Put a background on the whole world wide web!

[aryayush]

Hello!
I am sure the name of this topic must have intrigued you. Well, it is not a mistake. You can indeed put a static or dynamic background on the whole world wide web and it is quite easy to do so. A dynamic background means that the background will keep changing. Before I start the tutorial, click on the links below to have a look at what you can achieve at the end of this tutorial:
http://www.tachypic.com/view/322
http://www.tachypic.com/view/324

Like what you see?

Well then, 'subh kaam mein deri kaisi'!
To achieve this, you need the following ingredients:
1. Microsoft Windows XP
2. PowerMenu (http://download.softpedia.com/software/os_enhance/PowerMenu_1_5_1.zip)
3. Opera (or any other internet browser)
4. 512 MB or more of RAM

OK now. Download and install PowerMenu from the link above.
Close all open windows in the taskbar.
Open your web browser.
Open 'My Pictures' and select the image(s) that you want to set as the background. The size should either be same as your desktop resolution or larger. If it is larger, it should have the same proportions as your desktop resolution.
Press 'Ctrl + C'.
Navigate to some empty folder or create a new one and open it.
Press 'Ctrl + V'.
Hit return. The 'Windows Picture and Fax Viewer' should open up.
Hit F11. A slideshow of the picture(s) should start.
Press and hold 'Alt' and hit 'Tab' twice. The folder in which you pasted the pictures should open.
Press 'Alt + F4'.
Press and hold 'Alt' and hit 'Tab' twice. Your web browser should open.
Right-click on the first tab in the Taskbar (the web browser's) and set 'Transparency' according to taste (I prefer '40%').
DONE!

LOL! I am sure you did not expect me to do it in this manner. :D It is a simple and effective solution.

A few tips:
1. Having a dynamic background might hamper your browsing experience.
2. Choose an image which primarily has a light colour and does not have heavy contrast.
3. Transparency tends to slow down the PC a lot if used excessively. It is advised that you use it only on one window at a time.
4. You will have to do this everytime you start your browser (though I expect everyone to be aware of this).

This is my first ever tutorial. Please leave your comments, whether negative or positive. Thank you! :)

[Chirag]

Its kewl. Damn cool buddy. I will try and post the screenshots soon.:))

[aryayush]

Thanks for the appreciation! Looking forward to your screenshots. :)

[casanova]

Glass2k will also do this
And it will work on win2k/xp/2003 also
It works fine for me even on 256mb RAM
Glass2k available at http://www.chime.tv/products/glass2k.shtml

[aryayush]

First and foremost, PowerMenu does not require 512 MB of RAM - it does not even require 256 MB. I recommended 512 MB because transparency tends to use up a good measure of RAM.
Secondly, it is not about which software you use to achieve the effect but how you use it. Apart from PowerMenu and Glass2k, WindowBlinds and Style XP will also enable transparency but I thought my idea of using it to create a pseudo-background for the web was unique so I posted this.
And I certainly wouldn't recommend Glass2k or any other software if you just want the transparency feature because they also install too many useless features (for me, atleast) such as changing the windows theme and such. Another factor is that though the (minimum) requirement is 256 MB, they will slow down a system with just 256 MB of RAM terribly. In fact, I cannot use them even on my system which has 512 MB of RAM because there is a lot of lag.
Anyway, if you prefer that, use it. It's upto you eventually. Do show us your results if you use it for setting a background for your internet browser. :)

Edit: Here is the link to a better (read beautiful) screenshot of the background:
http://www.tachypic.com/view/327

[gary4gar]

great find mate nice post. i knew it
anyways is there any thing which directly intetegraes in broswer??

[aryayush]

Thanks for the appreciation! :) Just to make it clear, I figured this out myself and did not find this somewhere. :p

I am not too sure there is anything that will enable you to integrate it directly into the browser but I would stray away if I were you because even if you do manage to integrate it into the browser, you most probably won't be able to set it to be faintly visible and if you simply put it as the background, I am not too sure you'll enjoy browsing the internet because I am sure the picture will conflict with the colours on the page. Even if you somehow set it to be faintly visibly (like a watermark), the process will become very complicated if you want to decrease or increase the visibility of the image while browsing some site. If you use this method, however, you can change the image quickly and also set it's transparency to different values with just two clicks. There is also the added advantage of having a dynamic background.
Hope you understand my logic! :D

If, however, you still want to try to integrate it with the browser, I suppose you can experiment with the custom style sheets option in Opera. :)

[casanova]

No, glass2k doesn't install anything. It comes only as a single ready to use exe.

[aryayush]

I am not too sure I understood your post, gary4gar.
Can you please edit it or re-post it in better punctuated english?

[PinKLip]

One query???
Does is eat your bandwith??

[aryayush]

Why should it eat your bandwidth!! This is something that you are doing on your PC and will obviously have no effect at all on the network you are connected to. :)

[iMav]

WOW! Look what I found! Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but this interesting in 2 aspects.

[slugger]

LOL!!
iMav is evil :twisted: :D

will aryayush now become an outcast

[iMav]

Update, on Vista it works on IE 8 Betabut not on Firefox.

And here is the new link to PowerMenu: http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/OS-Enhancements/PowerMenu.shtml

Also, you don't exactly need to copy-paste a wallpaper into a directory, you can use your desktop wallpaper itself. Screen-shot:

http://img139.imageshack.us/img139/7276/20890782yd9.th.jpg (http://img139.imageshack.us/my.php?image=20890782yd9.jpg)http://img139.imageshack.us/images/thpix.gif (http://g.imageshack.us/thpix.php)

[MetalheadGautham]

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Sahilgulati.net


The requested http://sahilgulati.net/tachypic.html/view/322 was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Error 404
Visitors IP : 59.92.183.175
Server Name : www.sahilgulati.net
Visitor's Browser : Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008072612 GranParadiso/3.0.1
Redirect Status Code : 404
Refering URL : http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=946835
Requested URL : /tachypic.html/view/322
© Sahilgulati.net


Thats the best wallpaper text ever :D

@iMav: nice find...

[Krazzy Warrior]

Page Not Found
Sahilgulati.net


The requested http://sahilgulati.net/tachypic.html/view/322 was not found on this server.

Additionally, a 404 Not Found error was encountered while trying to use an ErrorDocument to handle the request.
Error 404
Visitors IP : 59.92.183.175
Server Name : www.sahilgulati.net
Visitor's Browser : Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.9.0.1) Gecko/2008072612 GranParadiso/3.0.1
Redirect Status Code : 404
Refering URL : http://www.thinkdigit.com/forum/showthread.php?p=946835
Requested URL : /tachypic.html/view/322
© Sahilgulati.net

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[dreamsalive]

^^^ yeah same here, u need to fix it.

[Quiz_Master]

Look at the time guys..soooo old thread... Ofcourse the pic links are dead by now...

(BTW it was funnu...remembering how aryayush used to be a faithful winodws user..lolz .. )

[aryayush]

Yes, before I’d laid eyes on Mac OS X, I had nothing but love for Windows. I actually used to enjoy messing with it and having to reinstall it once every couple of months and tweaking it to the extreme.

But then again, I was only fifteen and getting through high school was the most important thing at the time. Now that the situation has changed, I cannot imagine wasting my time on all that crap.