In the last two articles we have successfully changed our desktop theme by applying a WindowBlinds skin, changing the icons and wallpaper, and changing our cursor theme using CursorXP. We also managed to add some style and functionality to our desktop by using ObjectDock to put shortcuts to our most used applications.
You are probably thinking to yourself that we are done customizing our desktop, but there's still more we can do. In this article we are going to focus completely on Stardocks DesktopX. DesktopX is part of the Object Desktop suite, but it's also available as a separate client in which you can run just objects/widgets, or DX Themes.
This is our desktop when we finished in the last article.
It's time now that we add some widgets to our desktop. Widgets and gadgets are essentially mini-applications that run on your desktop. You can find some that are as simple as clocks or weather readers, but there are also some that are very complex..
There are many, and I mean many, widgets/objects available on WinCustomize and DesktopGadgets.com. When you download a widget it will most likely be in a .zip file, in which you can just un-zip it to your desktop and run it from there, or place it in your widgets folder in your DesktopX directory.
Note: DesktopX must be installed to run widgets, objects, and themes. Gadgets are stand-alone executables created with DesktopX that do not require DesktopX installed to run.
There's a couple of ways to add widgets to your desktop, the simplest one being just double-clicking the .exe of the widget. Unless you have the option un-checked, it should automatically copy the widget to your content directory. You may also right-click the DesktopX icon in the system tray, and select "DesktopX Welcome". This will open a Window from where you can load either a widget, object, or desktop theme. If you have DesktopX Professional you can even create new widgets and themes!
I'd like to add a widget that will show me some weather information, so select "load widget" from the DesktopX Welcome window, and that will open a window that should show all your widgets you currently have in your content directory. I'd like something with some transparency so I chose the Hyalo-2xWeather by adni18. This widget will show me the weather of two cities, and has a built-in calendar as well. Just double-click your selected widget, and it should appear on your desktop.
So here is our desktop after we added our weather widget. The process for applying other widgets of your choice are basically the same. In the next article we will talk about changing the Windows logon screen, and using ObjectBar.
Ready to change your desktop theme?