now been included again, so users who have previously only installed version 1.3 can also have some fun with them. For future versions, these sounds will only be included in the complete installation set. Updates applied using Instant Updater will only include these files in the version 1.4 update, they will not be included in successive updates. These sounds have also been given more descriptive names. All files in the 'Waves' directory are deleted when version 1.4 is installed, and the renamed wave files are then installed. This prevents duplication of wave files with different file names.
• Bug Fix: It is no longer possible to exit SlideShow Desktop from the system tray menu when the About screen or an Options screen is open.
• Bug Fix: There was a substantial memory leak caused by hovering the mouse cursor over the system tray icon. This has been fixed now.
• Bug Fix: When starting SlideShow Desktop, the wallpaper style could be reported as centred, even if the system wallpaper style was tile or stretch. It now reports the correct system setting.
• Bug Fix: The Instant Updater shortcut in the SlideShow Desktop program group didn't work in version 1.3. It does now ...

Version 1.3 - Released 17th February 2002

• Apply patterns to the unpainted region of your desktop.
• Switch screen resolutions in an instant from the system tray icon for best image representation.
• Get automatic notification of updates to SlideShow Desktop, and use the new Instant Updater to download and apply the updates for you.
• Customized the Windows Explorer shell folder and drive context menus so that slide shows can be launched by right clicking a folder or drive letter in Windows Explorer and choosing to view as a slide show.
• Improved the InstallShield installation process.
• Full screen mode (Mini Control Panel) and Options screens are now also available from the system tray menu for even easier use.
• Restore Desktop at exit feature has been greatly improved.
• The 'Add Slides' window can now be hidden, causing all files found to be added to the slide show list without displaying a preview window.
• New button icons give SlideShow Desktop a nicer look.
• Implemented a new button style. When run on Windows XP, SlideShow Desktop uses the new XP style buttons. When run on any other version of Windows, the buttons take on a flat appearance.
• Evaluation period changed from 30 days to 14 days.
• Bug Fix: If your wallpaper was set to (None) when starting SlideShow Desktop, the desktop did not correctly restore at exit. It does now ...
• Bug Fix: Randomizing an image at startup always displayed the first image in the list when starting in sequential mode. Not anymore ...
• Bug Fix: The Options screens misbehaved when chosen from the menu. Not any more ...
• Bug Fix: Pressing Play in sequence mode would always restart the slide show from the first image. Not now ...
• Numerous other minor enhancements.

Version 1.2 - Released 9th December 2001

• Updated for Windows XP.
• SlideShow Desktop now works with Device Independent Bitmap formats (*.dib).
• Preview window. Thumbnails now generated in the 'Add Files' window.
• Full screen slide shows now possible. This feature is toggled from the control panel.
• Added color pickers for changing desktop and icon colors.
• Hide Icons improved. Now works for all version of Windows (this feature no longer requires Active Desktop and even works on Windows XP!).
• Can change order of slides in the slide show list with two new buttons on the right side of the control panel.
• Play button glows to indicate play mode.
• .ssl files are now registered with the Windows shell. Double clicking a slide show list file will launch SlideShow Desktop and automatically open the list for you.
• InstallShield now creates a desktop shortcut.
• Troubleshoot 'Profiling' option removed, improving performance and reducing size of executable.
• Display Drive dialog is now an option from the startup options screen.
• Random image selected at startup is now centred.
• InstallShield installation is now quicker and requires less input from user. Removed unnecessary 'information' dialogs.
• Enhancement - when starting a slide show with the desktop icons already hidden, the popup menu would still say 'Hide Desktop Icons'. Not any more, the hide/show desktop icon syncronisation has been much improved.
• Enhancement - when exiting SlideShow Desktop with 'Restore Desktop upon Exit' selected, each of the desktop elements (image, tile style, icons, icon color etc) are now restored only if they have been changed. This speeds the process up and reduces flicker.
• Enhancement - the system tray popup menu would cease working if an image was displayed whose filename and path totalled greater than 64 characters in length. This is due to the image name being set as a tooltip on the sytem tray icon, and the limit is 64 characters. Any more and the Tray Icon would crash (although the rest of the application would continue to work). The tooltip is now truncated if necessary.
• Enhancement - in the 'Add Files' window when deleting selections. Multiple selections now work correctly.
• Enhancement - located and fixed all resource leaks.
• Enhancement - selecting to display a random image at startup, when the play mode had previously been sequential could result in an error displaying the first slide. Not any more ...
• Enhancement - if save file (.ssl) is read only, you are prompted to overwrite it. Previously it failed.
• Enhancement - if an error occurs trying to display an image (for example, the image has been moved or deleted), SlideShow Desktop now pauses until the user has chosen how to handle the error. Previously, if you had moved or renamed an entire directory of hundreds of images which were being displayed, and then left SlideShow Desktop unattended, you could have comeback to numerous error messages. Not any more ...
• Numerous other minor bugfixes and enhancements (actually, the code has been completely rewritten !).

Version 1.1 - Released 21st July 2001

• Can now enable SlideShow Desktop to automatically run when Windows starts.
• Drive dialog only appears in troubleshoot mode.
• Can hide your a: drive from the browse window - improves drive refresh functionality.
• Can restore desktop settings automatically when exiting SlideShow Desktop.

Version 1.0 (Released 16th July 2001)

• Initial release.

SlideShow Desktop is in a state of continuous development. If there is something that you don't like about it or if you have a suggestion for a feature you'd like to see added do please let us know. SlideShow Desktop thrives on user feedback - good or bad.