Customize Your Desktop with a Push of a Button

The desktop is one of the most important parts of your operating system. It works like a bridge between all your applications, files and folders and serves as a support for your shortcuts or other widgets. A handy feature is the fact that you can customize it according to your needs. You can change the background picture, screensaver, theme, add widgets and other tools to ease your work.

PhotoJoy is the application that can do all of the aforementioned operations and even more. It can drive away the monotony from your desktop and bring a touch of novelty. You'd be amazed of what this tool can do with your desktop.

The interface is simple and intuitive without fancy options that could mislead you from your main goal: to customize and beautify your desktop. PhotoJoy comes as freeware, another reason to give it some attention. The only thing that can be annoying is the additional shortcut it creates on your desktop, which leads to one of the developer's websites.

PhotoJoy will surprise you with its simplicity and ease of use. The upper part of the main window features the four major tabs that you will be dealing with: Collages, PhotoToys, Screensavers and Photo Library. Apart from these, only a few clicks keep you away from the full desktop customization it offers.

The Collages tab is the first you will encounter when you run the application. From here, you will be able not only to change your desktop background with some stylish photos but also have the possibility to add your own pictures in a professional way. The left side of the window allows you to browse through various categories of collages including: abstract, beach, cats, nature, puppies, wooden, and even a selection of the most popular of them. You can preview or set the desired theme by pressing the buttons below each picture.

You will love the PhotoToys tab because it adds various 3D picture viewing widgets to your desktop contributing to a more pleasurable sight. You can choose from five different toys, all unique and animated, that will improve aesthetics and make your desktop more pleasant to look at. PhotoyJoy allows you to add to your desktop as many widgets as you want. You can customize each of them by selecting the pictures you want to be displayed and even have a preview of the upcoming pictures.

The Screensaver window of PhotoJoy will bring you various screensavers that will replace the old ones that come as default with your OS. It's divided into two categories: Photo Screensavers and Screensavers. The Photo Screensavers are a collection of screensavers specially created to display your pictures or others in a fun and animated way while your computer is in screensaver mode. It features various stunning and amazing ways to show your images that will keep you pinned to your computer just to see what's next.

The Screensavers category brings you a variety of themed screensavers from funny animations, beautiful aquariums, playful butterflies and magic forests to calm oceans, rapid rivers, creeks and marvelous waterfalls. It also features a collection of the most popular screensavers from all the above categories. You can preview each screensaver or set it as your default just by hovering the mouse over the desired image and selecting the option your prefer.

From the Screensaver Options window, you will be able to make PhotoJoy Screensaver your default screensaver and setup the time when it will start.

Last but not least, the Photo Library tab allows you to select, add and manage all your photos to the PhotoJoy Library. It's easy to browse through your photos just by selecting the category or folder from the left side of this window. In the right side, PhotoJoy will display a preview of the current pictures from the selected location.

By pressing the Add & Manage Photos button, you will be able to add and manage the pictures you would like to use with your PhotoJoy application. It enables you to select your own pictures, various Flickr photos, Online Gallery photos or pictures from a specific folder.

To add your favorite photos to PhotoJoy, you will be able to browse through your files and folders from an Explorer-like window and choose the files / folders you want to add to your collection. After that, the application will display a list with all the folders you have in the PhotoJoy database and you can select the ones you want to use.

With PhotoJoy you will be able to stream beautiful pictures from the Flickr website. You just have to type a tag that you want to search within Flickr and PhotoJoy will update your photo collection through streaming on a regular basis.

You can add various professional photos to your collection from the PhotoJoy website with the Online Gallery Photos option or select a specific folder from where the application should get your favorite pictures.

The Good

PhotoJoy is an amazing application that will bring “joy” to your desktop by easily blending your pictures with the natural beauty of the wilderness and nature landmarks. It provides you the tools and widgets to remove simplicity from your desktop and refresh your memory with those pictures that your probably forgot about.

Also, even when you're not working on your computer, the Screesaver tool will transform your display into a nostalgic way to view photos and, above all, it's free to use.

The Bad

The application is truly magnificent as we could not find any glitches or options that might not work. The only thing worth mentioning is the Games shortcut that it puts on your desktop after you install it. This shortcut redirects you to the developer’s game website. A good addition would be an animated desktop option that would increase its value and usability.

The Truth

PhotoJoy is a must-have application for those of you that constantly want a change in your workspace or simply enjoy your pictures in a beautiful and eye-catching way. Either you want to change the looks of your desktop, add widgets or change the old fashioned screensaver, PhotoJoy is the tool to use.

Here are some snapshots of the application in action: