GeekToolcan get you awesome results likethison a Mac. And Windows users can take advantage ofRainmeter, which is an elaborate way of placing all sorts of information on your desktop. But they’re pretty complicated applications, requiring a fair bit of tinkering to get your desktop looking and feeling the way you want it.
For those of you looking for simpler alternatives that will let you turn your desktop into a useful and productive environment, minus a ton of elbow grease, this list is for you. From using your desktop as a simple calendar to a fully fledged system monitoring tool, you can get as creative as you want with how you use your desktop.
Desktop wallpaper calendars
Your wallpaper can be a great productivity tool. Smashing Magazine provides new and gorgeous wallpapers every month, complete with a calendar, and there’s still time to use one of the 25 options available forJuly. Rather than launching iCal, Google Calendar, or whatever calendar app you happen to use, what could be easier than minimizing your browser and glancing at the date immediately?
Calling all Scaleup founders! Join the Soonicorn Summit on November 28 in Amsterdam.
Meet with the leaders of Picnic, Miro, Carbon Equity and more during this exclusive event dedicated to Scaleup Founders!
If you’d rather put together your own calendar using an image of your choice, BigHugeLabs has a niftywallpaperweb app which lets you choose the image, month and resolution.
Desktop for SWOT analysis
A while back, Flickr user Nils Geylen posted an interestingideaon how to use your desktop wallpaper for aSWOTanalysis. The wallpaper is divided into four sections – Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats.
You can use it to analyze your work on a daily, weekly, or even monthly basis. You can drag folders, documents, or any kind of shortcut, into each square, and you can useSticky Noteson your Mac orStickieson Windows to write lists. At a glance, you can see how your day or week is progressing and what needs to be done to improve it.
There are other variations that can be used with this concept. If SWOT analysis doesn’t work for you, you can create something similar, dividing up the screen using a system that works for you. You can easily create the wallpaper using any image editing software, such as Gimp, Photoshop or even Paint.
Put a news ticker on your desktop
If you need to keep up with breaking news, or posts from specific sites, placing a news ticker on your desktop is a great way to make your desktop useful and informative.Snackris a pretty cool cross-platform option.
You can sync Snackr with Google Reader, or import an OPML file, or just use it to keep up with select sites or Twitter users you need to follow.
Also be sure to go into Snackr’s preferences and disable the ‘keep on top’ option, so that it sits on your desktop, visible only when you need it.
Smart Desktop [Windows only]
Smart Desktop is a new app available for download fromDeviantArt. While infinitely easier to figure out than GeekTool and Rainmeter, you do have to install a few fonts, some of which are probably already on your computer, and Windows 7 users have to change the compatibility settings. Right-click the Smart Desktop .exe file before installing, select the Compatibility tab and under Compatibility mode selectRun this program in compatibility mode for Windows (Service Pack 2).
To get the most out of Smart Desktop, you should clear your desktop of any icons, since you will be able to launch apps from it anyway. The app puts the weather, time, a calendar and CPU information within easy reach. You can use it as a program launcher, a place to easyily access your favourite links, and more. The app isn’t without its glitches though – you can’t add or remove programs from the launcher which makes it a little less personal, and the weather can only be set to a US zip code. The program is in beta, however, and we can probably expect developments in the future.
Wallpaper Clocks
It’s all well and good having a little clock in your system track or menu bar, but what if you could have a handy clock in your wallpaper? WithVladstudio‘s wallpaper clocks that’s exactly what you get. So that the available wallpapers work, Windows users have to downloadDexClockorChameleon Clock, while Mac users have to installWallpaper Clock. Once you’ve got it set up, you can choose from the free and paid wallpapers. which give you a visually appealing and convenient way to check the time on your computer.
Widgets
There’s no limit to the kinds of widgets you can install on your desktop. While having many widgets installed isn’t ideal, as it can bog your system down, there are a few useful widgets that you can keep on your desktop to make you more productive.
Think of the websites or services that you use on a regular basis and see if there’s a desktop widget for them. For example, if you use Dropbox on a regular basis to upload and share files with others, the Mac Dashboardwidgetmakes it easy to upload files to your public folder and automatically copies the url to your clipboard. Windows users can take advantage of sidebar gadgets. An example of a really useful gadget available for Windows 7 users is theClipboard Manager, which can be a huge time-saver. If you useWolfram Alphaon a regular basis, a desktopgadgetwill make you even more efficient.
Windows and Mac users can also check outGoogle Desktopto see if there are any useful apps, which will make you more productive, and can be accessed by minimizing your browser.
Do you known any more cool ways of making your desktop more useful? Let us know in the comments.
Story byNancy Messieh
Lesotho-born and raised, Nancy Messieh, The Next Web’s Middle East Editor, is an Egyptian writer and photographer based in Cairo, Egypt. Fol(show all)Lesotho-born and raised, Nancy Messieh, The Next Web’s Middle East Editor, is an Egyptian writer and photographer based in Cairo, Egypt. Follow her onTwitter,her siteorGoogle+or get in touch at nancy@thenextweb.com
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