Desktop Background

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The desktop background, also referred to as background picture or simply wallpaper, can be easily changed in NoTouch. The system can display any JPG graphics file and will scale that according to the used screen resolution. All the system needs to know is the URL of this jpg graphics file, so that it can download it on boot and subsequently display it. HTTP and HTTPS are supported protocols.

Get the wallpaper from a URL (preferred, centrally managed)

To change the desktop background, follow these easy steps:

  1. Copy your desktop wallpaper to a location where it is accessible via a URL, like http://intranet.company.com/wallpapers/mybackground.jpg. Preferably try that URL first in your browser to make sure it is correct. If you do not have a web server, you can store files on the Stratodesk Virtual Appliance or, if you don't have the Virtual Appliance, store them with a NoTouch Center installation.
  2. Type that URL into the "Wallpaper URL" parameter. You'll find this parameter
    • on the client under "Display" options
    • in NoTouch Center under "Desktop" options (Group settings or client)

A video of somebody changing the wallpaper URL on the client (without NoTouch Center) can be seen here: http://screencast.com/t/xbP1XdUbH

Refer to the following screenshot for changing the URL in NoTouch Center:

Stratodesk-Center-en-ModifyWallpaper.jpg

Storing the wallpaper manually on the system

If the "Wallpaper URL" parameter does not begin with http or https it will be treated as a local filename below /config, the only writable folder. Thus, if the parameter reads mountains.jpg the system will load try to load the file /config/mountains.jpg. With this method, you are responsible for rolling out the wallpaper file, preferably use SSH (i.e. SCP) as described in File exchange.

Thus, going step by step:

  1. Assign a descriptive file name to your background file without any spaces or special characters
  2. Copy your background file to the NoTouch system into the /config folder using one of the methods described in File exchange.
  3. Write the name of the file only (without any /config prefix or any URL-like stuff) into the "Wallpaper URL" parameter

Once again, this method requires you to manually distribute your wallpaper. SSH can do a good job here, but in most cases please check above for the URL-based method.

Wallpaper-related parameters

These parameters - part of the Display parameters - govern the way how the desktop background is set up:

  • Show desktop wallpaper. On/off switch that tells the system if a custom wallpaper should be shown or not.
  • Wallpaper URL. URL pointing to a JPG file that will be displayed as desktop background.
  • Wallpaper alignment. Most people will expect a desktop wallpaper to be a single image that is displayed over all of the screen, being scaled up or down if the size of the image does not match the screen dimensions. This is "scaled" mode and that's the default setting. Alternatively, a desktop wallpaper may be simply centered, leaving empty borders if necessary, or tiled, meaning it will be repeated as often as necessary to fill the whole screen.
  • Background color. An X11 color name to fill the background with a solid color.