In this video, we are going to undertake a desktop makeover. We are going to turn a boring out-of-the-box Windows 10 desktop into a beautiful supercharged set-up. The plan is simple. Within the next 10 minutes, you will hopefully learn some new theming tips to help you improve your Windows set-up.
WallPaper
Some science boffins did some research and found that simply looking at pictures of nature can help reduce stress. When designing this new desktop, I followed science and used a picture of a tree as the desktop image, feeling all zen yet?. If you want to freshen up your desktop, a great resource to check out is unsplash.com. Unsplash has thousands of high-quality images that you can download for free. You can get the wallpaper used in this video here.
RainMeter
RainMeter allows you to skin your desktop with widgets to make it more useful and more importantly cooler. RainMeter is free and can be downloaded from here. By using RainMeter and some free widgets you can make your desktop stand out from the crowd. Rainmeter comes with far too many features and skins to mention in one article. Cool looking clocks, quotes, visuals, music controllers, disk usage stats, system performance stats, and different animations can all be added to your desktop. If you do not want to do the research to find widgets yourself, you can find the ones that I use in this video here:
If you want to be more creative and pick your own widgets, then these two resources are really useful:
Fences
I find it super annoying that Windows forces you into having icons on the desktop. I prefer a clean aesthetic instead. Recycle bin on a desktop? Do one! One way you can hide the in order to get a clean look is via a program called Fences. Fences will allow you to clear the clutter but still have quick and easy access to useful shortcuts. Fences is not freeware, however, it only costs $9.99. There are some free alternatives that claim to do a similar job. I have tried them all out, however, in my opinion, none are as good as Fences in terms of look and feature set. For anyone wanting to get that clean look, Fences is worth purchasing.
Bins
Bins is a taskbar tool that will help you organise your icons. Bins will allow you to group your taskbar items together. Bins will allow you to reduce the clutter on your taskbar while still giving you access to your most used programs. Bins is another commercial product, however, it only costs $4.99 so it will not break the bank!
Launchy
Launchy is an application launcher that will enable you to load programs quicker. Instead of having to move your mouse to the Start bar, you can launch applications from the keyboard alone! Install it, clicking Alt + Space will open Launch. Simply type the name of the program you want to access, press enter and presto! After you install it you will not go back!
F.lux
f.lux will help you sleep better at night. As the day starts turning into night, f.lux will gradually eliminate blue light by swapping anything on screen that is white with a more warm red. The process is so subtle you may not even notice it at all. I can confirm that I have experienced less eye strain since installing it, it's free so why not?
So what do you think? Have you found any new programs in this list that you think will help you to improve your desktop set-up? Leave your answers in the comments
