Didn't see any posts about Samurize, so I thought I'd pop it in here for the techies who like to toy with their desktop among other things and want to toy with it. (BTW, I know how to make walls of text, I warned you Kit) Let the walls of text commence. Below is a quote from the Serious Samurize website for those who don't want to read my following wall of text. What does that mean? That last bit about the only limit being imagination is completely true. If this has piqued your curiosity, keep reading, or scan to the bottom of the post and download it. If you can create it, you can have it. Serious Samurize does also work in Win7. I've seen or used similar things in the past, what makes Samurize different/better? Now, there are probably a lot of applications out there that can mimic Samurize for specific things, but I've found Samurize the best way to get them all in one and have the ability to completely customize them to my liking. For example? If your determined enough, you could replace your desktop environment with a custom Samurize desktop. You can even replace the explorer.exe if you feel like it with something better looking or just more powerful. However, that does take a lot of config files. I've found the more you put into a single config file, the slower it will become. Me, I find it useful for monitoring system resources as it said on the website description. I also use it though to replace my desktop clock and calender and to provide an easy to use movable controller for my media player. One of the handiest things about the Samurize configs, is the ability to position them almost any way you can think of. Want an example? I can give you three different examples. I have a Calender config that replaces the standard windows taskbars calender. It is in the form of a tab on my second monitor. It is locked into position so I cannot drag it out of it's spot. However, when I need to look at the calendar or weather I can click the tab and it slides the rest of it into view, a second click on the tab slides it back out of the way. With Samurize, you could edit this config to be positioned anywhere on your monitor, the top, the sides or the bottom. I also have a portable version of Samurize on a flash drive with a Broken Desktop config that makes your monitor look like someone put a hole in it with a wrench. (I use it home too, but it is set to normal window behavior so it doesn't put holes in my windows it's interesting when you have two monitors) I've used it to prank people at work before. >.> Mwahahah! . . . don't ask. This is capable of being accomplished by setting the monitor wide config to locked position, always on top, and click through. (and hiding the taskbar config icon so the victim has no clue how to get rid of it) This allows you to still use the desktop like normal, but the gigantic cracked hole in your monitor cannot be moved or minimized (Until someone smart enough comes by to closes the config process. <.<) Last but not least is my Winamp controller. It's similar to a winamp skin, but completely customized and allows you more control over how it looks. Mine is simple, it's 2 lines of different size text, one is the Artist of the current track, the second is the song of the current track. Below those are the back, play/pause, and forward. To the left of them is the track current time, and total time. Behind all of this is a visualization of the Equalizer. (That thing with bars that bounces up and down with the music) Since this is mostly just text and a barely noticeable equalizer I have it placed over Aion (Or any other game I play) when it's running. It does not interfere with my field of vision and I can see and control Winamp from in game. (Even though I have two monitors, it's a pain to look to the second to see whats playing or change it. <.<) Screenshots? oO I'll begin with a screenshot of my desktop. I may be a tech, but I ain't by no means a programmer so this is pretty simple for the most part. A lot of the stuff on my desktop is edited to my visual preference or to display what I want. An example of someone who went a little on the excessive side when it comes to visual customization. Here's a simple Samurize desktop note that on the bottom is rocket dock, something you'll see coupled very often with Samurize. A very complex, but clean looking Samurize desktop. A -Killer- desktop customization using some Samurize configs. Someone who went through the effort to skin a samurize config to match Winamp's Bento Skin. Where can I get it? Direct Download Link Serious Samurize Website Config Downloads Note: All these configs either come with an install or a readme on how to set them up. Yes, I do find most of mine through DA. Clearnscreen Winamp My winamp config is a heavily modified version of this. Direct Download DA Page Broken DesktopA simple config I've used to cause chaos and general mischief. Also a handy effect if your bored to toy with. Direct Download DA Page Slimfit 2 Weather/Calendar The calendar weather config I use. I've modded mine a little. Direct Download DA Page Stripe for Samurize Your gonna need to mod it to your specific needs, but a good starter if you want to keep things simple. Direct Download DA Page Miranda IM plugins This one you'll have to create the config from scratch, but this gives you all the plugins you need to work with Miranda IM. Direct Download Samurize Page Music Player for Samurize by ~xOslox Another Music player config I thought people might find more interesting then the minimalist style I prefer. Direct Download DA Page Weather Forcaster for Samurize by ~xOslox Another weather forecast for those who want one a little more fancy. Direct Download DA Page As I find more interesting configs, I'll continue listing them. Maybe even add some of my own if people want.
Hmm, never used Rainmeter myself. Though, from what I'm looking at it's similar. Though, I don't know exactly how detailed you can or can't get with Rainmeter, might have to mess with it.
sounds interesting but i have desktop gadgets that do all the moniroting i need ... coretemp cpu usage network meeter memory usage etc ... this work with windows 7?
I have Win7 Ultimate and it runs just fine, haven't run into any problems with over the the time I've used it.
it looks really neat for sure but im way to lazy to set it all up and design stuff ... if they had some that are like premade or something ... i just see peoples screenshots of stuff
I'm a little to tired after work tonight to look up the ones I find most useful, but when I get a chance, probably tomorrow I'll update the first post with some. ._.
I would like to see your personal setup Rune. I used to use rainmeter quite some time ago but didn't reinstall after I reformatted. I downloaded this one to give it a try but found very little resources that suited my style. Although perhaps I am just looking in the wrong places.
Updated with 2 more configs and some screenshots, mine is the first screenshot. >.> Also, Kazzier for the most part you either have to find them, which I will admit can be very difficult, or make them yourself. Let me know what your looking for and I will either try to find it, or point you in a direction if I can.
Thanks Rune, I found a little influence to work on. I'll post a screenshot once I'm done. (May take me a day or two)
No worries, I can wait. I'm kinda on hold on most of my configs. Haven't felt like editing them in awhile. I might later though. I still need to edit my stripe and Miranda IM configs, as well as my Winamp to do more.
O.k, so here is my current desktop. There are still a few things I might do to it, however so far I like it. Simple and effective.
oO That's, interesting. I might do more graphically with mine, but for the moment I've been kinda meh about that.
i have 2 monitors ... was thinking i could do my second monitor with a nice set up showing specs and stuff on the right monitor while i rock out the games on the main monitor to front of me
That's basically what I do. Though I do let some of my configs show up over my games. The config editors desktop overlay helps a lot with that, so that you can set the default location of your configs without a whole lot of guess work.
/necrothread Bout time I showed what Samurize can really do. (Went on a spree recently <.<) Desktop Screenshot Image is on my DA account in the link above, click on the image 3 times to see the full size. Top is the clean version, bottom is in use.