Showing posts with label xp. Show all posts
Showing posts with label xp. Show all posts
1

Rainmeter - desktop customization platform

Rainmeter is an incredibly customizable performance meter for your PC's desktop.

Once a relatively complicated application, Rainmeter developers have increasingly striven to make the meter's interface more user friendly. This trend started with the 1.0 release and continues now that 2.0 is available. In fact, Rainmeter can do some pretty cool things to your windows desktop, and it's easier than ever now to apply new settings.

Rainmeter now comes pre-installed with a theme called "Enigma", which is a great example of how cool your desktop can look. You can add clocks, calendars, and RSS, as well as a whole range of system monitors. And that's just the beginning. Virtually everything on Rainmeter is customizable, and there are scores of other themes you can download for free to give your desktop a really personal feel.

Enigma has been included specifically because it makes your desktop into a really functional space. You can move different meter windows around on a whim, edit their skins relatively easily, tweak the transparency, and even make them disappear completely. As a way of freshening your desktop, Rainmeter is absolutely fantastic.

While Rainmeter has improved its user friendliness substantially, beginners can still easily get lost in the configuration options and settings. There's really not much reason to mess around with them at all though, unless you want to create your own look. Adding new skins is now much easier and doesn't require coding, although if you want a challenge the option to personalize with your own code is still available.



Rainmeter shows how easy it is to personalize Windows and quite effortlessly revolutionize its looks.

Pros

Pre-installed with stylish Enigma skin
Usability greatly improved
Adds great widgets to your desktop

Cons

Still room for simplification!
2

Madotate - 3D Desktop for Windows





If you find your desktop gets overwhelmed by too many open windows there are a number of solutions, from the extravagent like investing in a second monitor, to applications that try to give you an expanded workspace, like the spaces feature of Apple's OSX Leopard.

Madotate is a free English language version of a Japanese developed tool that adds a fourth button to the top right of your windows. Alongside close, full-screen and minimize appears a 3D button. Clicking it will transform your window into a tabbed 3D image, which takes up much less room.

The app was designed for Windows 2000/WP, but also seems to run fine in Vista. The only problem we found was with Adobe Air programs - they don't crash or slow down, but don't transform properly. This was developed before Adobe Air, and unfortunately hasn't been updated since. The 3D effect is quite cool, but if you've played with Deskspace it seems pretty basic in comparison, although Madotate has the advantage of being free.

Matodate is a resource friendly way to add a space saving 3D effect to your windows.

Pros
  • Doesn't require a lot of resources
  • Can improve space management
  • Cool 3D effect
Cons
  • Not 100% compatible with some new programs
Download : http://madotate.en.softonic.com/

 
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