OT: helping friend "install" wallpapers?

  • Thread starter Thread starter fitwell
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fitwell

In desperation I come to the group. I've had so much trouble trying
to teach a friend how to install wallpapers, but various consultations
on the phone and a two-hour session right at her house teaching her
basics have not helped. She continously has the same problems. I'm
getting extremely frustrated as I don't know what else to do. I've
not finished a Wink tutorial and I know that will help, but then I
don't have a place to ul to and I can just imagine that actually using
the tutorial if I just email it to her will create the same problems
that a simple wallpaper install has. So the easiest thing would be to
provide her with the wallpaper each month in a self-install type of
deal.

She has Windows XP and I have Win98SE, and know that the folders used
as not the same. Granted, I think that folders can be changed, but
that would open up a whole nw kettle of fish since, again, problems
with teaching her how to do simple things is great as I can't always
be there.

Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change walls
but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a thing? I
found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but didn't find
anything to help with just installing and maintaining desktop
wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all our
hair! <g>
 
fitwell said:
In desperation I come to the group. I've had so much trouble trying
to teach a friend how to install wallpapers, but various consultations
on the phone and a two-hour session right at her house teaching her
basics have not helped. She continously has the same problems. I'm
getting extremely frustrated as I don't know what else to do. I've
not finished a Wink tutorial and I know that will help, but then I
don't have a place to ul to and I can just imagine that actually using
the tutorial if I just email it to her will create the same problems
that a simple wallpaper install has. So the easiest thing would be to
provide her with the wallpaper each month in a self-install type of
deal.

She has Windows XP and I have Win98SE, and know that the folders used
as not the same. Granted, I think that folders can be changed, but
that would open up a whole nw kettle of fish since, again, problems
with teaching her how to do simple things is great as I can't always
be there.

Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change walls
but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a thing? I
found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but didn't find
anything to help with just installing and maintaining desktop
wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all our
hair! <g>
Click to expand...

Can you make a folder on the desktop that the files are stored in?
Then have her d/l the wallpaper to the desktop and drag n' drop.
Haven't tried it myself. May be grasping at straws.
 
Can you make a folder on the desktop that the files are stored in?
Then have her d/l the wallpaper to the desktop and drag n' drop.
Haven't tried it myself. May be grasping at straws.
Click to expand...

No. Would like to do this properly and a loose folder on the desktop
won't help. There is still a matter of getting the wallpaper to
display, so I'm right back where I started from.

Thanks.
 
In desperation I come to the group. I've had so much trouble trying
to teach a friend how to install wallpapers, but various consultations
on the phone and a two-hour session right at her house teaching her
basics have not helped. She continously has the same problems. I'm
getting extremely frustrated as I don't know what else to do. I've
not finished a Wink tutorial and I know that will help, but then I
don't have a place to ul to and I can just imagine that actually using
the tutorial if I just email it to her will create the same problems
that a simple wallpaper install has. So the easiest thing would be to
provide her with the wallpaper each month in a self-install type of
deal.

She has Windows XP and I have Win98SE, and know that the folders used
as not the same. Granted, I think that folders can be changed, but
that would open up a whole nw kettle of fish since, again, problems
with teaching her how to do simple things is great as I can't always
be there.

Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change walls
but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a thing? I
found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but didn't find
anything to help with just installing and maintaining desktop
wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all our
hair! <g>
Click to expand...

Written instructions with pictures :) You said something about a "Wink"
tutorial but no url to place it? Is that right? If you need to have a
tutorial on line, I'd be happy to copy it to my host and you would have a
url to it. Sorry, I don't know of an *installer* of wallpapers per say.
 
Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change
walls but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a
thing? I found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but
didn't find anything to help with just installing and maintaining
desktop wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all
our hair! <g>
Click to expand...

I use XP too and I use Irfanview to change my wall paper. I have a
folder ( C:\Wallpaper ) where I store all the JPEG files I want to
use. Using Irfanview, I can browse that folder, find one I want to
use, and when the file is open in Irfanview, from Irfanview's menu
Options > Set as Wallpaper. It changes the wallpaper and stores it
in C:\Windows as IrfanView_Wallpaper.bmp no matter what JPEG file
you choose as the wallpaper. Very Simple. No thrashing about.

HTH,

Tony
 
fitwell said:
Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change
walls but helps to install them instead?
Click to expand...

What's to install? Just have her the graphic file(s) in C\Windows (or XP
equivalent).

Or are you talking about screen savers?

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
____________________________
 
I use XP too and I use Irfanview to change my wall paper. I have a
folder ( C:\Wallpaper ) where I store all the JPEG files I want to
use. Using Irfanview, I can browse that folder, find one I want to
use, and when the file is open in Irfanview, from Irfanview's menu
Options > Set as Wallpaper. It changes the wallpaper and stores it
in C:\Windows as IrfanView_Wallpaper.bmp no matter what JPEG file
you choose as the wallpaper. Very Simple. No thrashing about.

HTH,

Tony
Click to expand...

Tony, that sounds great! But it comes right back to the problem that
I'm having that even something so basic as this seems to be beyond my
friend. It's been months that I've tried to teach her but she and her
mom just keep getting into troubles. <sigh>

I did come up with an alternative. I don't like it as it's giving the
fish rather than teaching to fish, but sometimes one has to go with
what works.

The problem has been with word wrap, in this particular instance. We
went through the procedure over and over and over and she learned how
to do this. But I hear that again, she can't get to the website just
like before <sigh>. So what I came up with is that I coded the URL to
the wallpaper page, which never changes it, into a very simple HTML
doct that I attached to the email. When opened, one just sees
something like "Click here to..." and that opens the page. From
there, she has learned to right-click and save as wallpaper.

Again, I really don't like this as this might very well teach her to
open html shortcuts, but I just have to trust that she _not_ open any
but the one I send her.

As I said, this seems to work and it gets around all the complications
in sending her a program, getting her to install and then to figure
out how to use <argggh>. If we're having so much trouble with word
wrap, can you imagine what all this would be like??!! My friend is
not stupid, but she's new to computers and doesn't realize, also, that
she must just sit herself down and teach herself these basics. Until
one gets to a basic stage, I guess, is this possible.

Thanks to those who answered. This quick fix will do for now.
 
Written instructions with pictures :) You said something about a "Wink"
tutorial but no url to place it? Is that right? If you need to have a
tutorial on line, I'd be happy to copy it to my host and you would have a
url to it. Sorry, I don't know of an *installer* of wallpapers per say.
Click to expand...

Thanks! I appreciate the offer re the Wink tutorial on word wrap, but
in time for September's desktop wallpaper, I came up with a quick and
dirty fix. I coded up a very small html doct with the url that has
given her trouble with a link so that when pressed, no more word wrap
problems. It'll automatically go to the webpage. I just will attach
that to the email I send her later on today once I have next month's
desktop calendar ul.

Cheers!
 
dadiOH said:
What's to install? Just have her PUT the graphic file(s) in C\Windows
(or XP equivalent). Note: Same place in XP, just checked.
Click to expand...

--
dadiOH
_____________________________

dadiOH's dandies v3.0...
....a help file of info about MP3s, recording from
LP/cassette and tips & tricks on this and that.
Get it at http://mysite.verizon.net/xico
____________________________
 
fitwell said:
In desperation I come to the group. I've had so much trouble trying
to teach a friend how to install wallpapers, but various consultations
on the phone and a two-hour session right at her house teaching her
basics have not helped. She continously has the same problems. I'm
getting extremely frustrated as I don't know what else to do. I've
not finished a Wink tutorial and I know that will help, but then I
don't have a place to ul to and I can just imagine that actually using
the tutorial if I just email it to her will create the same problems
that a simple wallpaper install has. So the easiest thing would be to
provide her with the wallpaper each month in a self-install type of
deal.

She has Windows XP and I have Win98SE, and know that the folders used
as not the same. Granted, I think that folders can be changed, but
that would open up a whole nw kettle of fish since, again, problems
with teaching her how to do simple things is great as I can't always
be there.

Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change walls
but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a thing? I
found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but didn't find
anything to help with just installing and maintaining desktop
wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all our
hair! <g>
Click to expand...

Instructions for instructing friend about changing wallpaper in XP:

Instruct friend to click Start
Click Help & Support
Type "wallpaper" and click the green arrow
Select a task from the list on the left
Follow the instructions <g>

===

Frank Bohan
¶ You are only young once, but you can stay immature indefinitely.
 
fitwell said:
In desperation I come to the group. I've had so much trouble trying
to teach a friend how to install wallpapers, but various consultations
on the phone and a two-hour session right at her house teaching her
basics have not helped. She continously has the same problems. I'm
getting extremely frustrated as I don't know what else to do. I've
not finished a Wink tutorial and I know that will help, but then I
don't have a place to ul to and I can just imagine that actually using
the tutorial if I just email it to her will create the same problems
that a simple wallpaper install has. So the easiest thing would be to
provide her with the wallpaper each month in a self-install type of
deal.

She has Windows XP and I have Win98SE, and know that the folders used
as not the same. Granted, I think that folders can be changed, but
that would open up a whole nw kettle of fish since, again, problems
with teaching her how to do simple things is great as I can't always
be there.

Is there a program like a wallpaper changer that doesn't change walls
but helps to install them instead? Anyone know of such a thing? I
found lots of wallpaper changers in the archives but didn't find
anything to help with just installing and maintaining desktop
wallpapers, as it were.

Thanks! Any tips appreciated before my porr friend and I lose all our
hair! <g>
Click to expand...

Just have her save the pictures to any folder (My Pictures should do). Right
click on the thumbnail and select "Set as Desktop Background". No
installation required.
 
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