[Esau of Isaac]

So for those that are more tech-savvy, how would I go about customizing my desktop? Icons, taskbars, so on and so forth?

I would like good recommendations, since I don't want to mess around with files that I shouldn't be, or something equally stupid.

[Heyman]

A very accessible place would be http://customize.org/

[LeVentNoir]

Get a mac. Have one icon, which is a link to your HDD, and use the dock for your most used applications and the finder explorer to get to your other things.

Then you can sit back and look at your lovely rotating wallpapers.

[Emperor Mccole]

LeVentNoir, on Apr 15 2009, 02:53 AM, said:

Get a mac... Then you can sit back and look at your lovely rotating wallpapers.

and do nothing else.

[BogdanSin]

I've seen this program, I forgot the name, I'm pretty sure you can just search for it on google. What it does, is that it basically turns your desktop into a cube, and the wallpapers interchange, so you can have like 6 wallpapers, it's also changes the desktop, you can right click and go straight to program files, it was pretty cool, but then I rebooted my computer and lost it D=

[Heyman]

LeVentNoir, on Apr 15 2009, 02:53 AM, said:

Get a mac. Have one icon, which is a link to your HDD, and use the dock for your most used applications and the finder explorer to get to your other things.

Then you can sit back and look at your lovely rotating wallpapers.

Or, you can ignore silly product promotion, and follow the guidelines by customize.org as you see fit.

[LJ Scott]

Step 1. Right click desktop > View > Uncheck Show Desktop Icons. Who wants desktop icons? They clutter everything up, and no matter how cool you think your icons look, a tidy desktop looks way better.

Step 2. Right click Taskbar > Properties > Check Auto-hide Taskbar. Same thing here, just taking up a pointless area of your screen.

Step 3. Get a decent wallpaper. Imo wallpapers shouldn't have too much going on in them. You can find decent walls at customise.org, DeviantArt, 4chans /wg/ board, and for decent walls of females, skins.be.

Your gonna be building your desktop around this wallpaper somewhat, so gotta choose something right.

Step 4. Download RocketDock. Install that, and add the files you access often to it. Also find yourself a decent skin for it and decent icons.

This is my rocketdock which is pretty simple:



You can find some pretty decent icons on the rocketdock site or customise.org Stuff like:



Another thing I have on my rocketdock is the stacklet widget. Which saves you adding multiple files that are similar. For example instead of having each individual OpenOffice program on there, I have one OOo icon, which links to a folder with the start up exe's for them all, like so:



Some people do this with games and what not. Your call.

Two final things I do with my rocketdock is set it to auto-hide, and make it as small as possible in size. I really hate clutter. I mean with auto-hide you scroll up, it pops down, and then magnifies where your clicking anyway. The effect is cooler than it dropping down at full size.

Step 5. Getting a bit more "tech-savvy" I guess, but it's still stupidly simple imo. Download Rainmeter. This is a system monitoring tool, but it allows you to add some pretty simple and useful tidbits. For example this is my one:



So there everything is an executable file linking to somewhere. So the weather section links to the 5 day forecast for Glasgow on weather.com. All the HDD's link to themselves and so on. Now mine is a custom bar a modded myself. It's based off a skin called Bar V2 iirc. I've added a HDD, weather, media controller and the time. Then resized and re-arranged everything. Pretty simple to do.

Anyways you can find the best skins at customise.org The one everyone seems to have is HUD.Vision v2.0, which is pretty nice and simple looking tbh. Anyways you choose what configs you want open so you don't have to have everything on the preview screen

So yeah have a look for skins you like, you can multiple running at once with several different configs running (widgets I guess).

Step 6. If you want a calender then I suggest Rainlendar. Really simple and looks decent. Mines pretty simple and just sits on the left of my desktop:



You can find decent skins again on customise.org


-------------------------------------

So thats pretty much the way to create a somewhat "impressive" looking desktop with little skill. Heres mine which is pretty boring and simple, but I like it. Wallpaper is of astrobelts, used to love them as a kid.




------------------------------------

Some other cool programs are:

Litestep - which replaces your desktop shell.
Samurize - pretty similar to rainmeter, tho you can make much nicer looking desktops with it. Some say it's easier to use, but I guess thats a personal preference.
WindowBlinds - again changing the shell.
Systemetrix - a pretty advanced system monitor, really for geeks who want to know everything from fan temps to uptime.


Gonna leave it there, casue I've even bored myself D:

[xoindotnler]

Does that count

[Kenadian_2006]

What happened to your lolis?

[Foggers]

Note to self - customise desktop when you get home.

[ender land]

LJ - is that for a mac? or is that something that works for windows too?

[LJ Scott]

I think some of the programs work with Macs tho not 100% sure since I have a PC. Anyways they're more designed for customising windows.

Also they're not CPU/RAM heavy or anything. My comp hardly even registers them running in the back ground.

[Redoran]

LJ scott, I love you.

[ender land]

LJ Scott, on Apr 15 2009, 01:12 PM, said:

I think some of the programs work with Macs tho not 100% sure since I have a PC. Anyways they're more designed for customising windows.

Also they're not CPU/RAM heavy or anything. My comp hardly even registers them running in the back ground.

Sweet, I am going to have a blast when I get home with that stuff

[Esau of Isaac]

Thanks a bunch. I hadn't known about the hiding taskbar. I plan on installing rainmeter, and definitely rocketdock, or one of the similar programs, and I was able to find an awesome animated background of the Matrix code, which I've literally been looking for for years.

Quote

What happened to your lolis?

I still have them, I just don't know how to set up icons

[Kenadian_2006]

Well, that's good for you then Kyle. Just have a good explanation for the lolis when Hansen comes knocking. )):

[abdur]

LJ Scott, on Apr 15 2009, 02:12 PM, said:

I think some of the programs work with Macs tho not 100% sure since I have a PC. Anyways they're more designed for customising windows.

Also they're not CPU/RAM heavy or anything. My comp hardly even registers them running in the back ground.

Mac, Check!

[Rokula]

Esau of Isaac, on Apr 14 2009, 11:09 PM, said:

So for those that are more tech-savvy, how would I go about customizing my desktop? Icons, taskbars, so on and so forth?

I would like good recommendations, since I don't want to mess around with files that I shouldn't be, or something equally stupid.

LiteStep my friend.