Quick answer: Windows XP, Windows 2000, Windows ME, Windows 98se.

The Wallpaper Manager software utilizes some great new technology that we felt is important to the ease of use of the program. However, in doing this we have alienated ourselves from the kind and gentle Windows 3.x, Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 users. We regret this and hope you'll understand. Different explanation for Mac and Linux users but same result.

1. Download the latest version of the Wallpaper Manager software HERE.
    
2. Double click on the file you just downloaded to initiate the installation program (the file name is "pictureshare.exe").
    
3. Answer the questions asked (License agreement, program location)
    
4. If you choose to run the program directly after installation, you may also be asked to restart your machine. You can cancel out of this dialog and continue with the Wallpaper Manager program.
    
5. If this is the first time you've installed Wallpaper Manager on your system, you will be asked to create a PictureShare.net account. THIS IS OPTIONAL. If you proceed a trial account will be created (30 days or 20 images). The trial period will not affect the functionality of the Wallpaper Manager. You can create the account and if, after the trial period you do not want to subscribe, you can continue using Wallpaper Manager normally.
    
6. Complete the Account signup wizard...
   OR
   If you already have a PictureShare.net account, click on the "Already Registered" button...
   OR
   Cancel out of the wizard and begin using the Wallpaper Manager software.
    
7. If you do sign up for an account, check your email and activate your account (your name and password are already entered into the Wallpaper Manager settings).
    
8. Success! You're ready to start displaying and rotating your images as Windows Desktop Wallpaper. Congratulations!

If you have any problems, please use the Support Request Form and we'll help you through it.
 

Once you have created an account with PictureShare.net and installed Wallpaper Manager on both computers, click on the "Settings" button in the lower right and then click on the "Account Options" tab. Once there, enter your account name and password under the "Account Details" area and click OK. If your account has been activated, you are now connected to PictureShare.net.

You should make sure the "Leave a copy of images on server" is checked off, otherwise once you download an image at Home it will no longer be listed for your Work computer to download it.

1. Add images: To do this, click on the "Add Pictures" button at the bottom of the screen. You can also click on the down-arrow on this button and add an entire directory of images.
   
    
2. Configure your settings: This is important to your overall satisfaction with the software. To open the Settings dialog, click on the "Settings" button in the lower left of the main screen. Make sure you are at the "Program Options" tab:
   1. Interval
      How often do you want your wallpaper image to change to another image? We give you presets of 5, 10, 30 and 60 minutes or you can input your own. This setting really depends on how many images are in the File List. If you have 1,000 images, you may want to change them every 10 minutes. If you have 10 images, maybe try it every 60 minutes or longer.
      
       
   2. Startup
      The two critical items here that need to be checked are "Load at Startup" and "Show Icon on Taskbar". This will load Wallpaper Manager each time you start Windows and it will show a blue monitor icon in the Taskbar Tray (usually found in the lower right of your screen).
      
       
   3. Display
      The options to concentrate on here are the "Scale Bitmaps" and "Reduce Only" checkboxes, both of which should be checked. These two settings will display great looking images no matter what size they are. "Scale Bitmaps" sizes an image so you see the entire image. That way if anyone sends you an image to large for your monitor to display, we'll scale it down so you see everything. "Reduce Only" is needed so that small images are shown at 100% of their resolution and not scaled up so they look distorted and blurry.
      The "Try and Fill Screen" option will zoom the image up to the Maximum scale factor specified in order to prevent blank areas on the top/bottom or sides of the display.
      

That's all there is to it. There are so many more options and settings you can play with to fine-tune your experience with the software, we'll let you play with that on your own and if you have any questions, well, you know where to find us.

If you have a directory where you put all your new images, you can tell the program to watch that directory and automatically add any new images that show up. Subdirectories underneath the watch directory are assumed to be included, but you can manually exclude them if you want to.

To specify the directories to watch, click on Settings, then on the Watch Directories table. Check off the directories to watch for new images. Once you click OK, the program will add and remove the images in those directories as it is updated.

You can also right-click on an image and select "Watch this directory", or if the directory is already being watched, you can select "Stop watching this directory". This is a quick way to remove subdirectories under your main images directory that you don't want to show as wallpaper.

If you have more than one monitor, you can enable multiple monitor support in the Settings/Program Options screen. It's enabled by default.

To display a specific image on a primary or secondary monitor, right-click on the image and select "Set As Desktop Wallpaper On Primary Monitor" or "Set As Desktop Wallpaper On Secondary Monitor".

If you are adding a directory that has a lot of images in it, you can click on the  Background button on the progress bar. The directory will finish adding in the background, and you can add more directories in the meantime that will be added once the current directory is finished being added.

If the "Adding Files" text is blinking on the left side of the screen, you can click on it to bring up a dialog that lists all the directories queued up to be added.

Position the mouse anywhere on the main screen except the top taskbar where the logo is and hold it for a couple of seconds. The main screen will become semi-transparent which allows you to view the image behind it more completely. Nice huh?

If you double-click on an unused part of the program (a background part), then the transparency will stick until you double-click it again.

When one image switches to another, you can apply a "fade" effect to the transition process. To do this, open the Settings dialog, Program Options tab and make sure the box "Fade Pictures When Switching" is checked ON under the Display options at the bottom.

This effect only takes place during a natural transition. It won't work if you perform a manual switch or if you have an application open that takes up more than 90% of the screen real estate (too much flicker). Also, you may notice that your desktop icons disappear while the transition takes place. This is done on purpose to reduce flicker.

Wide screen laptops and displays will have a different aspect ratio than most images. 1280x1024 displays, for instance, have a 1.25 aspect ratio (1280 divided by 1024 is 1.25). But most pictures are 1.33 aspect ration, so you'll have blank areas at the sides of your desktop. With this feature turned on, we zoom the image until it fills the entire desktop. However, the "Max" selection allows you to set a maximum amount of zoom, 1X, 2X, etc.

Wallpaper Manager is unique in that it automatically can sense when an image should be displayed as a single image or one that is tiled. To fine-tune these settings, open the "Settings" dialog, Program Options tab. You'll find it under the Display options called "Automatically Center or Tile the Image". Make sure the checkbox is checked ON and adjust the threshold (horizontal x vertical) to whatever size works for the images you have in your list. When a switch occurs and an image is lower than these dimensions, the image will be tiled as opposed to shown as a single image. Test it out and you'll see, it works great!

As one of the most unique features, image ranking allows you to evaluate an image and by assigning a rank to an image, determine how often it will be placed in the rotation (more or less).

The following Image Rankings are available:
- Don't Show It Again = Will no longer show this image as part of the normal
- Show It Seldom = Skips a rotation
- Show It Normally = Default for all new images added to the main file list
- Show It Often = Displayed 3 times per rotation

There are two ways to rank an image:

1. In the main file list, right click on a file name, select "Set Ranking/Privacy" and then select the rank you wish to apply. This will be reflected in the "Ranking" column found on the main file list window.
    
2. Right click on the taskbar tray icon and select "Set Ranking/Privacy" and then select the rank you wish to apply.
   NOTE: If you select "Don't Show It Again" an image switch will immediately occur.