Skip to main content

Show & Tell – My Desktop

I was feeling a bit bored the last couple of days, my semester exams not withstanding, so I decided that my desktop needed a makeover. My previous desktop sojourn was fairly simple which was probably why I was feeling that itch again. After a lot of reading, browsing, downloading, editing and tinkering, here's what I came up with:

old loves
Looks amazing right? right?? oh well, it works for me. It didn't take that long to get it looking like this either. The row of icons on the left was achieved using Rocketdock. The system stats on the right is courtesy Rainmeter (a very small but useful app). Now just to show how easy it was for me to get this screen and for anyone who wants this for themselves (once you get the apps, play around with the options, there are plenty), I'll give it the old 1-2-3. So here goes.



For Rocketdock:
  1. Download the two apps I mentioned earlier and install them, usually they would go into your Program Files folder
  2. Now get the Reflections Icons pack from here and extract them to a location you remember.
  3. Fire up Rocketdock, get rid of all the default icons given there (just drag-n-drop out of the dock) except for the settings icon (you will be using it a lot) and click settings.
  4. For styles, select blank and check the box where it says 'minimize windows to dock', this enables the previews you can see in the screen above.
  5. Add shortcuts to your favorite folders and change the settings for each, using the icons from the pack extracted (accessed by a right click). 
For Rainmeter:
  1. Rainmeter skin Geosans Light minimal has the same style of icons, so get it, extract it to \Program Files\Rainmeter\Skins folder
  2. Right click the rainmeter icon in the system tray and click config and select the skin you want.
  3. Each one of the counters is a separate config, so you can enable and disable them selectively if you'd like and even move them around (they appear at the top left corner by default)
Et Voila! You're done.

It may seem overwhelming at first, but once you explore all the options, its pretty easy to configure the apps the way you want them. If you like more eye candy, especially with rocketdock, you can go to their website and browse through their add-ons collection. Many of them are quite awesome! I would personally recommend the 'Stacks' docklet by Matonga and the 'KKmenu' docklet which emulate the 'Stacks' option from Leopard like this:
sctacks fan stacks grid
Bouquets welcome! (Brickbats a lil' less welcome)...
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters?

This post originally appeard in Women's Web: Why Don’t We Raise Our Sons like We Do Our Daughters? One of the hot button topics right now in Indian media is the safety of women – or rather how our country doesn't really care about half its population. From rape, sexual assault, harassment (in streets, public transport, nearly every public place) to violence perpetrated on women, Indians are finally getting around to discussing taboo topics. One refrain that caught my eye throughout these debates – both online and off – is the fact that the reaction of the majority of Indians is the same: girls should stay at home, not go out after dark, dress appropriately and so on if they want to stay safe. No one seems to bat an eyelid when laying down these precautions for women. Except that the reality is women would be far safer if all the men simply DID NOT RAPE or HARASS any person that looks remotely female. No one has to stay at home and become a hermit! That got me th
3 comments
Read more

Education and Learning

Fourteen years of school. Three - four years of undergraduate college. Two years for a graduate degree. Start working or making babies. Sound familiar? It should, it’s what the majority of lives in this country look like. Ten years ago, I was headed down the same street. Engineering, MBA and then on to a fat pay check, like countless other teenagers, products of a system seemingly obsessed with stability and an extreme aversion to risk and failure. While I did end up getting 2 degrees and the pay check (with a stable, GOI company no less!) I also realized I hated it. Going to work from 9 to 7, doing the same endless, mind numbing, repetitive tasks, sitting in the same chair for ten odd years before getting promoted and dodging responsibility in order to retire with a pension suddenly seemed a lot less attractive when I was looking at it from the wrong end of 35 years! And history shall say I quit. But now what? I did what any sane person without a job and all the time in the w
15 comments
Read more

Arranged Versus Love Marriage

This post originally appeared in Women's Web:  Arranged Versus Love Marriage: Here's Why Things Are Changing In 21st-century India, change is so rapid that we barely have time to get used to something before some new trend is on the horizon. And I'm not just talking about technology here. Whether it is human behavior, relationships, societal or cultural norms, Indian society – along with the rest of the world – today is hardly recognizable to my parents or their parents. It's not a surprise that the institution of marriage and the process of finding a life partner is also undergoing a metamorphosis. Perhaps this is one of the areas where the gap between generations is the most obvious. Almost every day, there is a TV show or media report or blog post talking about arranged vs. love marriages. So I figured I would present my take on it as well! Whenever anyone talks about arranged versus love marriages - I don't know why they are always portrayed as opposing
3 comments
Read more