Active desktop will slow down your machine. With newer ones, it's not as big a concern, but let's be honest. Not everone has a dual core processor running at 3GHz, right?

RickS

You forgot "Switch to Linux and use a compositing window manager," arguably the biggest piece of desktop bling out there. Ooh spinny cube!

FelixC

@Gina Trapani: hey gina, I tried figuring out how to use your todo.txt method, but I just couldn't figure it out. instead, I display my todo.txt on the desktop using the cat command through geektool and just edit the text file whenever I need (made a little script for the menubar to open it whenever I need)

zikman

I have a HUGE speed-dial list for all the offices I support and was sick of sticking lists to the side of my monitor. I made a nicely formatted excel sheet and added it to active desktop. Its not perfect but it displays better than any other app I've seen. Now when I need one of the numbers I just hit minimise and all the numbers are right there!

dangermoose

@xxdesmus: Heh, ok, but more people know about the iPhone than Callwave, so the analogy works.

GeekTool rules my life on the Mac... two years later, I still use it to display my todo.txt, remind calendar, and two months worth of a monthly calendar. It's what I miss the most when I'm on the PC (Samurize is much more of a pain to set up!)

Gina Trapani

I shall try GeekTool once i'm home, sounds fun!

dronnac

"get iPhone-like visual voicemail via CallWave"

Yeah um, no.

CallWave was available MONTHS before the iPhone came out. Don't demean CallWave by trying to label it a knock off. If nothing else call the iPhone's visual voicemail a cheap knock off of CallWave's service. Go in the correct direction.

xxdesmus

Thanks for the tip on Samurize - sounds like a dream come true.....

Can't wait to see what new apps will be in store for Vista Users.... It seems like Mac users are having most of the fun at the moment :-)

SEARCH ENGINES

For Windows, Litestep, hands down, is the best thing you can do to your desktop.

darundal

For some time now, I've been using a tool called Sizer that allows you to specifically define the size of any window. I use this to make sure all my IM chat windows are the same size; to resize and center my e-mail and browser windows, etc. It's a great tool!

bswilson

Just a clarification on #2: Windows XP users can stretch a wallpaper across multiple monitors without any additional software just by setting the display type to "Tile". For this to look good, you'll need a wallpaper of the appropriate aspect ratio (e.g., a 10x4 wallpaper for two 5x4 monitors arranged horizontally).

What you need something like DisplayFusion for is to use different wallpapers on different monitors, or to make the wallpaper look sane if your monitors don't (or can't) all run at the same resolution.

willywag

GeekTool has been horribly broken for me ever since Leopard came out. Maybe it's because I'm on an Intel Mac?

The last post from the developer in his forum about Leopard support went something like "Oh, I'm going to work on a rewritten GeekTool for Leopard, but I haven't even started it yet." And this was back in August.

I miss my GeekTool...

Jay Elmore

@darundal: totally agree with you. I have been using litestep for over a year now and absolutely love it. With that and Launchy, your productivity practically doubles when you are on your computer.

parcaelum

Web clips are really cool especially with gawker sites because you can web clip the main box in the top left and check only the most important articles.

Joseph

Right now I have DeskTask, which is nice and simple. I wish I could display a text calendar, but I couldn't figure out Samurize at all.

Jarick

@darundal: Litestep is indeed the king, or at least it used to be... I haven't used it in about 2 years now.

The How-To Geek

Get Stickies. I haven't tried Samurize, but easy-access Post-It notes on your desktop with adjustable opacity and adjustable everything else, is a real dream. It handles my GTD (I wasn't a very productive person), and keeps me from needing to add tasks or notes in Outlook.

burnblue

@darundal: I have to agree that using an alternative shell can boost productivity, but I've found that blackbox (specifically, bblean) has fitted my needs better than litestep.

[s3.tinypic.com]

Sadly, my samurize config was not captured, but it's just a small one with my cpu, ram, downspeed, upspeed and it fits to the left of the taskbar and is the same color and font, so it blends nicely with the background.

Taylor

The link to the Clipboard History gadget (in section 4: Get the Best Windows Vista Gadgets (Vista)) is broken. It looks like it was renamed to ClipboardManager:

[gallery.live.com]

Some reviews are quite negative.

alekdavis

10 - Samurize - AWESOME!
I have been playing with it and love it. I now have text files, updating bar graphs, rotating pictures, date/time, free disk space, all up on my desktop. It packs everything into a wonderful, clean desktop environment that really helps me work fast. A little tricky at first, but the learning curve is easily overcome.

6 - Desktop Coral - meh.
...have to say that I really didn't like this program. It was a little unintuitive, and I disliked it's (free) registration process.

3 - Outlook on desktop - I use DeskTask instead.
It is more of a list view, but that is what I want. I color code my tasks and only show the next three days of calendar appointments. That way, I can have Outlook open to email and still see appointments/to dos. Blends well with a black desktop too.

2 - DisplayFusion - ok, but not worth it for me.
I just didn't like another program running just for wallpaper. Besides, Samurize allows me to have much smaller picture areas and it even rotates through all the pictures in a specified folder.

1 - WinSplit Revolution - AWESOME!!!!
This gives me the window-moving hotkeys of UltraMon without spending $40. Well worth installing.

Honorable mention from comments: Sizer. Another good program, though not "for the masses" just because most people arent' that picky about exact window sizes. I think I wished it had keyboard shortcuts for different sizes, but can't remember, since I haven't used it in a while.

ACF

@Ghostlove

Oh come on you have Compiz Fusion quit complaining :)

ross.m

does anyone know if there's an equivalent of #3 (Outlook on your desktop) for iCal in Leopard? I use and love iCal (it's actually revolutionized my organization), and it would be great to not have to change Spaces each time I wanted to check something!

jrmontag

I'm with Gina on this one, GeekTool is almost as valuable as Quicksilver.

ross.m

I feel a more appropriate title for this article would have been "Top 10 Ways to Trick Out Your Desktop in Windows or Possibly Mac, But Not Linux, You People Don't Deserve Tricked-Out Desktops So We're Not Going To Include You". Or something like that. ;oP

Ghostlove

As a followup (since this article got me into trying GeekTool again):

I tossed the prefs and reinstalled, and now it works. My guess is that the prefs file was bad. I had to recreate my GeekTool windows, but I had another Mac I could crib off of.

So while I'd like to see the mythical "Leopard-only" GeekTool the developer promised, it's working for me now.

Jay Elmore

@Gina Trapani: Unfortunately, that leaves out one step for users running 7.10, which has it preinstalled. It doesn't tell us how to get the Compiz Fusion settings thing. Here is how you get it:

sudo apt-get install compizconfig-settings-manager

HarrisonHopkins

Linux: Power up your Linux desktop with Compiz Fusion

Gina Trapani

I shall now have the pimp desktop of the office....I am trying everything :-)

Ashley927

Ooooh, Samurize. I love it so much. I originally downloaded Samurize because I was jealous of my friend's vista sidebar. Since getting vista I have kept Samurize because I have it wonderfully customized for my computer.

In fact, I might upload my .ini files for it so other people can use it. I keep all 7 in/external memory drives listed as well as RAM, uptime, weather, and oh so much more.

Jaysus

L I N U X!

dont leave us out :(

boandmichele

I hesitate to suggest this since just about everybody using Conky can probably figure it out themselves, but the trick to creating a dynamic, text file todo list in Conky is to add something like the following to your .conkyrc:

${exec grep "^-" ~/todo.txt}

Each incomplete item in todo.txt should be on its own line, and preceded by a hypen, eg:

- TPS Cover sheets
- Quarterly productivity figures
- Lunch
- Malt liquor

When you're done with an item, open it in your editor of choice and change the - to a + (or any character that's not - ).

black_rabbit

@Ghostlove: Or maybe its that there are so many ways to trick out a Linux box that it deserved a separate article. Right, Gina? Please say yes. :-)

eeefresh

Sorry for the dupe :(

Tyrun101

Anyone know how to setup Samurize so it doesn't just pull from text files, but reads system information and prints it to the desktop?

I haven't been able to get my head around it just yet.

Hey Gina, how about a how-to article on how to get Samurize up and running?

Tyrun101

Anyone know specifically HOW to set up Samurize so it can not just show contents of a text file, but active system information?

I haven't been able to get my hands around it yet.

Hey Gina, how about a how-to article on setting up samurize? :)

Tyrun101

there's a lite version of tip # 10: bginfo from sysinternals: [technet.microsoft.com]
it can display many system properties as well as contents of a file, it's pretty easy to set up

keynell

I try to keep it simple, but AutoHotKey is my number one time saver AutoHotKey

William Mize

I have a rather simple tool I made in Keynote that I find is rather effective for keeping track of activities projects and keeping thinks visible. The basic idea is just to make some classification structure for the things that would normally be on your desktop. The categorise I use are: Resources, Memory, Assts, Projects, Sandbox, and Active. When things do not fit, you do not leave them there. Also, This involves putting some items out that are permanent resources. For the time being I am just using text clippings for that but I am going to try another method in the future. Also, I like to take advantage of Quick Look so I have a few images that have data that I need a lot stored in a convenient way situated on my desktop. To refer to them I can simply select them and evoke quick look.

In the future I plan to add a few things including a "black hole" or place to put things to deal with some day as a action folder. I also want to try with some automation of the ranking and sorting. For now it remains just an image because I can not program yet.

Here is a picture of my desktop: [tinyurl.com]

Metophile

@Jaysus: Beat me to it...but well described.

ACF

@Tyrun101: have you looked at this article? [lifehacker.com] It covers the basic setup, but not system stats.

You might try installing the plugin pak [www.samurize.com] and looking at the "findthetopprocess example.ini" config file. If you right-click on your taskbar icon, you can edit the config, and in the process, see how some of the underlying code works.

If you really want to dig deep, check out the tutorial on WMI (Windows Management Instrumentation) [www.samurize.com] though I haven't done much with this myself.

What specifically would you like to see?

ACF

@Jaysus: Sorry, I mean display hardware info, not a text file.

Jaysus

@Tyrun101: The program is a little annoying to get around at first, I will admit. They have a few...sort of poor tutorials honestly.

To get Samurize to display a text file:
- Open up the config editor, click edit meters on the right sidebar.
- Under standard tasks, open the add meter drop down. Under there you should see all of the default meters. I know for a fact that there are some that will show things like heat, RAM, HDD space, uptime, etc. If you can't find anything I would check the downloads section of the site, as anything not included by default can probably be found there. They have .dll files that can be used by selecting plugin and then the appropriate file in the source tab.
- F5 will test all scripts on the page. Checking Use Bitmap Background will let you take a screenshot of your desktop to help you position things.

Jaysus

@Gina Trapani: True, the Compiz Fusion article was good, but how about an article comparing the various screenlet applications (adesklet, screenlets, gdesklets, etc.), launchers (kibadock, AWN, Cairo, KoolDock, etc.), wallpaper changers (wallpaper-tray, WallpaperZapper, Wallpapoz, etc.), not to mention hundreds of free themes, fonts, etc.

Maybe I was right the first time...there are too many ways to trick out a Linux box to write an article about it!

eeefresh

Callwave is also available as a mac osx widget. :) Although the visual voicemail is terrible to the extent that it's funny, it's definitely easier to listen to voicemail from the dashboard.

lhaddict

actually, callwave has a widget for mac osx as well. I use it and can listen to voicemail straight from the widget. mac owners can rejoice. however the transcription is subpar and sometimes very funny! :)

lhaddict

The qoute, "have breakfast like a king, lunch like a countryman & dinner like a pauper"..is very true scientifically even...but it doesnt mean 2 sleep empty stomach...it means have a light meal 4 dinner... having no food itself may lead 2 ulcers many a times as there is no food 2 neutralize the acid secretion of stomach at night & it may interfere with sleep even...heavy meals during daytime get burnt out...but at night get accumulated..so the quote..these idioms in english r contradictory in few cases but actually speaking most of the times they r words of wisdom..which came up by gr8 philosophers when they attained that wisdom & we r able 2 appreciate them when we attain that level of wisdom & experience..or else we need 2 grow up fast as people do...

diane28177

Quick question. Is there a way to lock up your desktop icons, regardless of the resolution? I use my laptop a lot for presentations and every time I do Fn + F8, it rearranges my icons. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated! :)

shvidky

Any way to lock your icons once they are arranged on your desktop? I do a lot of presentations and once I connect my laptop to a projector or another monitor with a low resolution, all my icons get re-arranged. Is there a simple solution? Thanks!

shvidky

Come on, not even a mention of Conky?

technofencer

The best way to make your desktop look Cool is Object Desktop, by Stardock, it costs money but its well worth it. And a free program by them is Object Dock which is a dock like in OS X but its skinnable and such, very good program

Chewy_Solo

I found the Google Desktop Widgets bloated and unuseful compared to what I can do with Samurize.

Woodsyx

Desktop Manager + BackLight 2 = a much cooler Mac desktop than any combination of those listed above.

BackLight 2 only puts your screensaver onto the desktop, but I LOVE putting the iTunes Artwork screensaver on it. I've set a very long delay on the "album flipping" though (by editing the .plist file), since I don't want it constantly seeking my hard drive. :) Just don't use it to play any "slideshow" type screensavers!! You'll get a serious case of vertigo, what with the image constantly moving.

Desktop Manager I of course use to manage different desktops. I don't have Leopard, but I'm pretty certain Desktop Manager is more fully featured than Leopard's "Spaces". I can change transition effects, set the Edges to switch desktops, along with configuring the delay. I can even set it to move the cursor back to the center of the screen so that I don't accidentally flip desktops more than once. I can name each desktop and it shows in the middle of the screen when I switch. It puts itself up in the toolbar and shows a nice preview of the actual desktops, and there's also a little preview thumb that it displays in the bottom left corner, which I have set to auto-hide. (I don't want it burning in my Cinema Display, which has AWFUL burn in problems).

I'm also still on a G5 Mac, so I'm unsure if either of these programs work on Intel. Sorry!

jw0ollard

I have Object Dock and Dash Command so I turn all the icons off on my desktop. I'm loving the VirtuaWin desktop (multiple desktops) mentioned on Lifehacker the other day. I have my email program on one desktop, the accounts program open on another desk, my browser opened on a third, directlink banking window opened on a fourth.

Then I just win/arrow back and forth between desktops and I'm finding it REALLY quick to navigate between programs. It's much quicker than having them all open on the taskbar because you've got in your head the desktop order and can get to what you want in a snap.

da5id_nz

I put Google Calendar on my desktop with Active Desktop. Since it automatically updates itself and you can add and edit items to the calendar directly from Active Desktop, I'm always updated on what I have to do.

raineym

I have to drop a plug for yahoo widgets. I was once a long time google gadgets user (its from google, it must be great!), but after trying yahoo widgets (formerly confabulator I believe) I was sold. Better presentation, no quirks.

dostillevi

@eeefresh: If you use Linux you don't have to worry about searching for malware-laden kak to install on your box, you can just browse your package manager (YaST, Aptitude etc ... ).
Windows weenies have to search all the intarwebs and c-net and sites like this to discover what we can do with just our installation DVDs.
Compiz ... How lovely. I wish my Radeon 9600 would work with it. But never mind, Domino will do for the time being. If I want bling I can use my E17 desktop. Ooh shiney!

PReDiToR

Yuck. I loathe desktop litter. The less junk on the desktop the better, as far as I'm concerned. I got TweakUI to get rid of the stuff Windows insists on leaving there, and found a nice little freeware app that makes the Dock transparent on my Mac.

infmom

All of those are lame. Seriously.

TweakUI to modify your settings to how you want.
Hacked uxtheme.dll to run any theme you want.
AutoHotekey to create your own shortcuts. #a ect.
rainmeter to monitor your system stats.
rainlendar (if you desire)
Ultramon for dual window setups.

skilled1

Hum... Am I the only one who noticed that it's supposed to be "corral" not "coral"? One's a place to keep animals the other is a place for fish and plants to live in the ocean.

aikoto

Well, I have a triple screen (3840 x 1024 estate).

Whenever i tried to put something on my desktop (be it rainlandar, agenda, to-do-lsite, etc) I found out that my desktop is not the proper place : it is always cluttered by windows so I rarely see it, except a few seconds at startup, once a week or so.

Flocon

how about wallpaper clock from vlad studio

kaivti

Does anyone know how to embed a Palm Desktop Calendar to the Windows Desktop (similar to #3)? I understand one can sync the Palm to Outlook (and then embed the resulting Outlook calendar), but I'd rather not do that. Any suggestions?

KMT

@aikoto: I noticed too.

KMT

I always liked the option of transforming windows into another OS....whether it be Fedora, Ubuntu, Mac, etc. It kinda relates to a desktop, as far as functionality and usability.

[mybasementblog.blogspot.com]

My Basement Blog

I really like Samurize and Outlook on Desktop. With two monitors, I have my calendar on the right one, and a bunch of RSS feeds embedded on the left. Looks very cool semi-transparent, and it's very functional.

onesix18

@keynell: I'm a big fan of bginfo. Nice clean interface, the opposite of Samurize.

daddydave

Hey, I read a story on Lifehacker a few months ago, about putting a shell prompt in Compiz Fusion.
Anyone know how to embed a command prompt in a windows desktop??

nobeastsofierce

The two desktop tweaks I couldn't live without,

The first one is a free app called Switcher, available at: [insentient.net]

I work in graphic design so I end up using a Mac with OSX Leopard at work, and a PC with Windows Vista at home. One OSX feature that I absolutely love is 'expose' for quickly seeing and switching between all the windows I have open. While Windows does have alt-tab or win-tab (Flip3d) to accomplish this, simply putting my mouse in top right corner of my screen (or any other corner or key shortcut) and seeing everything spread out with live previews is much more convenient and functional. Switcher lets you do the same thing in windows and has helped to increase my productivity quite a bit.

Another app I love is Stardock's ObjectDock: [www.stardock.com]

There is a free version of it, and a 'plus' version for $20. The free one is fine for most people and will never nag you for money. This program gives you a attractive, functional, and fully customizable dock for quickly launching your most used programs and switching between programs you have open. (much like what OSX has)

Combining these two programs with Windows Vista gives me some of my favorite OSX features while allowing me to keep everything I love about the Windows platform. It's a win-win for me :)

lestat730

Do you remember back in the old days with Windows 3.1 the feature that allowed you to pin open folders where you grouped icons on your desktop? Who thought it was a good idea to remove that feature?

Do you know of anything like that?

I still miss that, after all these years.

Lilly252

@lestat730: Agreed on Switcher. And I use RocketDock instead of ObjectDock. Regardless, having a dock is nice.

Outlook on the Desktop doesn't behave well with SyncBack nightly backups. You need to shut it down or SyncBack can't copy your .PST file.

onesix18

*missing the days when the posts here auto-previewed.

Boter

@nobeastsofierce:

href="http://www.oreilly.com/catalog/winxphks/toc.html">Windows Xp Hacks by O'Reilly mention doing that with [www.mlin.net]

I used it once or twice, I didn't really like the Pseudo-Dos. I was looking for pure Cmd Prompt. But hey... give it a shot.

Boter

I've always thought of Lifehacker as a cool place to go for things to check out but which, because I'm fussy and set in my ways, I seldom use.

That Samurize hack, though? That's better than sliced bread! I love it. Thanks!

VenomousKate