Show random desktop picture immediately on login

Jun 11, '09 07:30:00AM

Contributed by: bmishkin

You can select a folder or iPhoto album in the Desktop subpane of the Desktop & Screen Saver System Preferences panel and tick the Random Order checkbox. This works fine until you logout / login or restart -- then the image defaults back to the Lightning picture until the next 'change picture' interval occurs.

For example, if you have Change Picture set to Every Day, on restart you won't see a picture from your chosen folder until up to 24 hours later. Meanwhile you're stuck with the default (IMHO, ugly!).

Solution? Go into the preferences pane, untick and retick the Random Order box, and your desktop is refreshed with a new random image. You can automate with a short applescript and add it to Accounts » Login Items:

tell application "System Events"
  tell current desktop
    set random order to false
    set random order to true
  end tell
end tell
This bug has persisted on several of my machines through 10.5.7.

[robg adds: I don't see this issue on my laptop, which is presently booting between two OSes regularly -- when restarting in 10.5.7, one of my random images comes up. However, if it's happening to you, this is a pretty simple workaround.]

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