If you're anything like me, you get bored of your desktop wallpaper very quickly. And like me, you'll be interested in testing tools like Wallpapers from MSN.

This app is a complete wallpaper manager that includes a collection of more than 50 images you can use as desktop background right away. You can also add you own photos to the Wallpapers from MSN collection and comfortably browse through them thanks to a thumbnail list and a small preview window.

What makes Wallpapers from MSN different from other similar applications is the fact that you can add special effects to the images. By "special effects" I mean you can add clipart on top of the image, insert a line or two of text and, of course, crop, resize and adapt the image to make it fit your computer monitor.

On the downside, there's no clear indication if you'll be able to download more wallpapers apart from the ones that come already bundled with the program. Also, Wallpapers from MSN is certainly a bit too heavy on resources to have it permanently running in the background – a requisite if you want it to cycle through your wallpapers automatically.

If you're a wallpaper collector, Wallpapers from MSN is made for you: a wallpaper manager that includes more than 50 images and also lets you edit them.

Download Wallpapers from MSN Beta in Softonic

Wallpaper Master offers a number of options to renew your desktop background image. Create categories to organize your wallpapers and order your different images in a list on the interface. Individual Overrides, like style, alignment or border can be modified directly from the program window. Images can also be set up on multiple monitors in one click.

Despite a good deal of options, we were slightly disappointed with Wallpaper Master. There's no drag and drop, which means you have to browse and select all the pictures you want to use as wallpapers. The effects you can add to them, mirror, black and white and mosaic, are fairly limited and do not add much to your images.

Once you chosen the image you'll use as wallpapers and set up the rotation you can let Wallpaper Master take care of the rest. The program could be a bit more intuitive and offer more effects, but on the whole is a good piece of software to manage your wallpapers.

Download Wallpaper Master Pro 2.16 in Softonic

Do you get bored frequently of your desktop background or wallpaper? If variety is your thing - and they say variety is the spice of life - then this might be for you.

Any Wallpaper works by allowing you to set up a list of folders containing your favorite images that the program will rotate through on your desktop. Any Wallpaper lets you change the background when you decide, every set number of hours or minutes or at a random timescale of your choosing. The program isn't very flexible in terms of the formats it supports but it does handle BMP, JPEG and PNG files. It can automatically search wallpaper folders (including subfolders), search through random or sequential selections of wallpapers and add a wallpaper change on Windows startup. The program also offers additional wallpaper positions that allow you to fit backgrounds horizontally and vertically but it also auto detects the best size and position according to your screen size.

A very useful little program for all those that get bored with same old desktop background every day but needs to support more formats.

Download Any Wallpaper 1.1.1 in Softonic

UltraMon is a utility for multi-monitor systems, designed to increase productivity and unlock the full potential of multiple monitors.

Features:

• Efficiently move windows and maximize windows across the desktop
• Manage more applications with the Smart Taskbar
• Control application positioning with UltraMon Shortcuts
• Multi-monitor support for desktop wallpapers and screen savers
• Mirror your main monitor to secondary monitors for a presentation

Download UltraMon 3.0.3 Beta in Softonic

PicPerk is an image viewer and editor that supports most common graphic formats, including JPEG, GIF, TIFF, BMP, PCX, WMF, and TGA. The application enables you to open a specific image file and also enables you to open a folder and easily view and edit it. Along with the usual assortment of file operations, such as convert, copy, move, rename, delete, and print, PicPerk features thumbnails and full-screen viewing, zoom functions, and 33 image-edition effects, including crop, resize, and red-eye removal. In addition, PicPerk features tools to display slide shows, to set and remove the desktop wallpaper, and to associate file types with it.

Download PicPerk 7.0 in Softonic

There are many programs that can automatically refresh your desktop wallpaper but an increasing number are turning to Flickr to do so.

Fleace is one of the most discreet because it simply runs automatically at your system startup then terminates. Most other wallpaper changers minimize to the System Tray which can hog your RAM or use valuable resources but not Fleace.

Fleace chooses images at random based on Flickr tags that you specify, and usually it throws up some pretty interesting results. However, it can also display some real rubbish and occasionally, retrieval of the images can use up system resources, if only for a moment anyway. However, it does give you a preview Windows so you can choose whether to accept an image before it's used on your desktop.

Fleace is a really useful desktop wallpaper changer than takes advantage of the huge Flickr database without taking advantage of your system resources.

Download Fleace 0.2 in Softonic

EarthView is a dynamic desktop wallpaper and screensaver, which displays beautiful views of the earth with daylight and night shadows. It produces colorful, high quality, high resolution images for every screen resolution - even beyond 1600x1200. The program supports map and globe views, urban areas, city lights, atmospheric effects, clouds, local time display and much more.

EarthView supports different maps that show our planet earth in different ways, like photographic or artistic. Many options allow total customization of all view parameters. EarthView has won many awards for its absolutely breathtaking images.

Main features:

• High detail view of the earth
• Day and night view
• Atmospheric effects
• Urban areas and city lights
• Clouds (internet download possible)
• Map and globe projection
• Several beautiful maps to choose from
• Location and local time of more than 3000 cities worldwide
• Wallpaper and screen saver support
• Multiple monitor support
• Many options for full customization

Download EarthView 3.9.2 in Softonic

If you work with two monitors you probably have some trouble with finding the right wallpapers for them and also with managing both of them properly.

With DisplayFusion these problems will be over. This neat tool makes double monitor handling much easier by providing you with a single interface where you can select new background images for your two screens, adjust the way they appear on the monitor and even look for more wallpapers on the web thanks to its Flickr integration.

DisplayFusion is very easy to use because it displays the wallpapers just as they'll appear on the actual monitors. Also, there's a wide array of options to adjust the photo size, position and aspect ratio. The program features a wallpaper timer as well, with which you can schedule an automatic wallpaper rotation – but unfortunately this only works in the Pro version.

One last tip: if you'd like to have more dual wallpapers to use in your two-monitor installation, have a look at Dual Screen Wallpapers, a wallpaper website specializing in widescreen images for two – or even more - monitors.

With DisplayFusion you can easily manage and customize wallpapers in two or more monitors, but if you want more extended functionality you'll have to switch to the Pro version.

Download DisplayFusion 2.1.1 in Softonic

Vista Manager is a powerful software tool to tweak, optimize, maintain and tune up your Windows Vista, it bundles more than 20 different utilities in one. It will help your system to be stable, fast, secure and personal.

Information

Get detailed system and all hardware information on your system; show all detailed information of running processes and threads on your machine; Vista Manager offers 1-clicking and cleans your system automatically.

Optimizer

Tweak your system to improve windows startup and shutdown speed; tweak your hardware to increase system speed and performance.

Cleaner

Find out which files or folders engross your disk space and shown with chart; Find and clean junk files to increase Hard Disk space; Duplicate Files Finder can scan your computer for files with the same size, name and modification time; Registry Cleaner can easily checks your registry and repair incorrectly linked registry entries, automatically remove invalid entries; Registry Defrag rebuilds and re-indexs your registry to reduce application response time and registry access time.

Customization

Control what is started on Windows startup; edit context menus of mouse Right-Clicking; customize system desktop, menus, toolbar and notifications settings; automatically change your desktop wallpaper on background.

Security

You can improve desktop, menus, Windows logon securities, and enable numerous hidden performance options of system, disable system updates and error reports; hide and restrict to access drives, specify which applications are not allowed to be executed on your computer; encrypt/decrypt and shred files, change the location of system folders; Privacy Protector can maintain your personal privacy by eliminating the tracks that you leave behind; create lots of randomization password once.

Network

Optimize your Internet connection speed, manage all shares items; tweak your Internet Explorer easily.

Download Vista Manager 1.5.6 in Softonic

Do you get bored of your background wallpaper? John's Background Switcher periodically changes the background image on your computer to ensure it's always looking fresh.

John's Background Switcher allows you to configure when you want to change the background (such as every hour or every day) and you can specify which pictures to use in a number of ways. For example, one way is to select a list of specific pictures on your computer. Alternatively, you can direct John's Background Switcher to point at a particular folder such as 'My Pictures' and it will select random pictures from there.

It doesn't stop there though. John's Background Switcher also allows you to use Flickr to choose pictures by person, tags, sets or just randomly. There are several options that allow you to customize the look of images, such as by narrowing down the pictures or increasing the quality of those chosen.

John's Background Switcher is a simple but effective way to choose different backgrounds from a huge range of sources.

Download John's Background Switcher 3.5 in Softonic

These days there are so many more things you can do with your photographs than just putting them in albums, which are then stored in the loft. Software such as Microsoft AutoCollage allows you to get more creative with your images.

It may look very simple when you first launch the application, but actually, a lot of research and development has gone into Microsoft AutoCollage. The project is an advanced computer vision and imaging program that gathers a selection of your photos and knits them together seamlessly to produce eye-catching collages.

The level of automation in Microsoft AutoCollage means that you don't really have to lift a finger. You just select the folder you want the program to collect the photos from, choose how many images you want incorporated into the collage using the slider, then click 'Create'. You can then save, email or even set the picture as your background wallpaper, directly from within AutoCollage.

The technology in Microsoft AutoCollage is certainly very impressive, particularly the face detection element, which automatically picks out peoples heads, allowing you to draw attention to these. If anything though, I felt AutoCollage was a little too hands-off as there are no real image editing tools for you to refine your collages yourself, or add text, frames, etc. What's more, there were a few bugs that cropped up in testing, such as when setting the image as a desktop in XP.

Microsoft AutoCollage is a powerful collage-rendering tool, it's just a shame it doesn't give you more control over the finished output.

Download Microsoft AutoCollage 2008 1.0.2008.0716 in Softonic

Sometimes having just one single desktop image is not enough. This is the right moment to use Desktop Takeover.

Desktop Takeover enables you to display several photos on your desktop, embedding them right onto your current wallpaper. Simply select the images from any folder on your PC and drag and drop them on the program's interface.

You can then arrange and resize them as you like, though I must say the resizing tool doesn't work very well. The final result obviously looks better when displayed over a neutral image, rather than a highly detailed wallpaper.

The images used in Desktop Takeover can be either static or turned into channels, which means they rotate according to a user-defined period of time. It's a nice way to show off your best shots, don't you think? Also, whenever you grow tired of your multiple-photo desktop background, you can go back to the regular wallpaper from the program itself. Strangely enough, the wallpaper appears then as tiled.

If you ever wanted to be able to use more than one wallpaper on your desktop, you should definitely give Desktop Takeover a try.

Download Desktop Takeover 1.0 in Softonic

Getting copyright free desktop wallpaper is sometimes not easy, with those available often having time limits or requiring fees for permanent use.

TyphoonWallpaper, however, is a free tool that offers access to hundreds of high resolution wallpaper images. TyphoonWallpaper allows you to select a range of images that it will later cycle through automatically while you are using your PC so that you'll always have a fresh desktop.

What's particularly nice about TyphoonWallpaper is the fact that the images are not only incredibly high definition but it also supports dual monitors meaning you can have alternative desktops on different monitors attached to your PC. This even extends to three monitors connected - great for video editors. The wallpapers don't contain adware although they do feature links to try and lure you to buy more products from the developers but it's a small price to pay for some great images.

There might not be many images to choose from when compared to other desktop wallpaper sites but TyphoonWallpaper offers great images on as many monitors as you need to cover.

Download TyphoonWallpaper 1.00 in Softonic

If you get easily bored of your desktop or your desktop background, Dream Wallpaper is a free and easy-to-use solution that changes your computer desktop wallpaper.

With Dream Wallpaper, the developer has left 80,000 high-quality free wallpapers at your disposal, ranging on themes from Movies to Stars, Nature, Cartoons, Art, Animal and Games. Dream Wallpaper automatically cycles through your wallpaper too, so that you have a different image every day if you want.

Alternatively, if you don't like the selection on offer at the developer website, you can use your own images and Dream Wallpaper will cycle through the wallpapers automatically. The selection of images on the developer website is truly outstanding including high-quality images and even widescreen options. However, there don't seem to be many tweaks that you can perform such as adding fade-in and fade outs to changes but this is no big drawback.

Dream Wallpaper is an excellent solution for those that can't be bothered changing their wallpaper manually and want something that spices up their desktop a bit.

Download Dream Wallpaper 1.2 in Softonic

If you're a Windows Vista user you'll no doubt be enjoying all those cool sidebar gadgets. But if you don't you can always make do with tools like Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

With Thoosje Vista Sidebar you can have a completely customizable gadgets sidebar on your desktop even if you have Windows XP. Simply run it and start adding any gadget you want by clicking on the little cross button on the top. The gadgets are quite varied and cover different needs: from the PC resources meter to the photo slideshow, from the RSS mini-reader to the weather gadget. Bear in mind that when you select gadgets for Thoosje Vista Sidebar they appear on your desktop – not on the sidebar itself – and you have to manually drag and drop them on Thoosje Vista Sidebar.

Once ready and customized with all your chosen gadgets, Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks really beautiful on your desktop. Plus, it includes some background skins to make it fit perfectly with the image you have as wallpaper. The downside to this graphical beauty is that it may slow down your system. Also, Thoosje Vista Sidebar seems to be a bit slow when opening menu windows. But the main drawback is undoubtedly the fact that you can't download new gadgets – you must stick to the ones the author provides you with in the program's configuration.

Thoosje Vista Sidebar looks beautiful on your desktop, but it may slow down your system. Also, not being able to download new gadgets is really frustrating.

Download Thoosje Vista Sidebar 2.5 in Softonic

Photo Collage is a full featured, easy-to-use application with which you can create beautiful photo compositions in no time. No technical skills required!

The program contains just about anything you need you create the collage – that is, everything except images themselves. The featured material includes background images, frames, clipart, borders and masks, all of them is such a large and colorful variety that you'll find it hard to choose just one. Besides, the program is extraordinarily easy to use: simply drag and drop the different elements of your collage on the interface, resize and rearrange them any way you want with your mouse and you're pretty much done. It's like scrapbooking, but without scissors and glue.

The only drawback I found to this great app is the fact that some frames don’t blend with the background properly, meaning they show a white border around the frame instead of being transparent. Also, I'd like to be able to save my work in other formats (HTML, EXE) rather than just as an image file, but at least I have a few graphic formats to choose from.

Photo Collage enables you to create amazing collages with your digital pictures, but only save them as image files.

Download iFoxSoft Photo Collage 2.06 in Softonic

If you have a large collection of wallpapers but can't be bothered to change it, Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer is the tool you need.

Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer has no complicated options or configuration settings. In fact, it doesn't even have a graphical interface. To use it, all you have to do is copy the Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer EXE file into your photo directory and double click on it. The desktop wallpaper will be immediately updated with one of the images in that folder.

Having no configuration menu, you'll be wondering how you can set Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer to run automatically and change the wallpaper every time you start Windows. In that case, simply create a shortcut to the EXE file and place it in the Startup menu and you'll get a new paper every time Windows launches.

Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer is probably the easiest way to load a new wallpaper automatically, though in my opinion it lacks some basic functions like the possibility to schedule wallpaper changing according to a certain period of time.

If you're searching for a dead simple wallpaper changing tool, look no further: Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer is your app.

Download Craig's Random Wallpaper Changer 1.0.0 in Softonic

I grow tired of wallpapers fairly quickly. This is why I was glad to find an app like Bee Wallpapers, with which I can enjoy fresh, new wallpapers every day.

Bee Wallpapers is a handy wallpaper manager than can be scheduled to randomize background images on your Windows desktop according to different time periods, from just a few seconds to a whole day.

Simply add your favorite photos to the program's list and let Bee Wallpapers do the rest. Photos can be conveniently classified into customizable categories and also assigned different positions (centered, tiled or stretched).

Besides wallpaper managing, Bee Wallpapers still has an ace up its sleeve. The program lets you download new wallpapers from online galleries and add them to your personal wallpaper list. Bee Wallpapers offers quite a varied array of images classified by topics, though you'll have to cope with a small watermark if you want to use them.

If you're a wallpaper junkie, Bee Wallpapers is the perfect program for you: a wallpaper manager that can also access online galleries with downloadable background images.

Download Bee Wallpapers 1.2 in Softonic

The simplest way to breathe new life into your desktop is to give it a decent wallpaper but even a static paper can get boring after a while.

Adolix Wallpaper Changer is a free tool which helps configure your desktop wallpaper easily to change automatically. You can use any image as long as it's in JPG, GIF, PNG or BMP format. Adolix Wallpaper Changer comes with a simple and intuitive control panel to customize your desktop wallpaper allowing you to change the size, position, transition style and other little tweaks.

The Adolix Wallpaper Changer control panel itself is user friendly and there's not much to it. One particularly useful feature in Adolix Wallpaper Changer is a "playlist" editor which allows you to create playlists for your wallpapers in much the same way as you would for a music application. This is great depending on your mood or who is using the computer allowing you to set up different profiles for each. The time period of changes in Adolix Wallpaper Changer is entirely up to you and you can add a few snazzy background images for your photos. In Adolix Wallpaper Changer, everything can also be controlled from a system tray icon rather than having to go through your control panel.

A free and easy way to freshen up your desktop, Animate Adolix Wallpaper Changer will make the best of your photo collection.

Download Adolix Wallpaper Changer 2.2 in Softonic

If you often run out of space on your desktop due to the amount of apps opened at the same time, maybe you should consider moving on to a panoramic desktop.

This is precisely what you can have with 360desktop: a full panoramic, 360º desktop where you can freely move around and which increases the available space by twice or three times.

Simply launch the program and you'll automatically see it action. To move along the panorama, simply drag the slider on the top right corner of your desktop and when you reach the end, you'll start on the other side again. This top menu also shows a thumbnailed view of the whole panoramic desktop, which comes in very handy to locate windows and apps. In any case, it would be much more comfortable if you could just grab the desktop with your mouse and drag it to the left or the right side.

I personally think 360desktop is a good idea to enlarge desktop space. On the downside, I didn't like the fact that you can't use your own wallpapers: you must stick to 360desktop compatible background images, which are quite scarce now, and there's no way to create your own wallpapers though apparently they're working on an authoring platform.

With 360desktop you can increase your desktop space a lot, but you have to give up on customization options like having your own wallpapers.

Download 360desktop in Softonic