Automation & Auto-Start

Have Rando start a slideshow on its own — no clicking required. This turns Rando into a stand-in for a screensaver, a kiosk or storefront display, or an always-on photo wall that comes to life on a schedule.

What It Does

You can tell Rando to launch straight into a slideshow:

macOS uses a special rando://startSlideshow link.
Windows uses a Rando.exe --start-slideshow command line.

Either way, Rando opens, restores the folder selection you used last time, and starts playing — exactly as if you had clicked Start Slideshow yourself. It works whether Rando is already open or completely closed (on a cold start, it brings back your last folders first, then begins).

Perfect for unattended displays

This is the supported way to use Rando as a screensaver replacement, a reception-area photo wall, an event display, or any "set it and walk away" screen. Pair it with your system's scheduler to start it automatically at a set time each day.

macOS

Rando registers a custom rando:// link. Trigger it any of these ways:

Terminal: open "rando://startSlideshow"
AppleScript: do shell script "open 'rando://startSlideshow'"
Shortcuts: add an Open URLs action containing rando://startSlideshow. You can then run that Shortcut from a Focus, an Automation, or a hotkey.
On a schedule: run the open command above from a scheduling tool (launchd, cron, or an Automator/Calendar action).

Windows

The Windows app takes a command-line switch instead:

Rando.exe --start-slideshow

The easiest way to run it automatically is Task Scheduler — create a task that runs Rando with the --start-slideshow argument at your chosen time or trigger. If Rando is already running, the command quietly tells the running app to begin, so you never end up with two copies open.

Choosing What Starts

All of these options are optional. Leave them off and Rando starts exactly like the Start Slideshow button does, using your saved settings and last selection.

Option	Values	What it does
`mode`	`standard`, `collage`	`standard` is the classic one-photo-at-a-time show; `collage` fills the screen with a wall of photos.
`layout`	`flow`, `varied`, `scatter`	Only used with a collage. Picks the collage look (passing a layout on its own implies collage).
`monitor`	`current`, `all`	`all` starts a show on every connected display at once.

Examples

macOS:

rando://startSlideshow
rando://startSlideshow?mode=standard&monitor=all
rando://startSlideshow?mode=collage&layout=flow

Windows:

Rando.exe --start-slideshow
Rando.exe --start-slideshow --mode standard --monitor all
Rando.exe --start-slideshow --mode collage --layout flow

Good to know

There's no grid layout (Flow with fewer columns gives you those bigger, even tiles), and you can't target a single specific monitor number — it's either the current display or all of them. Slideshows start full-screen just like the Start Slideshow button.

Next Steps

Set up the Slideshow the way you like it first — auto-start uses those saved settings.
Configure Preferences for timing, layout, and multi-display behavior.