Pimp Your Desktop, Rainmeter Style

[Hooch Tan]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.maximumpc.com/article/howtos/howto_deck_out_your_desktop_rainmeter' target='_blank'>http://www.maximumpc.com/article/ho...sktop_rainmeter</a><br /><br /></div><p><em>"There's a lot you can do with Rainmeter thanks to a diverse collection of available 'skins' (think of them as widgets), all of which can be individually tailored in look and function. There are skins for keeping tabs on system resources, displaying RSS feeds, sending and receiving Twitter messages, and even recording notes."</em></p><p><img src="http://images.thoughtsmedia.com/resizer/thumbs/size/600/dht/auto/1264619131.usr20447.jpg" style="border: 1px solid #d2d2bb;" /></p><p>I have always resisted the whole widget craze, despite having moments of weakness every few months.&nbsp; Why?&nbsp; Well, I could never accept the compromise of reduced performance that comes with them.&nbsp; I still habitually keep my desktop clean of icons just so my computer does not have to render them anytime I minimize all my windows.&nbsp; Of course, these days, computers generally have a lot more horsepower than a user knows what to do with, so the return of widgets may be imminent.&nbsp; Maximum PC has a workup on Rainmeter, one of the top contenders for this space and yes, it does offer a lot of neat skins that can provide some use.&nbsp; Considering how there is an increased amount of information flow through the real-time Web, having dedicated sections of your desktop for Twitter, RSS feeds, etc. makes more sense now than it did before.&nbsp; How many of you use Rainmeter or some other form of widget manager?&nbsp; For me, I will probably stay with my plain, blank desktop.&nbsp; Old habits die hard.</p>

[Reid Kistler]

One of those interesting areas of personal preference. Run the Vista sidebar every now & then for a while - then turn it off for a spell - then put it back on again (it is Off currently), but have never tried any of the other available options, including Rainmeter, although CAN understand their appeal.

In a similar vein, do not employ desktop graphics beyond choosing one of the pre-packaged ones - and used to always revert to one of the plainest backgrounds possible, usually a solid dark blue.

OTOH, my desktop IS littered with icons, even though only a handful are ever used: got used to Launchy on XP, and find that the built-in Search function in Vista works just fine.

AND, have always keep a bunch of widget-like features on my PPC: as many as could possibly fit on the Today Screen - or even Just Off of it!

Part of this probably is speed: the same speed that makes it less of a performance hit to have a bunch of items open ALSO makes it NEARLY instantaneous to simply call them up whenever needed - and this is especially true if you have a fast internet connection: the type of information that it made sense to pull down in the background over a slower connection is now, also, available At Once upon opening a browser...