Release History

v15.37

Bug fixes

• Fixed access violation in TMainMenuBarStyleHook.Invalidate after changing a skin and then clicking the main menu. Caused by a long-standing Delphi VCL bug: SetStyle leaks the previous skin’s menu hook, and the next main-menu click reads freed memory. BioniX now persists the chosen skin to its settings file and asks the user to close and reopen the app, so no live SetStyle is issued while a menu hook is alive. Same approach HeidiSQL adopted for the same VCL bug.
• Fixed the long-standing “EAssertionFailed: No file was open yet!” crash that could fire when starting an animated video (AVI / MP4 / etc.) wallpaper if the FFmpeg libraries failed to load or the file no longer existed. The animation plugin now resets its state cleanly on failure so reopening the dialog and clicking OK no longer hits the assertion.
• Hardened the same family of failure paths in the animated-GIF and animated-WebP plugins (they would have looped retrying a corrupt file). The createAnimPlugin orchestrator also now checks the load result before starting the animation instead of starting it blindly.

v15.36

Bug fixes

• Fixed startup error “The png image could not be loaded from the resource ID” on Windows 11 24H2. The countdown spinner’s frame resources were missing from the patched LightSaber VCL unit, so the load raised inside the plugin constructor. Restored the resource and the spinner animates cleanly again.
• Fixed shutdown assertion (“TBXMonitorEx — Plugin cannot be Nil!”) that fired when the above startup error had left a per-monitor plugin uninitialized. The destructor now skips the LastPlugin INI write when the plugin never came up, so a startup failure no longer turns into a second crash on close.
• Fixed cosmetic bug in the Log window where the “Time” and “Message” column headers were drawn twice with a slight offset, producing a ghost overlap under VCL skins. The custom paint path now defers to the grid’s default header rendering.
• Demoted the noisy “Saved path not found in playlist” warning during early startup (when the playlist hasn’t been loaded yet and the first call is always expected to miss) from a red warning to a verbose hint.

v15.34 (Beta)

Bug fixes

• Fixed crash (“getCursorPos: Playlist is empty”) when the per-monitor countdown ticked while the playlist was empty — typically while the EULA / intro / skin chooser was still showing on first run. The countdown now stops cleanly instead of raising; the playlist’s Next-wallpaper helpers also short-circuit on an empty playlist.

v15.33

Bug fixes

• Near-instant startup — the slideshow fade animation was running on the very first wallpaper apply at boot, blocking the main thread for ~4 seconds per monitor (8 s+ on dual-monitor setups). The fade was invisible anyway because BioniX was fading from the host window's blank initial state to the same wallpaper already on the Windows desktop. The startup path now skips the fade.
• Fixed crash (“Hidden monitor can only have efNone plugin”) when opening the Effects picker on a monitor that is hidden by the current span mode — physical monitor in Expand mode, or the virtual expanded monitor in Clone/Individual mode. The picker now shows a friendly explanation and exits cleanly instead of letting the user pick an effect that the engine cannot apply.
• Fixed crash (assertion failure in the Effects picker) when pressing Enter while the OK button was disabled — e.g. with an empty playlist. The Enter handler was bypassing the disabled state and tripping an internal check. It now exits gracefully.
• Fixed latent crash when applying a video to one monitor while another (currently hidden by the span mode) still carried a stale video-plugin state from before a span-mode change. The video hand-over routine now correctly handles hidden monitors instead of trying to switch them to slideshow.
• Fixed shutdown crash (Access violation in System.Net.HttpClient) when closing BioniX while an online wallpaper download was still in flight. Pending downloads now drain cleanly before the playlist is freed, so the worker thread never runs into a half-finalized program.

v15.32

Bug fixes

• Fixed Stability AI cloud provider — outpaint requests were malformed (sent a mask instead of the directional pixel padding the endpoint expects), so nothing reached the server. BioniX now sends the original image plus the correct left / right / up / down padding values.
• AI completion callbacks now pin to the main thread's Synchronize queue, eliminating a theoretical race where a result could be dropped if the worker thread terminated first.

v15.31

Bug fixes

• Fixed thumbnail generation (multithreading issues)

v15.30

• AI-powered wallpaper border fill — automatically extends wallpaper edges using local AI (ComfyUI) to seamlessly fill any monitor aspect ratio
• Support for both local (ComfyUI) and online AI providers
• AI batch processor for processing entire wallpaper collections across multiple monitors
• AI settings panel with provider configuration

Bug fixes

• Fixed FadeBorder crash (“wallpaper is larger than the desktop!”) when image aspect ratio matches the monitor — added downscale guard for oversized wallpapers
• Fixed crash (EAssertionFailed) in StretchF when loading very small thumbnails (less than 12 pixels in any dimension)
• Fixed EAccessViolation crash during application shutdown (Embarcadero bug workaround in Vcl.WinXCtrls)

v15.23

Bug fixes

• Fixed crash with GIF files

v15.22

Bug fixes

• Fixed crash (EAccessViolation) when closing BioniX after using the Parallax effect
• Fixed error when loading monitor frame PNG on systems with restricted folder permissions (e.g. installed under C:\BioniX\)
• Fixed last used effect not restored on startup — wallpaper effect reset to “None” instead of the last used effect
• Fixed crash after applying skins
• Fixed cursor not properly drawn when not in Thumbnail mode
• Fixed crash when generating thumbnails (multithreading) — “File locked by other process”

Changes

• In the playlist, the user can no longer set the color or cursor — the cursor now correctly inherits its color from the current skin

v15.21

• New Parallax Editor — design multi-layer parallax wallpapers with included demo files
• Playlist shadow is no longer shown in single-row thumbnail mode
• Settings icon on each mini monitor for quick access to the context menu
• Drag and drop URLs directly from your browser into the playlist

v15.19

• Orphan thumbnail cleanup tool — one click in Settings removes thumbnails that no longer belong to any wallpaper, reclaiming disk space
• Smart thumbnail deduplication — the same image shared across playlists now uses a single thumbnail
• Detailed cleanup report showing playlists scanned, thumbnails in use, and disk space reclaimed
• Automatic empty folder cleanup after orphan removal

v15.18

• Automatic bug reporter is back
• Applying a wallpaper now scrolls the playlist to center it in view

v15.17

Bug fixes

• Fixed a crash in the search box when closing the application
• Fixed incorrect monitor layout detection

v15.16

• Hold SHIFT while dragging images from Explorer to replace the current playlist instead of appending

v15.12

• Background download of online images and webcam previews
• New “small image” display mode — centers the image with a blurred, enlarged copy as background fill
• Automatic language selector shown at first startup when the system language is not English

Bug fixes

• Fixed “Wallpaper Properties” missing from the system tray right-click menu (single-monitor setups)

v15.11

• Live desktop Task Manager overlay — shows top 5 CPU and RAM consumers directly on your wallpaper. Processes with multiple instances (like browser tabs) are automatically grouped. Enable “Show CPU” in slideshow settings to activate.
• Live preview button in SlideShow settings to see effects in real time
• Support for animated WebP files
• Automatic cleanup of recently-used playlists that no longer exist
• Wallpaper stays on the desktop after closing BioniX
• New particle effects (snow, leaves, rain) via Skia engine
• Shadow under overlay text for better readability
• Ken Burns effect — virtual camera pans across high-resolution wallpapers
• Portable mode — INI file stored in the application directory

Bug fixes

• Fixed invalid images not being skipped — previously they displayed their filename on the desktop
• Fixed cursor stuck as “no drop” icon after double-clicking a MOV file in the playlist
• Fixed monitor panel not updating after applying a video wallpaper
• Fixed calendar checkbox in Settings being disconnected from the main form
• Fixed “Show countdown in system tray” option not working
• Fixed calendar text barely visible on dark wallpapers — added drop shadows
• Fixed unnecessary extra submenu in “Lock on folder” recent list
• Fixed tall GIFs stretched incorrectly in the mini monitor panels
• Fixed BioniX not restoring correctly when minimized to taskbar instead of system tray
• Fixed wallpaper lost when changing system font
• Fixed child windows appearing behind the main form when “Stay on Top” (F12) is enabled
• Fixed animated GIFs not added at the end of the playlist when adding multiple files
• Fixed keyboard shortcuts not shown in the main menu
• Fixed error message when a locked folder is deleted while BioniX is watching it
• Fixed BioniX locking on a webcam entry in the playlist instead of advancing
• Fixed animations not always resuming after standby
• Fixed “Hide desktop icons” not working on Windows 10
• Fixed slideshow countdown restarting on its own after resuming from standby
• Fixed wallpaper unexpectedly changing when resuming from standby
• Fixed GIFs sometimes treated as static images instead of animating
• Fixed BioniX starting in normal window mode even when “Start minimized” is enabled
• Fixed video playback not looping or advancing to the next item
• Fixed “Minimize All” button also minimizing BioniX itself
• Fixed BioniX switching the Windows desktop mode from “Slideshow” to “Picture”
• Fixed FPS overlay checkbox not working
• Fixed stale INI file from an older version found in the application folder
• Fixed PhotoPile using the wrong image source
• Fixed “Add images from folder” not remembering the last used folder
• Fixed custom spin-edit controls ignoring the selected font

v15.7

[Jerry edition]

Bug fixes

• Fixed: Drag-and-drop files no longer lose their selection order
• Fixed: Wallpaper no longer clears to black when closing/minimizing other applications
• Fixed: Startup Enable/Disable buttons now work (registry write was missing)
• Fixed: Monitor ID warning no longer pops up when laptop lid is closed
• Fixed: Calendar, File Name, and Hardware Info overlays now display after timer changes wallpaper
• Fixed: Lock On Folder mode now persists across application restarts

v15.6

Bug fixes

• Fixed settings not being saved on certain form configurations
• Fixed slideshow timer not working in clone mode
• Fixed countdown text not updating in the system tray
• Fixed hardware overlay settings lost when closing the application

v15

• Support for Windows 11 24H2 and newer (fixes wallpaper not showing)
• Home/End keys jump to the top/bottom of the playlist
• AI-powered self-translating engine — translate BioniX to any language via DeepL
• New auto-updater
• Improved Matrix animation column sizing

Bug fixes

• Fixed GUI freezing at startup — wallpaper is now applied in a background thread
• Fixed crash when loading an old-format playlist file
• Fixed program freezing when downloading an online image — now uses a background thread
• Fixed video on one monitor making the static wallpaper on another monitor go blank
• Fixed two BioniX instances running simultaneously when mixing v14 versions
• Fixed language selector not switching back to English
• Fixed “Apply last wallpaper” on startup not working
• Fixed window size not being saved between sessions
• Fixed language selector appearing twice at first startup
• Fixed animated GIF not centered correctly on the desktop
• Fixed system tray popup menu not using the selected skin
• Fixed animated GIF sometimes not playing when pressing Next
• Improved overall startup initialization

v14.9

Bug fixes

• Fixed BioniX not auto-starting the last used effect on startup

v14.8

• Image resolution displayed in the playlist (especially useful in single-row mode)
• Tumblr image downloader
• Play video wallpaper on a specific monitor instead of centered across the desktop
• New single-row playlist layout (classic look and feel)

Bug fixes

• Fixed screensaver not loading the playlist
• Fixed mini monitor panels calculated incorrectly when starting minimized to tray

v14.7

Bug fixes

• Fixed translations failing to load for dynamically created forms

v14.6

• Threaded playlist management — loading 402 MB of images now takes 7 seconds instead of 27

Bug fixes

• Fixed minimalistic interface mode not working

v14.0

• New plugin architecture for easily adding wallpaper effects and animations
• Transition effects (fade, flip) between wallpapers
• Mix different effects across monitors (e.g. Matrix on one screen, video on another, slideshow on a third)
• New RainDrop desktop effect with dedicated editor
• Redesigned all effect editors (SlideShow, GIF, Matrix, etc.) with a consistent look and feel
• New SlideShow effects: Top-to-Bottom, Right-to-Left, Interlaced
• CPU/RAM utilization overlay on the desktop
• Pause, Resume, and Next Frame controls for GIF/AVI animations
• Volume control for video wallpapers
• Wallpaper Properties dialog completely rewritten
• Apply wallpaper properties directly from the editor with live preview
• Share a wallpaper via email
• “Identify monitor” menu command
• Thumbnails generated immediately when images are added for smoother scrolling
• Playlist scrolls to newly added images when using “Append folder”
• Smarter playlist scrolling after deleting items
• Progress indicator when importing many images
• Better busy indicators when adding or sorting large playlists
• Close effect editors with Escape or Enter
• Preview panel hidden by default; play buttons moved to the main toolbar
• Improved GUI layout
• Improved translation engine
• Streamlined first-start language selector
• Improved file-type filter when adding wallpapers via the menu
• More online images and videos in the default playlist
• Alternative download source for the installer
• Installer size reduced from 31 MB to 24 MB
• Brand new website

v14

• Predefined wallpaper collection now includes videos
• Safety confirmation before clearing the playlist

Bug fixes

• Fixed automatic updater not checking for updates in BetaTester mode
• Fixed expanded monitor size calculated incorrectly when switching modes
• Fixed static wallpaper briefly appearing then vanishing after playing a video
• Fixed “Closing application while still initializing” error on a fresh Windows install
• Fixed Matrix animation running too fast
• Fixed first thumbnail missing from the playlist
• Fixed splash screen appearing behind the main form
• Fixed “Send to monitor” on animated GIF sending it as a static image
• Fixed multi-monitor expanded settings not being remembered
• Fixed language not applied correctly after selection
• Fixed mini monitor panels not refreshing after changing skins
• Fixed broken images in the predefined wallpaper collection
• Fixed minimalistic interface showing a duplicate button
• Fixed “Warn when cannot connect to internet” notification not working

v13.08

• Reduced memory consumption for animated wallpapers
• Improved application initialization sequence

v13.07

• Animations can span the entire desktop
• Resize animated GIFs (fill, fit, center, stretch, fixed width/height, auto)
• Send animated wallpapers (GIF/AVI) to specific monitors
• Automatic background color detection for animated GIFs
• Animation settings available in both Global and per-wallpaper Properties
• Per-wallpaper background color selection

Bug fixes

• Fixed hint panel in Global Wallpaper Properties always visible even when it should be hidden

v13.06

Bug fixes

• Fixed “Animating wallpaper” label not disappearing after stopping the animation

v13.05

• Improved uninstaller
• “Send wallpaper to a friend” via email
• Multi-language support — built-in translations plus user-created language packs

Bug fixes

• Fixed background fade speed setting not saved correctly

v13.04

Bug fixes

• Fixed dual-monitor expanded mode failing with a bitmap creation error

v13.02

Bug fixes

• Fixed playlist crash when cursor position pointed to a negative row

v13

Bug fixes

• Fixed pink screen or “Cannot create bionix.bmp” error when expanded wallpaper mode was active
• Fixed countdown timer continuing to tick even when the progress bar is hidden
• Fixed “PhotoPile background image not found” error when PhotoPile is triggered by the timer
• Fixed multi-monitor configuration showing the wrong number of monitors

v12.41

• Per-wallpaper background color selection merged into Wallpaper Properties

v12.4.1

• Improved startup reliability — program recovers gracefully if the last playlist fails to load