I Want A Millenium Splash Screen!

[kenscanna]

I LOVE the www.milleniumdesktop.co.uk site, and i wan my pc to mimic the Millenium login...how do i go about doing this? do any of you have it on your PC's?

i'm on the final 2 episodes of season 2 now, i'm going to go back and re-watch it after i get through season 3, theres a lot to take in, Millenium is now firmly in my top 5 shows of all time, the other 4 being The Prisoner, Twin Peaks, the X Files and Dark Skies!!!

this is who we are!

[The Old Man]

Hi,

I don't think I've welcomed you aboard yet so firstly let me welcome you to This Is Who We Are. Secondly, I'm so glad you like the millenniumdesktop.co.uk splash screen. Thirdly, Christmas has come early for you!

On the spur of the moment, I've taken at look at the splash page and realised it should be easily convertible to run on your Windows Desktop. I stripped some of the code out and it works great.

The splash screen uses a hidden Flash file for the sound and uses your system clock and date for the countdown. Therefore its possible to use a higher quality drum sound because its not a webpage that needs a quick loadtime and its possible to change the Javascript countdown to suit your needs. Currently it reflects the release date of Millennium Season 2 on Region 1 format.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like on my monitor. As its a 17" 1280x1024 display, the logo is not centered as its designed for a 1024x768 webpage or 800x600 I can't recall! Let me have a play and I'll see if I can improve it. Then you can test it and see if works on your PC! Windows XP Pro is the operating system I'm using, if you are using something different I can't vouch for the results.

I liked the way the Millennium drum sounds when your desktop is ready for use and occasionally Windows XP seems to refresh the desktop resulting in a random drum sound. Could you ask for more? You can also force it to sound by Right Clicking on your desktoip and selecting Refresh.

The proof of the pudding is waiting until tomorrow to see if the clock still works.

Regards,

Graham.

[The Old Man]

Ok, looks like its working great now, at least on my systems!

It now auto centres on any desktop screen resolution.

Who is up for testing it?

I've included a ReadMe! text file which instructs on how to install the active desktop and change the countdown date. The download is a self extracting file, simply download, open it and it will install. Look in installation folder (C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop) for the Read Me!. For convenience I've also included it here:

Welcome to the MDUK Active Desktop.

Available from www.MillenniumDesktop.co.uk

This download simulates the MillenniuM Group Database Log-In Screen of Frank Black

from the Millennium TV Series.

You can customise the number of days remaining very simply, see below.

Installation.

1. Download the file! If you are reading this you probably already have.

The latest version can be found attached to this post.

2. Go to where you saved the file and doubleclick to open the self extractor.

3. By default, it will create a folder on your hard disk at C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop which is easy to find. Simply click on Unzip! The files will be unzipped to C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop. When finished, click Close.

4. Next, Right Click on your Windows Desktop (not an icon) and select Properties, then Desktop.

There may be a slight pause.  Click on Browse.

Go to C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop * (or wherever you unzipped the files to in step 3)

and select the file called MillenniumGroupActiveDesktop.html

Select OPEN.

5. The preview should show a low quality preview image. Now select OK!

You should see the Frank Black's Millennium Group Database Screen!

Its possible the countdown will say 0 days remaining. This means that the chosen date has already passed which means you need to set a new countdown date & time. See below for how to do this.

1. To change the date for the countdown go to the folder on your computer called C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop

2. Right Click and open the file called MillenniumGroupActiveDesktop.html in Notepad or your HTML Editor.

3. Look for the lines that say:

// SET YOUR CHOSEN DATE AND TIME IN THE LINE BELOW!

var dday = new Date("4 January 2005 00:00:00 GMT") ;

Change the time and date to whatever you like. Be careful not to make any other changes although you might want to change the GMT to your local timezone such as EST or CST or similar or remove it.

4. Save and exit. Now go to and repeat Step 4 onwards of the installtion instructions or your desktop will still use its cached version and won't reflect the changed date and time.

* Tip. If you don't know how to get to C:\MDUK MG Active Desktop, simply click on My Computer then Local Disc (C:) then doubleclick to open the MDUK MG Active Desktop folderFinally select the file called MillenniumGroupActiveDesktop.html

Requires:

Windows XP

May work on other operating systems.  

TIWWA Members can download it from here instead. Please make sure you follow the instructions. You can also press F5 on your keyboard to refresh the desktop at any time (triggering the drum MP3 sound).

MDUK_ActiveDesktop.exe

Edited May 31, 2009 by The Old Man
The file has been re-uploaded if anyone requires it.

[The Old Man]

Something I noticed... If you change the countdown date, you must select a different background and use it then switch back to the Millennium file or the cached version that you see on your desktop does not change to reflect the revised date. Simply pressing F5 or Refresh is not enough. Rebooting after changing the date will possibly have the same effect.

[Guest Forza]

Great idea, kenscanna--wecome to the Group! Thanks for working on this, Old Man.

Incidentally, is it possible to have the Welcome message and days remaining appear for a few seconds and then disappear, leaving only a plain ouroboros background?

Also, is there a way to customize the name that appears?

Edited December 10, 2004 by Forza

[Guest Mikal C Johnson KtCym ECA]

Great idea, kenscanna--wecome to the Group! Thanks for working on this, Old Man.

Incidentally, is it possible to have the Welcome message and days remaining appear for a few seconds and then disappear, leaving only a plain ouroboros background?

Also, is there a way to customize the name that appears?

Yes... it's in the code toward the bottom. Just change the name "Frank" to whatever you want. I did it on mine, and it's working great!

I even fiddled with the font a bit:

Edited December 10, 2004 by Mikal C Johnson KtCym ECA

[Guest Allen]

Works great thanks.

[The Old Man]

Yes it seems to work fine for me too. As Calixar pointed out, you can change the name and the font. For the MDUK splash screen I had to use a standard font but running this on your PC means you can use any font you have installed.

Thanks for testing it!

[Raven Wolf]

Wow! Graham, this is wonderful! I'll have to see if I can download it and get it working. Thank you for continuing to feed our addiction!

[The Old Man]

Hi, glad to help. It seems to work fine. I was a bit worried it wouldn't change but it does and its a bit spooky to log into your PC and see the number of days remaining has changed! The occasional random refresh by Windows makes it a bit more interesting too.

I'm sure we had a topic along similar veins before, perhaps it was a screensaver thread.

I've got mine set to Welcome Graham and counting down to Xmas Day to remind me. What have you guys got yours counting down to?