User Guide & Technical Architecture

Vivid Desk is a high-performance native wallpaper engine built with Rust and Win32 GDI+ APIs. This document details its architecture, keyboard hotkeys, and automation configuration.

1. System Architecture

Vivid Desk runs as a lightweight native Windows executable with zero Electron or Chromium dependencies. Its typical memory footprint is under 20 MB of RAM.

Key Engine Subsystems:

Rotator Engine: Manages timer intervals and asynchronous wallpaper transitions.
Dual-Display Pipeline: Simultaneously pairs 4K landscape (3840×2160) and portrait (2160×3840) assets for multi-monitor setups.
Monotonic Timekeeper: Combines hardware uptime ticks (GetTickCount64) with an HMAC-signed persistent high-water mark, preventing calendar rollbacks from bypassing subscription validity.
Fullscreen Game Shield: Queries Windows display state to detect exclusive 3D fullscreen workloads, automatically pausing transitions to ensure zero frame drops.

2. Global Hotkeys & Navigation

Win + Shift + W: Instant Next Desktop Wallpaper.
Esc: Minimize or hide modal dialogues.
Right-Click Tray Icon: Open quick actions popover menu (Next Wallpaper, Pause, Settings, Exit).

3. Dual Independent Rotators

Under Settings, you can toggle between:

Sync Lock Screen with Desktop: Sets both displays to identical photography simultaneously.
Independent Rotators (Pro): Allows Lock Screen to rotate on separate schedules or on system lock/wake events.

4. License Activation & Offline Lease

Purchases from Dodo Payments include an instant license key (e.g., DODO-XXXX-YYYY). Enter your key into the Have a License Key? field and click Activate Key.

Upon activation, a cryptographically signed HMAC lease is stored locally in %USERPROFILE%\VividDesk\license.json and backed up into the Windows Registry. Your Pro access remains 100% active offline for the full 30 or 90 days.