The Shattered Glass Desktop

Reader pretentiousquirk wanted a desktop that was informative, but had a little character at the same time, and we definitely think that describes the end result. Also, this desktop setup is fully portable, and can be moved from system to system in minutes for a familiar computing environment.

Pretentiousquirk shared this desktop setup in our Featured Desktop Forum! If you have a desktop to share, head in and start a discussion by uploading a screenshot. Want the same look for your Windows system? Here's how to build it:

• The wallpaper, uploaded to Imgur
• The Rainmeter system configuration and management utility for Windows
• The Broken Desktop overlay skin for Rainmeter to create the shattered glass look
• The ForceX System Monitor 2 Rainmeter skin for the tall monitor panel on the right side
• The SuperColossal Clock skin for Rainmeter to create the time/date display at the top of the screen
• The Miranda IM Client on the left side of the screen, using the CList Nicer+ plugin (which comes in the Extra Plugins pack) and a fully transparent background. Pretentiousquirk notes that the text color has been tweaked too to stand out against a black background.

Other than that, it's a pretty straight forward Windows 7 setup! Pretentiousquirk notes that color intensity (Personalize > Window Color and Appearance) is set to zero to really absorb the wallpaper, but that's it. Oh, and previously mentioned Clover File Explorer is in use to replace the default Explorer windows. As for its portability? Well:

Being someone who formats windows or moves machines on a fairly regular basis, it is worth nothing that with Miranda IM being fully portable (and run from my Dropbox), and Rainmeter settings fully backed up and portable, I can be up and running with this exact theme and setup on a new machine within minutes!

The end result looks great, and if you want to share your thoughts, head over to the thread to ask your questions or share you much you like it! If you're having trouble getting it all set up, try our guide to Rainmeter for some helpful tips.

Do you have a beautiful, creative, and functional desktop to share with the world? Now we have two ways for you to send it in to us!

Whichever you do, please include a description of how you made it - without that, we can't tell others how to make it for themselves. Do these things, and it may just be the next featured desktop!

pretentiousquirk via #Featured-Desktop

Source: http://feeds.gawker.com/~r/lifehacker/full/~3/JjGeMzhfdZ0/the-shattered-glass-desktop

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