Just as you have one heart, and one brain, your Windows installation comes with but one desktop. Sure, you can change the look of this digital meeting space by applying new wallpapers, or adding sidebars and widgets, or letting Windows 7 do all that automatic stuff that it does every ten minutes or so. But that's not really changing the desktop per se--at the end of the day, you're still blessed (or cursed) with the same ol' functionality that's been a staple of the Windows platform since its inception.

That's about to change.

There are quite a number of tools out there for stretching the core functionality of your desktop in new directions. Some of these third-party replacements keep your standard setup and add a unique extension--like a 360-degree wallpaper that you can scroll through with mouse gestures. Fun stuff, huh?  Other tools are a bit more comprehensive in their objectives, allowing for a total retrofit of very core of your desktop's operation. In these cases, gone are the typical organizational structures, options, and extensions you can pack into a Windows desktop--it's all brand-new and editable in ways you might have never previously thought were possible.

The best way to really get a feel for what's out there is to see it in action. So we're going to take a look at three unique desktop enhancement tools--one 3D, one  shell replacement, and one widget-based service--and see just how they stack up versus the usability of the trusty Windows setup we've all come to know and love (or hate.)

BumpTop

We'll start our trip down desktop-replacement name with one of the bigger transformations you can make. The desktop is, after all, a two-dimensional experience. Whatever you do is confined to a flat surface on your screen--one single plane for creating shortcuts, moving files, or what-have-you. BumpTop breaks the fourth wall of the desktop and invites you into a new experience that's completely three-dimensional.

Don't break out the goofy glasses just yet. The effect is obviously a three-dimensional cube rendered on your two-dimensional monitor. Still, it's a unique replacement to the traditional Windows desktop that interfaces perfectly with its predecessor: any file commands you make in one will be reflected on the other, and quitting out of BumpTop (if the extra dimension is just too much to handle) returns you to your normal Windows environment without issue.

Awesome

Reactivity: Like a team of hockey players, your icons will go sailing around the desktop at the slightest touch or toss from your mouse. They'll slam into other icons and jostle them around, and bounce up against the sides of BumpTop's cubic desktop as if they missed a body check. It's a simple tweak, but it does much to liven up your desktop compared to Windows' default setup.

Gestures: Provided your input device supports it (a standard mouse does not), BumpTop reacts to gesture-based controls like a tweaked-out version of Apple's iPhone (or similar touch-friendly device). Pinch and pull your BumpTop elements to control their size, shove icons out of the way with the side of your finger, and flick through stacked icons as if you were flipping pages on a moleskin notebook, amongst other activities.

New Organization: Not only do you have access to Windows' default right-click menus with a simple ctrl+click in Bumptop, but you can also use the program's enhanced organizational tools--like lasso-selection, icon piles, and folderizing features--to bring even more control and clarity to your desktop use.

 Social Support: Built-in canvases not only give you a rotating display for your system's pictures (or online picture feeds), but you can also integrate Facebook, Twitter, and email updates directly into the walls of your 3D display. Who needs RSS when you have dynamic picture frames?

Unfortunate

Widgets: It's not that BumpTop doesn't support third-party widgets. Rather, there's no direct online community--accessible through Bumptop itself--for building more functionality into your 3D display. You can always hunt around on the Internet to find more widgets and themes... but why should you?

Lasso Selection: I get how to select files and icons on the main display. However, to use the integrated Lasso tool to select elements on your desktop's vertical walls, you... well. You can't do anything--lasso only works with elements on your flat, traditional desktop within BumpTop.

Not Really 3D: I get it. BumpTop creates 3D walls for you to pin various desktop elements on. But it's not as if the program is making Doom-style sprites to simulate the illusion of depth. No matter how much you shift the camera around, the icons on the "desktop" portion of your Bumptop Cube will always appear as flat as Stanley--not a very convincing 3D experience.

Pesky Integration: BumpTop does its best to switch over to Windows Explorer for elements it just can't handle--like dealing with a large number of files in a List view-type format. That said, not only do typical Windows shortcuts (Windows key+e) not work in Bumptop, but it just feels a little silly to be constantly switching between Windows Explorer for some uses and BumpTop for others. That's not much of a desktop replacement, as it were--why can't BumpTop just slap some three-dimensional effects on a giant list view?

Next up, we'll look at LightStep, which lets you customize every part of your Windows UI.

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LightStep

Now we're getting to the big guns. LightStep is a complete replacement for the standard Windows Shell--otherwise known as Windows' default GUI for everything you do on the software, period. If BumpTop was just an addon overtop your existing desktop, you can think of LightStep as a new renter--you might still own the house and the core functionality that goes underneath the application, but your desktop is going to look nothing like its previous incarnation once you're done installing LightStep. Your start menu is going to be completely different; your taskbar is going to be completely different (or eliminated). Every bit of the core experience has the potential to be changed with this application.

Before you begin, you're going to want to make sure that you have both Internet Explorer 4 or greater installed on your machine as well as the DLL files for both Visual C++ 8 (2005) and Visual C++ 9 (2008). Don't worry if you have no idea what any of this means--LightStep's installer application, or LOSI, will scan your system for these requirements and direct you to the proper download location if you're missing an element or two.

 A user-created theme

Awesome

Massive Configurability: Go at your own pace. Want a desktop that's packed with add-ons and extra information elements?  You can integrate new features by downloading a wide assortment of open-source modules that extend new capacities into your shell replacement.

Complete Reawakening: LightStep gives you the ability to radically change the desktop experience into whatever you want. Remove all click-context actions and rely on moving icons to access your system's vital functions, or build even more characteristics into middle-click and right-click menus. It's but one example in the haystack of LightStep's configurable options. You can turn your desktop from a shortcut-ridden wasteland into an actual launching pad, should you so choose.

Automated Support: Lightstep is based on themes, which themselves are packages of modules and wallpapers that transform LightStep's core in significant ways. Installing a new theme is as easy as downloading the .zip file and dumping it in LightStep's themes directory. The program will automatically grab any specific modules you're missing from the Interwebs.

It's Still Windows: LightStep doesn't fundamentally change the underlying architecture of your machine. Play all the games you used to play and launch programs that run just as smoothly as they did before: Lightstep is a shell replacement, not a full-fledged Windows takeover.

Unfortunate

What the Heck: I'm not going to lie. You're going to be completely shell-shocked the first time you step into the LightStep interface. The learning curve isn't great, but there's still going to be a bit of "what the heck is wrong with my desktop" built into any new theme you download. Some themes might not even contain the common Windows interactions you're used to having (like the highlighting of icons you click on.)

Windows 7?  Good luck. I couldn't get LightStep's most recent, full client to work on Windows 7 without the operating system and shell extension battling it out for supremacy. Battling, that is, until the latter crashed. And that's after I realized I had to run everything in Administrator mode, too.

A Downloader's Market: Editing the configurations of LightStep isn't a GUI affair-you have to hack your way through a sea of text files and a smorgasbord of code in order to achieve any kind of tweaks to whatever it is you've installed. Creating your own custom interface takes work!

Instability: LightStep is far more crash-prone than your standard Windows interface. I'm not saying this application is nuclear. But be prepared for some system restarts if you're switching between themes to find ones you like most, for example. As well, there's no vetting for themes and modules in this open-source modification: If something is coded incorrectly, you won't realize it until you try and switch over to the theme for the first time.

Finally, we'll look at Rainmeter, which lets you rebuild your desktop with custom widgets.

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Rainmeter

Unlike LightStep, which seeks to complete replace the very core of your user interface in Windows, Rainmeter is more analogous to a layer in PhotoShop. Your primary Windows desktop elements run at the very bottom of the stack--you don't lose common interface options like your start button, your taskbar, nor the layout or functionality of the icons gracing your desktop itself, amongst others. Like a bundled series of widgets, Rainmeter sits on top of your normal desktop and spruces the place up with transparent widgets that provide additional access or features you can't otherwise build into a standard Windows desktop.

Don't like what you see?  Turn off skins or themed skin packages at will. And you're always within a few clicks of disabling Rainmeter entirely if the extra tweaks and enhancements just aren't what you need at the moment. You won't have to restart your computer, nor will you suffer any performance or rendering problems in restarting Rainmeter at will.

Awesome

Simplicity: For the most part, Rainmeter is extraordinarily easy to set up and install. You don't have to futz around with shell replacements or the reloading of your default Windows GUI. Turn the program on, watch your widgets appear, and relax.

GUI-based configuration: Sort-of.  You can edit the basic properties of an item using one of two screens-a skin configuration element that's a part of the right-click context menu, or via the skin browser's configuration menu itself.  You don't get to muck around with the inner workings of a skin (like changing the location for the weather display), but you can position and toggle mouse-based interactivity as you see fit. And you can always click-and-drag on the skin itself to move it around your desktop!

One Big Puzzle: Want to mix and match elements from multiple suites of skins?  Go right ahead. You can call up new skins via the desktop, or use Rainmeter's handy skins browser to add and disable skins (as well as configure their options)

Excellent Support: If you're confused about how to actually use Rainmeter, you'll greatly benefit from the developers' comprehensive support tutorials. They walk you line by line through Rainmeter's basics--screenshots included--and even dip into more advanced functionality like, gasp, how to build your own skins through text-based configuration files! 

Unfortunate

Lack of Centralization: Like other programs, there really isn't a single centralized repository (a la Mozilla's Firefox Add-ons database) where you can browse through themes, plugins, et cetera. Word-of-mouth for awesome new hacks to the platform is one way to go about finding new uses for Rainmeter, but it certainly isn't the best way.

Lowest Common Denominator: If you're new to rainmeter, and want to edit a skin, you'll probably try to click on the "edit settings" option after you've right-clicked on the skin in question. Right?  Wrong--that's the text-based editing tool. Although it's correct and, ideally, the best way to perfectly tweak exactly what you want a skin to do... Rainmeter could stand to incorporate a "basic" and "advanced" mode for those who want to change display options only versus those who want to reinvent the wheel.

Snappy Installation: Instead of having to physically copy new themes and skins into Rainmeter's proper directory, it would be nice to have a simple file extension that automatically does the heavy lifting for you. At least you can delete themes via the theme browser, eh?

Moar GUI, please: When you have to wade through a complicated text file just to change the location that a skin displays the weather for, something's wrong. Give developers more customizable, configurable GUIs for editing options!

 

So which desktop replacement tool is best for you?  Honestly, I'd put my vote on Rainmeter. LightStep is powerful, but problematic--hours of fiddling with options, themes, and configurations made me long for the simplicity (and boringness) of the simple Windows desktop. BumpTop is unique, but I can't see it being very useful for a user that requires a desktop that's fun and functional. Rainmeter delivers great customizations with a touch of complexity: Still, it's a lot more navigable than you'd expect, and it's crash-resistant overlay does much to spruce up a boring ol' desktop display.

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software.  

From Google Desktop to the Windows Sidebar introduced in Vista, there have been several attempts to integrate our online life onto our desktop. But none of them come close to Rainmeter, a totally customizable platform for decking out your desktop with a variety of useful applets that can stand prominently in the foreground or blend into the background.

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.

Rainmeter isn't at all difficult to use, but there is an initial learning curve as you come to understand just how powerful this unassuming app really is. On the following pages, we'll guide you through the setup process and show you the ins and outs of using Rainmeter. We'll also highlight the 12 best skins out of the hundreds that are available to give you a head start on decking out your desktop like never before.

Hit the jump and let the fun begin!

Rainmeter vs HTMLifying Your Desktop

Long time readers of Maximum PC magazine may recall that several years back we printed a tutorial showing you how to HTMLify your desktop (courtesy of Google Books, you can still read the guide in the July 2003 issue starting on page 56). In it, recently resigned Editor-in-Chief Will Smith showed you how to add HTML elements to your desktop background and even embed a large webpage right smack dab in the center of your display. It was a pretty awesome trick with several upshots, all of which are improved upon with Rainmeter.

Rainmeter essentially streamlines the process of HTMLifying your desktop by allowing you to easily add all kinds of online elements to your display, be they RSS readers, a Twitter feed, Facebook updates, and really just about anything you want. It's a highly flexible platform, too. Code junkies may want to write their own applets, while those who are intimidated by a Command Prompt can still jump in and easily customize any skin without ever feeling lost or overwhelmed.

Sounds Like Samurize

Image Credit: customize.org

Rainmeter isn't the only app of its kind, and the biggest alternative is probably Samurize. The two are similar in what they can do, but Rainmeter's generally easier to use, especially with the latest update. Rainmeter also boasts better OS compatibility and fully embraces both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors of Windows, including Redmond's latest, Windows 7.

Comparisons aside, here's a brief rundown of what Rainmeter offers:

• System Monitor - keep a constant watch on how much heavy lifting your CPU is doing, your network activity, how much drive space is remaining, and more, and all without firing up the obtrusive Task Manager.
• Stay Connected - view RSS feeds, social networking updates, incoming email, the weather, and other Web-based content without loading up another browser window or tab.
• App Management - Rainmeter's app management is limitless, bound only by what you want to do. Arrange commonly used apps in a custom dock, or create your own launchers.
• Fully Customizable - you have full control over every aspect of Rainmeter, including the look, function, and placement. And all of these can be changed on a whim, whether it's adjusting the transparency of a skin, or changing the source of an RSS feed.

Using Rainmeter

Sounds pretty great, right? It is, and you can get started by downloading a copy of Rainmeter from here. Rainmeter installs just like any other app, and with the latest release (version 1.1), it also comes bundled with the popular Enigma suite of skins, as well as a couple of handy tools (RainBrowser and RainThemes) for managing everything.

You'll notice several different elements when you load Rainmeter for the first time, all of which are part of the Enigma suite, and all of which can be customized. There's a taskbar at the bottom with several launchers (iTunes, Picasa, Firefox, Notepad, and Trillian), plus a system monitor pushed over to the right side. All of these can be changed or substituted, which we'll get to in a little bit.

On the right you'll notice a transparent sidebar containing a news feed, the date/time, a notes section, and other odds and ends. And in the middle of the screen is a control panel, which we'll focus on first.

One way to customize the default Enigma skin is by pressing the Configuration button on the control panel (you can also access this by clicking the middle mouse button on the Sidebar). Enigma comes preconfigured with a ton of applets, most of which are self explanatory. Streaming information to your desktop begins by filling out the appropriate fields. To view Twitter feeds, for example, you would click on and fill out the TwitterUsername and TwitterPassword fields. Be warned, however, that Enigma doesn't hide your password, so not only will anyone standing behind you be able to see what you're typing in, but so too can anyone who has access to your PC.

Other settings you'll encounter include Google Calendar, RSS feeds, hard drive information, and other odds and ends. Once you've filled out the appropriate fields, your next step is to make them show up. For this, you'll use the familiar right-click context menu specially designed for Rainmeter. On the sidebar or custom taskbar, right-click and take a peek at the menus. It's a little confusing at first, but once you poke around and get acclimated to the terms, you'll be whizzing through the menus in no time. For now, the one you're looking for is the Configs menu, as this holds all the skins that are installed. Not all skins share the same layout, so be sure to poke around to see what all is offered.

Let's say we want to enable our Twitter feed in the Sidebar. To do so, we would right-click and navigate to Configs>Enigma>Sidebar>>Reader>Twitter-Reader. In there you'll see an entry for TwitterReader.ini. Rainmeter's magic works by reading .ini files (short for initialization), which are text files containing configuration information for Windows. We'll dive into this in a minute, but for now, click/check the box to the left of TwitterReader.ini.

Don't see the applet you just enabled? That's because it doesn't show up on the Sidebar by default, and instead is sitting in the upper left corner of your desktop. Applets float freely on your desktop, so relocating them is as easy and clicking in dragging, but usually not right in the center. In this case, you'll notice two faint lines bordering the Twitter applet, one on the top and one on the bottom. Click on either of these and drag it anywhere on your desktop, including the Sidebar. You can also click on your Twitter feed to load up your Twitter account in your default browser.

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RainBrowser

There's so much you can do with Rainmeter, it's easy to get overwhelmed, and that's where the RainBrowser helps out immensely. If you open up the Start menu and expand the Rainmeter folder, you'll find a shortcut to the RainBrowser. Or you can right-click the Sidebar or any of Rainmeter's applets and navigate to Configs>Manage Skins.

RainBrowser packs a bunch of useful information into an easy-to-navigate window, and if you're ever in doubt an applet's function, this is the place to look. Listed in the Active tab are all the active applets currently running. When you highlight an entry, the associated .ini file will be listed in the bottom box under Skins and Variants. If you click on this, RainBrowser's main box window will list out the configuration file's vitals, such as a description, instructions on how to use it, who designed it, the version number, and more.

Underneath this section you'll find two different sets of actions you can perform, one for just that applet (called a 'skin'), or global actions for all loaded applets. If you've made changes to an applet's configuration file, you'll need to Refresh Skin before the changes take effect, and you can do that here, among other self-explanatory actions (Unload Skin, for example).

You can also make visual changes to the applet by clicking on Edit Skin. Doing so updates the main window with different settings, allowing you do things like adjust the transparency, configure an applet to fade in, out, or hide when mousing over it, whether or not to make it draggable, and a few other options.

RainBrowser isn't required to manipulate a skin; you can make the same changes by editing the associated .ini file. To edit Enigma's Notes applet, for example, you would locate the .ini file on your hard, which is located at:

C:\[USERNAME\Documents\Skins\Enigma\Sidebar\Notes

Alternately, you can right-click the Sidebar and click Config>Edit Skins' Folder and navigate from there. Once there, double-click the Notes.ini file (or any other configuration file you want to alter) to open it up and edit as desired.

It's important to remember that everything that appears on screen is a skin/applet. This includes the Sidebar itself, which is nothing more than a vertical bar. Other applets that appear on the Sidebar aren't actually attached to it, they just sit on top of it. If you wanted to, you could move the Sidebar around your desktop and leave it unoccupied, or cover your regular desktop icons with.

By playing around with the Transparency and Fade In/Out settings, you can piece together a really slick looking desktop that will be the envy of any who see it.

RSS Feeds

One of the best ways to utilize Rainmeter is by setting up RSS feeds so you're constantly updated on whatever interests you -- be it world events or tech news -- no matter what you're doing. Setting them up, however, can be a little trickly, at least at first.

If you're running the stock Enigma skin-set, click the middle mouse button on the Sidebar to bring up the EnigmaConfigure window. You'll see three entries for RSS feeds, each of which can be customized. Highlight one of them and enter in the RSS URL you're interested in following. For Maximum PC, the URL is http://www.maximumpc.com/articles/all/feed. Press Set to save the change.

Next you need to enable the RSS feed to show up in the Sidebar. Simply right-click and navigate to Configs>Enigma>Sidebar>Reader>RSSReader and check ReaderRSS.ini.

There are two things to note here. First, any changes you make to each RSS's URL field won't be reflected until you refresh Enigma. Right-click and select Refresh All, and all of your applets will be updated with any new info. Secondly, if you want to give your RSS feeds a more descriptive title than 'News,' you'll need to poke around the actual .ini file. In this case, you can find them at:

C:\[USERNAME\Documents\Skins\Enigma\Sidebar\Reader

You'll see three folders here, RSS-Reader, RSS-Reader2, and RSS-Reader3. Each one contains an individual .ini file, so to change the title of the first RSS reader, open up the folder and double-click/edit ReaderRSS.ini. It may look a little confusing at first glance, but scroll down about halfway until you see:

[Title]
Meter=STRING
MeasureName=Feed
Text="News"

The Text entry is the one we're after, as we want a more descriptive title than just 'News.' Change this to something like Maximum PC News, and be sure to enclose the title in quotes. Save your changes, and then refresh Enigma as shown above.

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Dissecting a Rainmeter INI File

Okay, so editing an RSS feed's title is pretty easy, but what's all that other junk contained in the .ini files? If you plan on doing a lot of editing, or even making your own skins, you'll want to familiarize yourself with the different terms and file structure. Here's how it breaks down:

Metadata: This section is where a skin's author can include important information about his applet, including the name and version number, but also specific instructions on how to use it.

Measures: Aptly named measures are used to measure system stats such as the time and date, or to pluck information from a website, such as the local weather, among many other tasks. In short, measures tell Rainmeter what it needs to do.

Meters: These describe how Rainmeter outputs a measure, be it with a histogram, an image, a button, and a bunch of other options.

Variables: Variables are keywords that will be repeatedly used in a skin and are sort of like a master list. To use Rainmeter's example (which we'll link below), if you set a variable for the size of a font to use on all meters as FontSize=11, you would then use FontSize=#FontSize# in each meter. This way, you can change the font size in all your meters later on by just changing the master variable (from 11 to 13, for example), rather than editing each meter.

For a more in depth break down of skins and Rainmeter's nomenclature, see both here and here.

Installing Skins

Now that you have a pretty good idea how Rainmeter works, it's time to start experimenting with skins, which is where the real fun begins. You'll find user-created skins all over the Web, but we suggest poking around these sites:

• Customize.org
• SkinBase.org
• DeviantArt.com

When you find a skin you want to try out, download and unzip the archive. You should find a folder with the name of the skin you just downloaded, and you'll need to place this in:

C:\Users\[Username]\Documents\Rainmeter\Skins

You'll also find a Skins folder under the Rainmeter directory in your Program Files, but putting them there won't do you any good. After you've transferred your skin to the correct location (and, if applicable, installed any included fonts by copying them over to C:\Windows\Fonts), right-click the Sidebar and click Refresh All. To load applets from your new skin, right-click again and navigate to Configs. You should see the skin(s) you just installed, and you would use them just like you did with Enigma.

Quick Tips

Don't be afraid to play around with different skins by mixing and matching them. There's no need to restrict yourself to a single skin, and in many cases, downloaded skins only offer a handful of applets to play around with, such as a customized clock or system monitor. Skins like Enigma, which contain a whole host of applets, are fairly rare compared to all the skins that are available.

Your choice of wallpaper will also play a big role in how your skin(s) look on your desktop. Combining a skin that makes use of a futuristic sci-fi font or Star Trek them will look pretty silly on a Spongebob background, but will be right at home with a wallpaper depicting space scenes. And if your skin doesn't blend in quite like you hoped, either try a different wallpaper, edit your wallpaper, or play with the transparency settings.

After spending a ton of time mixing, matching, and customizing your desktop with Rainmeter, the last thing you want to do is start the process all over again following a system reboot, which, at minimum, you should be performing once a month (Patch Tuesday). And nor do you have to. When you have your desktop just the way you like it, save it as a theme. Right-click and select Themes>Manage Themes. Enter a name in the blank field and click Save. As you play with other themes and skins, you can always return to your custom setup by selecting the saved theme from Themes>Manage Themes.

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12 Kick Ass Skins

There are a lot of awesome third-party skins to play with, just as there are a lot of duds. To get you started, we're going to show you a handful of our favorites and where you can get them. Have a favorite of your own? Be sure to post it in the comments section below!

Simplicity Black

Image Credit: AKH-Arazand

Just as the name implies, this is a basic theme decked out in black. Looks great on a light backgrounds, especially Vista's stock green wallpaper, and will save you a ton of time if you're jonesing for all black text but aren't in the mood to go on an editing-frenzy on another theme. It's not nearly as robust as Enigma or some of the other fully fleshed themes, but does include just about everything you need if you're primarily looking for a system monitor, and it includes applets designed for both the Sidebar and Taskbar. And don't forget you can mix and match skins.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/46829

Black Glass

Image Credit: LAvalon

Another fairly simple skin, Black Glass includes all the components to assemble a high-tech looking sidebar, which it owes to its digital-inspired font. Among the included modules you'll find a calendar, clock, HDD monitor, system monitor, and WinAMP applet. There's also a blank box, which you could edit the size and create a blank slate for a custom sidebar or taskbar.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/48761

Taranbeer

Image Credit: mani0008

Taranbeer provides a variety of system monitors to get you started, but the gem here is the clock, which looks decidedly futuristic. Because of the bright while text, this one looks best on a dark background, and is a great choice to combine with other skins. For an example of how well it meshes with others, check out the Starview theme here.

http://mani008.diaviantart.com/art/Taranbeer-Rainmeter-126619432

BlueFeed

A must-have for any serious RSS nut, BlueFeed does one thinng and one thing only, and that's serve up RSS feeds in a big way. The blue text on black background is very easy to read, and it comes ready to serve up to anywhere from 10-40 RSS items. Never miss a news story again!

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/59532

StickeCalendar

Image Credit: gbernal

A no-frills skin best suited for the office environment, and much friendlier on the forest than those dead-tree tear-away calendars! Comes ready to be configured with an assortment of colors.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/63487

Xpert 2

Image Credit: Gabro

One of the relatively few skins to include a ton of applets, you'll find just about everything you're looking for in Xpert 2, even applets for the word of the day and quote of the day. But far from a hokey skin, you'll also find a news reader with 63 RSS feeds, some of the best looking system monitoring applets available, clocks, calendars, and plenty more.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/40973

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Carbon Fiber Meter

Carbon Fiber Meter only does two things: Display CPU and Memory usuage. We only wish it threw GPU vitals into the mix, because it's ideally suited for car tweakers and overclockers alike, two hobbies which often run parallel.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/34232

Terminator

Can't bring yourself to toss out those Terminator VHS tapes? Then this is the skin for you, but you better hurry, because we don't know how long it will be hosted. The main page for the popular Terminator skin no longer shows up on Customize.org, but the original download link still works (see below), so grab it while you can. Then plaster your desktop with a handful of applets, including the obligatory system monitor and calendar, but also a pretty extensive control panel. In the screenshot above, we plucked a Terminator wallpaper off of Google images and combined the skin with Rainmeter's bundled Wing Firefox theme, which essentially adds the funky looking clock you see in the middle.

http://customize.org/download/files/62811/Terminator_theme.zip

Fade to Black

A great looking skin on white backgrounds, Fade to Black offers a respectable number of applets. Not as varied as Enigma or Xpert 2, but in addition to system monitors, email, RSS feeds, and various other odds and ends, Fade to Black throws a curveball by including a tastefully framed image scroller. Configure it to scroll through vacation pictures to help make it through the work day.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/62461

Facebook Notifcations

At this stage in the social networking game, it's a safe bet you're using Facebook, and this skin will allow you to keep tabs on what's going on without checking your account every 15 minutes. Nothing more, nothing less. To configure it, sign into your Facebook account and go to your Notifications page. Under Subscribe to Notifications, click the RSS URL and copy it to your clipboard. Next, open up Facebook.ini from the skin you just downloaded. Under variables, you'll see an entry that reads:

URL=CHAANNGEE MEEEE

Can you guess what to do? Replace the entry with your notifications RSS feed and don't forget to refresh Rainmeter.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/63206

Tic-Tactual Encapsulated

We can't quite put our finger on it, but there's just something about spheres that screams 'high-tech.' That's exactly what Tic-Tactual Encapsulated offers, and while it's a shame there aren't a bunch of applets to play with, you can put the month, date, time, and day of week in separate bubbles. This one works well with just about any sci-fi theme.

http://customize.org/rainmeter/skins/49256

Seven Dock

Hands down one of our favorite skins, Seven Dock is not only highly useful, it's also great for squashing those OCD tendencies. How so? Well, if you were so inclined, you could wipe out all the icons on your desktop, hide the taskbar, and simply make do with a cleanly organized dock. It's fully customizable, from the icons to the shortcuts, though getting it to open directly to My Computer is a little tricky. You'll first navigate to the skin's folder, which is called Mega, not Seven Dock. Open up Mega.ini and scroll down to the FreeCommander entry. It should look like this:

Soft13.txt='Disque C'
Soft13=!execute [%ProgramFiles%\Custom\FreeCommander\Freecommander.exe

This is the entry we want to change, both because we like the icon it's already associated with, and because we're not running FreeCommander. To get it to jump into My Computer rather than your C: drive, here's what you'd change it to:

Soft13.txt='My Computer'
Soft13=!execute [%SystemRoot%\explorer.exe /e,::{20D04FE0-3AEA-1069-A2D8-08002B30309D}]

From now own, clicking on the disk icon will open up My Computer. Change the other entries as you see fit, including both the name and location, and replace any of the icons using PNG images sized 265x265 pixels.

http://ghenarys.deviantart.com/art/Seven-Dock-for-Rainmeter-80408651

There's nothing wrong with the Windows 7 desktop per se. But for freeware developers, that's no excuse not to tweak, hack, and otherwise modify every possible piece of your screen. And it's not that difficult to add new functionality to your desktop that doesn't otherwise exist in the operating system. The hardest part is finding software that makes a substantive change to what you already have. After all, the last thing you want to do is install a ton of different freeware apps and find your desktop in even worse shape than it was before (if you do, take a quick trip to Revo Uninstaller).

The intensity of the following five free applications ranges from apps that completely revamp your desktop's look and feel to programs that add new ways for accessing common apps and folders straight off your desktop. How far you want to go with your tweaking is entirely up to you--these are just some of the more interesting tools I've come across that should go a long way toward raising your "Windows Power User" level a few notches.

Desktop Media

Here's an easy one. Desktop Media emulates one of OSX's most basic and useful features. Whenever you stick a new CD in the drive, connect a portable USB storage device to your system, or fire up a network drive (amongst other options), Desktop Media slaps a shortcut to said device right on your desktop. Remove the device (or take the CD out), and the shortcut automatically disappears. Fire this one up in front of your friends and they'll swear that you've built some crazy Mac/Windows hybrid--you'll be the life of the Windows 7 party.

Download it here!

 

StandaloneStack 2

I've always enjoyed how Windows 7 has managed to simultaneously de-clutter and improve the usefulness of the default Windows Vista and Windows XP taskbars. However, every icon on the bar at the little bottom of your screen still only represents one program. Sure, you can get some added contextual items to select if you click on an application's arrow icon on the Start Menu, but this isn't a universal feature for all applications--and you're still only interacting with a single program.

StandaloneStack 2 allows you to move one step beyond these features and create program "stacks," or graphical lists, based off of a single icon. When you click on this icon, you can use the ensuing menu of items to launch new programs, folders, or settings options. It's like having a number of different Start buttons that you can customize as much as you'd like.

Download it here!

 

7 Taskbar Tweaker

This app might be limited in its prettiness, but it more than makes up for it with its usefulness. As you might expect, 7 Taskbar Tweaker is a simple utility for adding additional functionality into your default Windows 7 taskbar. For example, you can switch between either a default jump list or standard window menu when you right-click an icon, toggle application grouping on and off, and make use of new middle-click functionality that either opens a new instance of a taskbar program, closes the window, or focuses the window. You can also disable thumbnail previews, should you so choose. It's not a weighty list of items to play around with, but 7 Taskbar Tweaker's modifications aren't normally customizable options in the Windows 7 OS.

Download it here!

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MenuApp

Speaking of the Start Menu, let's suppose you have a ton of different files, programs, favorites, and shortcuts that you want to be able to access from a single location. Let's call this set of objects "work." Normally, you'd have to make a folder somewhere on your system or desktop and dump all of your pertinent files in there, as well as all of your bookmarked Web sites, shortcuts to all the programs you need to access, et cetera. To organize this folder, you'd have to use subfolders related to the items you intend to store. Fun.

MenuApp removes the ugliness from this organization by allowing you to create Start Menu-like hierarchies based off of a single icon on your desktop. Now, you can simply click on your newly created "work" icon and pull up all of your files, shortcuts, and other objects of interest via an easy-to-access system of menus without having to move a single piece of data around your PC. Just tell MenuApp where the documents you want to access are located on your computer and it'll automatically create menus based on the contents of those folders--from there, you can shuffle and create organized pathways through your data at your leisure.

Download it here!

 

Rainmeter

 

 

For the ultimate in desktop skinning without a ton of crazy configuration files to wade through, Rainmeter is an excellent tool for changing the look of your entire desktop without sacrificing a large amount of system resources. A recent update to the application adds a little feature called RainBrowser, which lets you run through the different skins you've installed for the application and tweak their settings or preview their look before you start changing up your desktop en masse. The Rainmeter developers do the best job of summarizing the coolness of this free app: "Every inch of a skin is completely customizable."

Or, in other words, the sky's the limit. Ha-ha!

Download it here!

 

David Murphy (@ Acererak) is a technology journalist and former Maximum PC editor. He writes weekly columns about the wide world of open-source as well as weekly roundups of awesome, freebie software. Befriend him on Twitter, especially if you have an awesome app or game you're dying to recommend!