[SharmanNet]

The daily homepage photos of Bing search engine are pretty cool. Those images now have a new use. Windows 7 can download and set new wallpapers via a RSS feed so now you can get a Bing powered desktop slideshow in Windows 7 easily.

Copy the code below and create a live daily updating bing theme. Just paste it in notepad and save it as "Bing.theme"

[[Theme]
DisplayName=Bing
[Slideshow]
Interval=1800000
Shuffle=1
RssFeed=http://feeds.feedburner.com/bingimages
[Control Panel\Desktop]
TileWallpaper=0
WallpaperStyle=0
Pattern=
[Control Panel\Cursors]
AppStarting=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_working.ani
Arrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_arrow.cur
Crosshair=
Hand=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_link.cur
Help=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_helpsel.cur
IBeam=
No=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_unavail.cur
NWPen=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_pen.cur
SizeAll=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_move.cur
SizeNESW=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nesw.cur
SizeNS=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ns.cur
SizeNWSE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_nwse.cur
SizeWE=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_ew.cur
UpArrow=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_up.cur
Wait=%SystemRoot%\cursors\aero_busy.ani
DefaultValue=Windows Aero
Link=
[VisualStyles]
Path=%SystemRoot%\resources\themes\Aero\Aero.msstyles
ColorStyle=NormalColor
Size=NormalSize
ColorizationColor=0X6B74B8FC
Transparency=1
[MasterThemeSelector]
MTSM=DABJDKT

After saving the file, double click on it and select "download attachments" in the pop-up window.

Now enjoy the live Bing slideshow. Select the "Fit" option in the desktop background settings to make sure the photos look their best.

Thanks to Long Zheng for the Bing Image Archive and Makeuseof for making it possible.

[CommonSense]

Wow that's awesome! Thanks for the share!

[shivaram]

actually this i found in abhi's facebook. wanted to share this. any how thanks for the info.

Additional Check

Quote

Depending upon the speed of your internet connection and other variables, it might take time for Windows to download the images. You might need to do these steps if you’ve not used Internet Explorer in Windows 7 too much. In any case, it is a good idea to double-check that the feed is set up correctly.
Start Internet Explorer, go to Tools->Explorer Bars->Feeds or press Ctrl-Shift-J. If you have activated the Bing theme, you should see the Feed URL already added. Click on the feed, so that Internet Explorer loads the feed page on the right.

If you see the following message:


Now you should see images downloaded from the feed. If you wish, you can view the feed properties by clicking the link on the right.

Remember that the Automatically download attached files box should be checked. You can click View Files to see the downloaded images.
Finally, sometimes the theme does not change images even though they are downloaded. Simply right-click on the desktop, select Next desktop background. A logout/login also forces a refresh of the theme.
More Cool Wallpaper Feeds
For the RSS powered desktop slideshow to work in Windows 7, the RSS feed needs to have images in an enclosure item. Thus, for example, Deviant Art feeds did not work at the time of this writing. But you can enjoy Flickr feeds! Simply replace RSSFeed= with the URL of your choice and set DisplayName= with whatever you like in the theme file you created in Notepad. You can set your own favorite feed in Flickr, or here are a few you might want to check out:
Flickr Wallpapers 1024×768: http://api.flickr.co...&format=rss_200
Flickr Wallpapers 1200×800: http://api.flickr.co...&format=rss_200
Flickr Wallpapers 1680×1050: http://api.flickr.co...&format=rss_200

This post has been edited by shivaram: 06 August 2009 - 04:49 PM

[Ultimate John]

I saw the Bing Image Archive a few days ago but didn't know about such a wonderful use of it.

[Secured Tim]

Thanks for the guide.

[pm_41]

Nice! Wish the images were higher resolution, though...

[PurplePeopleEater]

Thats awesome, when I install the RTM version I will do this,

[FalseAgent]

the Bing images are really nice.

[Liskiller]

958px512 images look blurry on my 1680x1050 resolution.