38 replies to this topic

[homes32]

BGInfo automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop's background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more.


Script Features:

• You can change all the info displayed from within the script!
• You can change the startup mode. (Wallpaper/popup/system tray/manual)
• Set BGInfo to automatically refresh every nn:00 minutes.
• Change the refresh rate on-the-fly
• Refresh now option
• Exit and erase background info
• Auto download newest version.

Confirmed working with:

• VistaPE
• LiveXP
• Win7RescuePE (personalization must be enabled. see paraglider's post)
• Win7PE_SE

Known issues:

• The startup countdown and auto refresh don't work correctly when running in qEmu. this seems to be an issue with CPU freq/chipset in qEmu's hardware emulation.
• Also showing the IP address will not work on win7 x64. this is a known issue with BGInfo.exe

enjoy!

-homes32



Download Here: BGInfo




Changes in v7

• lots of fixes for x64 support
• new tray menu in refresh mode allows manual refresh, change refresh rate on-the-fly, exit and erase background info
• fixed in some cases refresh was not working correctly
• will now wait until penetwork.exe/penetcfg.exe have terminated or 1 minute has elapsed before running BGInfo so IP information can be retreived.

full version history

[Brito]

Thank you.

This is a very handy program to keep around when you're working with too many computers and need to know it's details quickly.

Here's a small screenshot:

[MedEvil]

Unfortunately not as good as i thought.
The script does not feature an interface to set the options, but simply starts BGInfo.exe.

[homes32]

Unfortunately not as good as i thought.
The script does not feature an interface to set the options, but simply starts BGInfo.exe.

true.
no sense in reinventing the wheel. there are far to many possible options to do that. all changes made are automatically saved to a .bgi and applied to your PE in that manner. I do however keep BgInfo from applying itself to your host machine on exit though!

[MedEvil]

I do however keep BgInfo from applying itself to your host machine on exit though!

That's a nice touch!

[MedEvil]

A little thing worth improving.
The Customize button only works after the script has run at least once. (to download the needed file)

[Lancelot]

Hi homes32

LiveXP test with xpsp3enu source:
can you add a refresh screen for second usage . Screen not refreshed with LiveXP causing text overwrites other text wrongly (current picture reason is font size change, best solution seems refresh screen).
http://img195.images.../850/snap1g.gif

some quotes maybe nice
Echo,"Processing %ProgramTitle%..."
ShellExecute,Hide,#$q%Tools%\7z.exe#$q,"x -y #$q%GlobalTemplates%\%ProgramFolder%\BgInfo.zip#$q -o#$q%GlobalTemplates%\%ProgramFolder%\#$q"

Good night

[homes32]

A little thing worth improving.
The Customize button only works after the script has run at least once. (to download the needed file)

fixed in new version. (RunBgInfo.exe was not being extracted from script)

@Lancelot
I will do some testing and see what I come up with.

[risolutore]

the main con of this apps is that it doeasn't work in real time, it simply "freezes" the initial condition of the PC but if you change the amount of disk during the execution it doesn't report it (
on UBCD4win there was another app, also configurable, but BGInfo is only one file

[homes32]

the main con of this apps is that it doeasn't work in real time, it simply "freezes" the initial condition of the PC but if you change the amount of disk during the execution it doesn't report it (
on UBCD4win there was another app, also configurable, but BGInfo is only one file

yep them be the cons. the closest you are going to get to real time is using taskbar mode. on the up side though it doesn't use up resources!

for the most part I use it in a lab/repair setting for showing some basics that I would otherwise have to hunt for.

I think the program you are talking about is coolmon; which works ok but is a pain to configure.

[risolutore]

Yes it was coolmon, but I prefer the something like "Conky", which is a light-weight system monitor for Linux

[jwhitlow]

The script is working great for me, but BGInfo itself not so much. I cannot get it to display the IP information in Live XP.

I have confirmed that I have an IP address and am able to connect to the Internet and network resources. I also switched back to the regular wallpaper and re-ran it to see if it just started before the network card was online, but it still shows empty IP information.

[homes32]

The script is working great for me, but BGInfo itself not so much. I cannot get it to display the IP information in Live XP.

I have confirmed that I have an IP address and am able to connect to the Internet and network resources. I also switched back to the regular wallpaper and re-ran it to see if it just started before the network card was online, but it still shows empty IP information.

are you using background mode? if so it could be that BgInfo is loading before your IP address is assigned, and as the background display is static it will show empty IP.

I suppose I could add in a scheduler to rescan and update every N:NN. I'll look into that.

[jwhitlow]

are you using background mode? if so it could be that BgInfo is loading before your IP address is assigned, and as the background display is static it will show empty IP.

I suppose I could add in a scheduler to rescan and update every N:NN. I'll look into that.

I am thinking it might be something with BGInfo inside of Live XP (or at least my version). After confirming that I had an IP address, I re-ran BGInfo and it still came up blank for the IP information.

[homes32]

I am thinking it might be something with BGInfo inside of Live XP (or at least my version). After confirming that I had an IP address, I re-ran BGInfo and it still came up blank for the IP information.

updated!
added option to auto refresh info! see 1st post.

still can't get Bginfo to show ip info in LiveXP. It seems to be BgInfo's fault. I'll keep working on it.

[Lancelot]

Hi homes32,

Here is my small test report .

**
after a loooong chase with LiveXP, I found another thing about BGInfo.

No problem When I use source xpsp2enu without autokeyboard.

When I use source xpsp2enu with autokeyboard (which sets TurkishQ keyboard) BGInfo dont work properly.
http://img195.images...196/snap1vo.jpg
Nls configuration need to be fixed with the keyboard setting! (I have a manual script that fixes for turkishQ and than bginfo works)

This is not your script's fault. Currently LiveXP project dont have a nls fix script default. This enhancement wait fxscrpt fix to default LiveXP project. (away for a while). Or an option on Autokeyboard required !. Just informing my finding

**
Start up of BGInfo is fine
http://img44.imagesh...nfo1initial.jpg
when i run RunBGInfo.exe 2nd time I get bg info screen
http://img35.imagesh...92/bginfo1b.jpg
after closing bg info screen when i run RunBGInfo.exe 3rd time I get this
http://img200.images...2secondtime.jpg

nothing serious, just informing

**
small thing, we dont use (blank for none) anymore, because now capi puts shorcuts to relevant folder when none.
pTextBox1="Start menu folder (blank for none):",1,0,41,106,175,20,System
====>
pTextBox1="Start menu folder:",1,0,41,106,175,20,System

[homes32]

Start up of BGInfo is fine
http://img44.imagesh...nfo1initial.jpg
when i run RunBGInfo.exe 2nd time I get bg info screen
http://img35.imagesh...92/bginfo1b.jpg
after closing bg info screen when i run RunBGInfo.exe 3rd time I get this
http://img200.images...2secondtime.jpg

thanks for the good feedback. can you give me as step by step on this problem. Ie. where you are running RunBgInfo from? can you tell me the version # of RunBgInfo.exe? thanks.

-homes32

[Lancelot]

ups sorry, yes you are right.

on my previous report I used shortcut at system first, than used shortcut at startup (accidentally). Sorry for missing report.
version of RunBgInfo is 1.1.0.0

so we should not use startup shortcut manually, it is fine for me

[homes32]

Ok here is what I found.

Start up of BGInfo is fine
http://img44.imagesh...nfo1initial.jpg

when i run RunBGInfo.exe 2nd time I get bg info screen
http://img35.imagesh...92/bginfo1b.jpg

this is intended behavior although I am open to changing it. I originally decided to have it open in popup mode from the Startmenu>system because of the "manual" startup option.

after closing bg info screen when i run RunBGInfo.exe 3rd time I get this
http://img200.images...2secondtime.jpg

ok this one was tricky to figure out but it is caused by SetResolution.exe changing the resolution after BgInfo has run. BgInfo is set to put the info on the upper right corner of the screen (unless you change the default settings) and when the resolution changes the screen position changes. I am open to suggestions on how best to handle this. Any thoughts?

have you had a chance to try the Auto Refresh option yet?

in other news: I fixed the IP address not displaying problem in LiveXP!!!!!!!

[Lancelot]

ok this one was tricky to figure out but it is caused by SetResolution.exe changing the resolution after BgInfo has run.

no, this is not setresolution fault, I tested without it. . As i wrote before no big deal for now
but you are probably right, I guess at initial boot screen resolution is 640x480 and windows thinks 800x600 better which cause 2nd run make the garbled text.

I tested same behavior on my hostos, I started bginfo, change resolution, started bginfo again--> bginfo cleaned previous screen.

in other news: I fixed the IP address not displaying problem in LiveXP!!!!!!!

VERRRY good news

have you had a chance to try the Auto Refresh option yet?

I try to test, but didnt notice a change. I guess i can test better with new ip fixes, so after boot i can start penetwork manually and wait 1 minute

[Lancelot]

I am open to suggestions on how best to handle this. Any thoughts?

Here is one:
I enabled Display Properties script.
after boot I changed background to None
than i use shortcut at startup

everything went fine.

I guess this is also what bginfo does on windows, but for some reason it cant on livexp (having display properties dont fix this bginfo behaviour on livexp).

either sth missing, or maybe you can reproduce same behavior by runBgInfo

[homes32]

Here is one:
I enabled Display Properties script.
after boot I changed background to None
than i use shortcut at startup

everything went fine.

I guess this is also what bginfo does on windows, but for some reason it cant on livexp (having display properties dont fix this bginfo behaviour on livexp).

either sth missing, or maybe you can reproduce same behavior by runBgInfo

yeah I used those sames steps trying to figure out what was going on. got a couple Ideas i'm going to try out.

[was_jaclaz]

As often OT, but not much , and just FYI:
http://www.msfn.org/...top-t99231.html

http://www.samurize.com/
http://web.archive.o...n.org/index.php
http://web.archive.o...me/features.php
http://web.archive.o...n.org/download/


Maybe easier to make them run on a PE.

jaclaz

[Galapo]

What if I were to add the option to SetResolution of deleting and restarting a supplied list of processes? For example, if BgInfo.exe was one such process, then upon resolution change, the process would be killed and then restarted? Would this fix the BgInfo display problem mentioned?

Thanks,
Galapo.

[Lancelot]

Would this fix the BgInfo display problem mentioned?

No,
later it is found that this is not a setresolution issue. Even with same resolution if info change and bginfo executed same issue will happen.

bginfo simply add info to the desktop picture, but on LiveXP forgets to clean previous adding.

I believe what runbginfo.exe simply needs is (homes32 is the author of runbginfo.exe):
1) selecting "display properties-->none"
2) "refresh screen" (==>so it cleans the screen of previous info)
3) run bginfo.exe

I guess bginfo.exe miss step 1 or 2 on LiveXP environment and runbginfo.exe can make a fix that way....