AxPaint - make your DAX look cool :)

A couple of months ago I asked Alex Kotov from AxForum to modify a project he wrote for fun half a year ago or so. Today he sent me an e-mail with the project.

A short description of what the tool can do for you: :)
Basically, it just changes the backcolor of your DAX 3.0 (it does not work for DAX 4.0) installation.
You can choose a simple custom color you would like to use, or select an image from your hard drive to use as the background image.
you can select a couple of settings as well (ALL the settings are accessed by pressing Alt + S in DAX after launching the AxPaint form) - like stretching the image or using a 'transparent' background, showing your desktop (you have to set the image path to a specific location for that).

Nothing much, you'd say. But it sure is fun to work in DAX when a nice picture is seen in the background. :)

Installation instructions:

1. Unzip the archived files.
2. Place the .bat and .ocx files somewhere where you won't delete them accidently.
3. Run the .bat file, which will register the .ocx
4. Import the project into Dynamics AX - the project contains one form AxPaint.
5. Run the form. It will automatically hide from view. Press Alt + S to run setup.

Custom settings (my preference):

1. The image path is setup to C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Wallpaper1.bmp - this is the path to the current wallpaper in Win XP (without active desktop)
   
2. Show desktop (like Delphi) option is set in the setup dialog.
3. In the startupPost method of the Info class the following lines are added:  
4. An external application is used to change the wallpaper on system startup. So every day I have a different look in my DAX :)

Project archive download link:
download

Custom code for the info.startupPost method:

 if (curUserId() == 'ikash')
    TreeNode::findNode("Forms\\AxPaint").AOTrun();

Link to the external WallChanger application:
download

Screenshots:

• Screenshot 1 - Josie Maran
  
• Screenshot 2 - picture home - original wallpaper
• Screenshot 3 - Eagle - Delphi kind of look