PhotoJoy is a free app that uses your own photo collection to create dynamic
desktop wallpaper, screensavers, and desktop widgets.
As your image collection grows you may have noticed that although it is taking more and more space on your hard drive, yet ironically you seldom get to actually look at your pictures. Wouldn’t it be great if you could integrate your images into your desktop and screensaver so you could actually get to see them? If this sounds like something you want then read on.
There are three types of toys that this program offers:
- Dynamic wallpaper (“collages”): these consist of a backdrops with three “postcards” overlayed on top where PhotoJoy will randomly shuffle pictures from your collection.
Photo widgets (which it calls Photo Toys): reminiscent of other desktop widget engines (e.g. Klipfolio or Vista’s built in widgets). There are 5 variations on this in the version I tested that feature animation and interesting transitions (see screenshot to the right). The downside is that these seem to consume too much CPU power, so I would use sparingly and only on powerful PCs (see CONS section below).- Animated Screensavers: I’ve seen screensavers based on images before, but must admit that these are very interesting and the range of different screensavers on offer is impressive (screenshot on top left of this post).
Here’s a list of PROS and CONS:
PROS:
- An excellent range of choices; many “toys” that you can download and use
- The screensavers: very cool and smoothly animated
- The dynamic wallpaper “collages” are generally very interesting
CONS:
- Memory use is approx 40 megs, which is not insignificant. But the more important issue is that this program seems to be constantly using up CPU processing cycles on my PC (about 20%-30%). Upon further investigation I found that it was the widgets (Photo Toys) that were responsible. The other toys were ok in terms of CPU usage. See more on this subject in the “verdict” section below.
- The backgrounds for the dynamic wallpaper tends to be somewhat, erm… cheesy.
Wish list (or how this program can be even better):
- The ability to create custom dynamic wallpaper would be great, such that you would use your favorite image as wallpaper and overlay it with the postcard style changing images.
The verdict: generally a very good, well made program. What’s interesting about PhotoJoy is the range of options that it has on offer; there are dozens of “collages” and screensavers to choose from and most of them are innovative and well done. On the flip side the high CPU usage for the widgets (Photo Toys) was a deal breaker for me, and I quickly removed these. Unless you have a powerful PC or really want the widgets on your desktop I would skip those and stick with just the wallpaper and screensaver options instead (which to me are the more interesting ones anyway).
Demo video:
Version Tested: build 200956
Compatibility: Windows XP or Vista, graphic card with 64 mb of memory
Go to the program home page to download the latest version (approx 621K for the installer, which will then download more files on installation).
Been looking for something like this. Thanks for the post, but I hope it works well. I needed a decent photo screensaver and all I could find was the Google Screensaver and Cozi’s Screensaver.
Good program, but the fact that the installer needs to download more files in order to complete the installation is enough for me to uninstall it. Many nice features though.
This is a pretty neat application.
Does anyone know if the screensaver support dual monitors? I’ve been looking for a decent dual screen screensaver.
Craig: I run dual monitors and use http://bionixwallpaper.com to cycle through a folder of images as backgrounds. I use the free version which I think works well. Set the time interval, how to handle extra large/small images, playlist and other useful features. A bit cheesy interface, but has the functions I need and more. One nagscreen for full version purchase on each system boot, easy to click “no thanks” and thats it.
This app collects personal information and regularly transmits information about your usage of the software. See their privacy link at the bottom of their site.
JpegSaver is one of the best savers that displays your pictures. Can be found at http://www.goat1000.com/jpegsaver.php
Its got tons of features and if you care to tag your images or put them in properly named folders, can reproduce those information on each image as it appears.
Check it out!
I recommend John’s Background Switcher. Version 4 is just release and fully Win7 friendly. http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/
I would recommend John’s Background Switcher. Lots of features including a photo collage and you can set it to run and then exit.
http://www.johnsadventures.com/software/backgroundswitcher/
It works great!
From what I read in the license agreement, this program is adware/spyware.
See for yourself.
“IncrediMail will use certain non-personally identifiable information provided by Users for the following purposes:
To create aggregate, non-personal, demographic reports about the Users of the PhotoJoy.
Provide Users with certain content that may be of interest to that User based on the information the User provides. ”
This is a deal breaker for me. I dont care how fancy it looks.
Please try to warn your subscribers in the future about this stuff.
BTW, this site rocks. I check it almost every day. Thank you for what you are doing.
John’s background switcher should be on the front page
This is a message I have recently sent to Photojoy. Contact me if you have a similiar situation and/or solution.
I have a major problem whereby my computer does not allow me to download Photojoy. I used to use the program, loved it and have not found a better screensaver/wallpaper changer program to date.
One day my computer crashed. When I got it back online I found that I could not reload Photojoy. I received an error message that flashes so quickly I can’t even read it. I have tried to search the forums and internet, for months, to try to find an answer. I have even hired a computer professional to try to help me get Photojoy back (of course he serviced other concerns).
I have wrote to you many times before with this same problem. You keep on telling me that Photojoy is not supported by Incredimail and does not have technical support, however, there must be somewhere you can direct me or someone who can help me with this frustrating problem. Why are you turning your face on a dedicated Incredimail Premium customer? I’m sure something can be done!
Please . . . . someone please help me find a cure for this. My next step is to take this matter publicly.
Had same problem as Don Sedio. Checked files in Data against those in a second (Vista) computer where Photojoy was working. They should be seen as Neo Content but were coming up as NSK and NWP files on my computer (now W7 RTM Pro, was W7 RC Ultimate). Did a bit of searching for file conversion/correction, but rather than convert all the files, unloaded Photojoy, installed Magentic ( its earlier version, also from Incredimail) then tried Photojoy again. This time it installed, though it still seems to be not integrating properly with W7 desktop Personalisation ( which seems to prefer its own offerings over anyone else’s – though I also tried John’s Adventures download suggested above which will work fine – and if Photojoy still does not play ball properly, I will go back to).
Hope this moves us all forward …..
Aha! (Yes I stll say that sometimes)
The files were all correctly visible in the sub-folders in the Data folder ( Program Files >Photojoy)following my first message above but had not been loaded into the program for use. Double-clicking each one that you want installs it ready for use/ downloading (I’m not into cute animals so I missed some out)
Right – I have my desktop back, phototoys are working and screensavers too.
Still cannot click and select the different categories in the left-hand pane; I suspect that if I keep trying everything in the bin and data folders, one will make this pane start working properly.
Phew! ( and I say that too!!)
I installed this prog which was working fine for a while. Now, when I go to http://www.photojoy.com and try to import any sample (collages, photo toys, screensavers), it opens another page which says “PowerJoy is not installed in your computer…. ” and asks me to down load and install the program.
I did that and reinstalled, but to no avail. I also deleted all cookies and temporary files, and restarted the computer, and yet the same problem.
Can anyone pls help?
I sent several messages to “Contact’, but they have not responded to even one. While the program is really nice, it doesn’t give a good feeling about the company.
When responding, could you plase send a copy to me: drvajra@gmail.com