semkiv / set-bing-wallpaper

Script that sets the GNOME desktop wallpaper to Bing picture of the day

set-bing-wallpaper

These are simple scripts that download Bing picture of the day and set it the desktop wallpaper. Download and storing options are set through command line arguments.

Linux

The Linux script was originally inspired by this post, set-bing-wallpaper.sh, was written for GNOME desktop environment and was tested exclusively in that environment. It might work with other DEs, but I can by no means guarantee that and, honestly, most likely it won't. However you're welcome to explore the source of the script and modify it accordingly.

The script relies on cURL in working with Bing servers. It is often shipped with most Linux distributions so chances that you already have it are pretty high.

The downloading and storing options can be controlled via command line arguments. Below are the available options:

• -m determines which Bing market you would like to obtain images from. Available options are: auto (selected automatically by Bing), ar-XA (Arabic - Arabia), bg-BG (Bulgarian - Bulgaria), cs-CZ (Czech - Czech Republic), da-DK (Danish - Denmark), de-AT (German - Austria), de-CH (German - Switzerland), de-DE (German - Germany), el-GR (Greek - Greece), en-AU (English - Australia), en-CA (English - Canada), en-GB (English - United Kingdom), en-ID (English - Indonesia), en-IE (English - Ireland), en-IN (English - India), en-MY (English - Malaysia), en-NZ (English - New Zealand), en-PH (English - Philippines), en-SG (English - Singapore), en-US (English - United States), en-WW (English - International), en-XA (English - Arabia), en-ZA (English - South Africa), es-AR (Spanish - Argentina), es-CL (Spanish - Chile), es-ES (Spanish - Spain), es-MX (Spanish - Mexico), es-US (Spanish - United States), es-XL (Spanish - Latin America), et-EE (Estonian - Estonia), fi-FI (Finnish - Finland), fr-BE (French - Belgium), fr-CA (French - Canada), fr-CH (French - Switzerland), fr-FR (French - France), he-IL (Hebrew - Israel), hr-HR (Croatian - Croatia), hu-HU (Hungarian - Hungary), it-IT (Italian - Italy), ja-JP (Japanese - Japan), ko-KR (Korean - Korea), lt-LT (Lithuanian - Lithuania), lv-LV (Latvian - Latvia), nb-NO (Norwegian - Norway), nl-BE (Dutch - Belgium), nl-NL (Dutch - Netherlands), pl-PL (Polish - Poland), pt-BR (Portuguese - Brazil), pt-PT (Portuguese - Portugal), ro-RO (Romanian - Romania), ru-RU (Russian - Russia), sk-SK (Slovak - Slovak Republic), sl-SL (Slovenian - Slovenia), sv-SE (Swedish - Sweden), th-TH (Thai - Thailand), tr-TR (Turkish - Turkey), uk-UA (Ukrainian - Ukraine), zh-CN (Chinese - China), zh-HK (Chinese - Hong Kong SAR), zh-TW (Chinese - Taiwan). auto by default.

• -n determines the day to fetch the wallpaper of. N days ago, 0 is today, 1 - yesterday, 2 - the day before yesterday and so on; 6 is the highest possible value. 0 by default.

• -r determines the resolution of the downloaded image. Available options are: UHD, 1920x1200, 1920x1080, 1366x768, 1280x720, 1024x768. UHD by default.

• -d determines the location to save the picture to. XDG_PICTURES_DIR by default.

• -f determines fit options for the wallpaper. Available options are: centered, none, scaled, spanned, stretched, wallpaper, zoom. zoom by default.

• -h shows help message.

You might want to run this script regularly. One way to do so is setting up a systemd service and timer. Create files set-bing-wallpaper.service and set-bing-wallpaper.timer (you can name them differently if you wish so) with the content shown below (feel free to set the options that suit your needs; see more about systemd timers) under ~/.config/systemd/user/.

• set-bing-wallpaper.service

  [Unit]
  Description = "Download Bing daily background image and set it as desktop background"
  Wants = gnome-session.target network-online.target
  After = gnome-session.target network-online.target
  
  [Service]
  Type = oneshot
  # do not forget to set the correct path to the script; specify command line options if you need
  ExecStart = "/home/linuxuser/.set-bing-wallpaper.sh"
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy = default.target
  

• set-bing-wallpaper.timer

  [Unit]
  Description = "Download Bing daily background image and set it as desktop background daily at 13:00"
  
  [Timer]
  OnCalendar = 13:00
  Persistent = true
  Unit = set-bing-wallpaper.service
  
  [Install]
  WantedBy = timers.target
  

Then enable the service and the timer:

systemctl --user enable set-bing-wallpaper.service
systemctl --user enable set-bing-wallpaper.timer

Finally run the timer

systemctl --user start set-bing-wallpaper.timer

Windows

The Windows version, Set-BingWallpaper.ps1 is basically set-bing-wallpaper.sh ported to PowerShell. Now the big problem with PowerShell is that Windows does not allow PowerShell scripts are not allowed to run unless they're signed. This one is not signed. Luckily Microsoft has prepared a great article about how to deal with this.

Just as with the Linux version of the script the downloading and storing options can be controlled via command line arguments, though the option names are different. Below are the available options:

• -Market determines which Bing market you would like to obtain images from. It's the equivalent of -m option of the Linux version. Available options are the same.

• -DaysAgo determines the day to fetch the wallpaper of. It's the equivalent of -n option of the Linux version. Available options are the same.

• -Resolution determines the resolution of the downloaded image. It's the equivalent of -r option of the Linux version. Available options are the same.

• -SaveTo determines the location to save the picture to. It's the equivalent of -d option of the Linux version. %USERPROFILE%\Pictures by default.

• -Style determines fit options for the wallpaper. It's the equivalent of -f option of the Linux version. Available options are: Center, Fill, Fit, Span, Stretch, Tile. Fill by default.

To get help use PowerShell Get-Help cmdlet:

Get-Help -Name .\Set-BingWallpaper.ps1

You can use Task Scheduler to make the script run regularly. Create a task with a "Start a Program" Action. Set "Program/script" field to powershell.exe and "Add arguments (optional)" field to -WindowStyle hidden -NoLogo -NonInteractive -File "C:\Path\To\Your\Set-BingWallpaper.ps1". See here about powershell.exe command line options. If you need to pass some arguments to the script you can append them in this field, for example -WindowStyle hidden -NoLogo -NonInteractive -File "C:\Path\To\Your\Set-BingWallpaper.ps1" -Market en-WW -DaysAgo 2 -Resolution 1920x1080. Learn more about creating tasks in Task Scheduler here.