


Information
The Dashboard Rotator is a tool that is used to cycle through http URL’s in a full screen browser window.
The list of URL’s can be customized by the end user to display their own specific interests or dashboard pages, these pages can be from any location, including public internet, local intranet etc, anything your browser can view, it can view.
No setup is required to run the program. It runs as a standalone executable.
Common uses for the Dashboard Rotator are
- Internal monitoring dashboard displays
- LCD TV displays for commonly accessed web pages
- Rotating stock market information
- IT Department monitoring dashboards
- Pub or club rotating information displays

Features
- Customizable URL’s lists
- Customizable page cycle intervals
- Automatic Internet Explorer memory refreshes (run each hour the application is concurrently run). A splash page will be displayed notifying that Internet Explorer is being restarted. no intervention is required.
- The option of full screen or windowed mode
- The option to kill all Internet Explorer instances on Stopping and hourly refresh cycle (this can catch any lingering IE processes that have hung)
- Automatic browser crash detection. If internet explorer is closed by a user, or the window crashes whilst the program is running, a new window will be opened and the cycle continued within 5 seconds
Usage
Super easy to use. Simply download the files, extract them to a directory and run the file Dashboard Rotator.exe.
Click the edit icon in the top left hand corner and edit the list of URL’s you wish to cycle through.
So Why Not Use A Script ?
Scripts can perform the fundamental rotation functions (Infact iv written one and its listed on this site) although there is one major difference between this tool and a script. A script, being a script does not handle errors very well, and the inherent problem with scrolling through URL’s using a browser repeatedly is memory consumption, over a period of hours the browser will have bloated in memory consumption, and the process needs to be recycled.
Tearing down the browser process, and reloading does not tend to work well in scripts, iv written many with varying success before, but I solved the problem by building the solution in a proper application language, and the finished product is the Dashboard Rotator.
After every hour, the Dashboard Rotator tool will tear down the Internet Explorer process and free up memory. There is also a background thread that runs constantly, checking every 5 seconds to ensure the browser is running and rotating.
Which brings me to another point, if someone happens to close the browser window, or the browser crashes using a script, the script will crash, using the dashboard rotator, if the browser window should happen to close for whatever reason, within 5 seconds the background thread will kick in and restart the rotation cycle.
In short, the Dashboard Rotator brings stability, and of course usability.
Things To Note
- The software was initially intended for use on a standalone machine, example for an LCD TV screen and an attached PC, how ever if you wish to use the software on your own PC, you might wish to uncheck the “Kill All Internet Explorer Instances” box before clicking ‘Run”. Leaving this checked will ensure that ALL iexplore.exe processes are terminated during the clean up process, even those you might be using on a secondary monitor.
Although Its recommended you leave these boxes checked, an alternative solution would be use to use another browser such as Firefox or Chrome for your personal browsing as these will not be effected by the clean up process.
- The automatic browser crash relaunch will not fire when you have a second browser window open, example if your browsing on a secondary monitor. This works by scanning for running iexplore.exe processes every 5 seconds, if it doesnt detect any, it will re-launch.
Demo Version
If you would like to test the tool out before you purchase, you can do so by downloading the demo version. The demo version is restricted to 5 full rotations before It will stop.
Download The Demo Version
Requirements
- Windows Machine
- Microsoft .Net Framework 3.5 (Compatible with 2.0 but 3.5 is recommended)
- Internet Explorer 7 or above
The Author
The Dashboard Rotator tool was written in C# .Net by Cheyne Wallace
$15 AUD
Version 1.1
Payment is made by use of PayPal using the “Buy Now” button above. You can use any credit card or PayPal account to purchase.
Complete the PayPal process and at the end, on the final screen you will be presented with a button to return to this site, make sure you click this as this will redirect you to the download page where you can access the software.
Should you miss this screen, or have any other issues retrieving the software, please use the contact form and shoot me an email containing the details you used to make the payment and ill send you your copy.