Bounty Program Success: "Active Desktop" Replacement for Vista
For those of you joining us in progress we've started something new here called the How-To Geek Bounty Program, where we sponsor software projects based on ideas suggested by the readers.
The second bounty so far was sponsored by Scott, who was looking for a replacement for the Active Desktop feature that is missing from Vista.
Once again, Andreas Verhoeven was up to the task, and created Ave's DesktopSites, which will let you put images of websites on your desktop, configurable to where you want them, and they will update on a schedule.
You could use this for displaying headlines on your desktop:
Or you could use it the way Scott does, which is to display dynamically updating weather maps as his desktop wallpaper. Now that's some heavy duty usage there!
If you have any issues with this application, you can leave a post on the forum. There is also a known issue with dual monitors.
If you've got an idea for a new application or to fix something annoying in Windows Vista, you should put a thread on the bounty program forum… we'll be picking the next project to sponsor soon.
Download AveDesktopSites [mirror] from Ave's Vista Stuff [source]
Absolutely fantastic piece of software here. I can get my tasklist and calendar viewable on my desktop, something I've been waiting for in Vista since the day I started using it. Thank you!
I didn't work for me. Something about a Bitmap violation and other errors.
It didn't work for me either something about access violation erros then a series of other errors until i stopped the service, This is after downloading the application and putting the dll in system32 and then running AveDesktop as Admin, any ideals?
Doesn't work for me, gives a slew of Interface not supported exceptions.
I really like some of the other programs that Andreas has to offer, such as GlassToast and 3dUserPic. I've downloaded and installed them, but I would like to make it so that they automatically start when I power up my laptop. How can I go about doing this?
Thanks, and keep up the very helpful information!
I love the Active Desktop Replacement.
I only wish that pages placed into it would be able to scroll up & down.
Unfortunately, this program didn't work here on vista.
However, I've found an, in my opinion, better solution for this: Serious Samurize in combination with the minibrowser plugin. You can find it here: http://www.samurize.com/
This is easier to configure in my opinion and it's 'active': you can click links etc as if you're using a browser. Also, as for performance, it only uses (with minibrowser loaded) about 20mb ram and about 2% of my cpu (intel E6600).
Nice, very nice, ty!
But there are two sad things:
1. It won't work in classic theme (for me, at least - I had to turn on Vista theme, which I really dislike - demands too much resources);
2. It won't play flash =)))))))))
"but, unlike Active Desktop, they can not be interacted with"
Thank you Ave, but it would have been even better for my type of user if you HAD permitted interaction.
Appreciated.
P.S. Other users having problems, i did also get that "violation notice" but stopped program, re-ran it and ok on second try.
Shitty.
I'd really like something that would be able to interactive. I'd pay a 5 spot for something like that.
What a nice program. The reason I wanted it was, I wrote an html file that I used as my desktop. I use it to view pictures in a loop and have a dedicated background immage. With the removal of the active desktop function, this option was taken away from me. Simply placing the drive letter and subfolder navigation instead of the http site works great.
Thanks for your hard work
Stu