Dr Drae
In Cryo Sleep
All of this information I've gathered from various sources, and researched myself, as well as used. It's all rather good, and I have a pretty desktop, thought I'd share.
First place to start:
www.wallbase.net :Possible NSFW - Read second paragraph. This site has endless amounts of wallpapers, with a handy colour search feature, if you're looking for that specific colour to go with your theme. Incredibly handy, and you can dig up some real treasure here.
Of course, make sure to play around with the filters: the three levels of SFW, Sketchy, and NSFW aren't foolproof, so I recommend just SFW at all times. If there is a dodgy image or two, my apologies, but I have no control over it.
www.tineye.com : A unique tool; reverse image searching. This is great for finding higher resolution versions of an image you already own, as it browses the web for matching pictures, and their locations.
Now for the bulk of pretty desktop'ing
Rainmeter
This is a brilliant desktop customisation program, which is free to download from Rainmeter.net. It uses gadgets, called skins, in much the same way as the Windows Vista sidebar, except it's much more flexible, and can be themed rather well.
A lot of skins can be found on deviantart.com ; it takes a bit of browsing, but people generally come up with useful, interesting skins, which you can download, and then add into rainmeter.
The basic, and already very nice skin set that comes with Rainmeter is the Enigma set; which serves it's purposes well.
Most of a good looking desktop comes from a couple of things that I've learnt.
1) Put everything out of sight. Nothing is SO important that a couple more clicks is completely out of order.
2) Play with everything. If you can fiddle with the way a skin works, do it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you figure out Rainmeter, everything falls into place. But back to the original point; your taskbar might look good upside down and back to front. Try it!
Oop, forgot some stuff:
Docks - Once you've cleaned everything off of your desktop (and trust me, it helps), all the essential stuff can be dumped onto a Dock, like you would find on a Mac.
The two most commonly used are
http://www.stardock.com/ - They have a free version, which works quite well
http://rocketdock.com/ - A bit more basic, but definitely functional
Again, have a fiddle, see what you like, and what you come up with. Hell, post it up here, I want to see how inventive people get, and what we can come up with!
Other Links:
http://customise.org/ - Another site, where you can download just about anything for visual effect, although best used for wallpapers, and occasionally Rainmeter skins. Haven't used that much, so a report on the usefulness would help, but looks fairly sound.
Enjoy making your desktop pretty!
Hoped this helps!
Dr Drae
First place to start:
www.wallbase.net :Possible NSFW - Read second paragraph. This site has endless amounts of wallpapers, with a handy colour search feature, if you're looking for that specific colour to go with your theme. Incredibly handy, and you can dig up some real treasure here.
Of course, make sure to play around with the filters: the three levels of SFW, Sketchy, and NSFW aren't foolproof, so I recommend just SFW at all times. If there is a dodgy image or two, my apologies, but I have no control over it.
www.tineye.com : A unique tool; reverse image searching. This is great for finding higher resolution versions of an image you already own, as it browses the web for matching pictures, and their locations.
Now for the bulk of pretty desktop'ing
Rainmeter
This is a brilliant desktop customisation program, which is free to download from Rainmeter.net. It uses gadgets, called skins, in much the same way as the Windows Vista sidebar, except it's much more flexible, and can be themed rather well.
A lot of skins can be found on deviantart.com ; it takes a bit of browsing, but people generally come up with useful, interesting skins, which you can download, and then add into rainmeter.
The basic, and already very nice skin set that comes with Rainmeter is the Enigma set; which serves it's purposes well.
Most of a good looking desktop comes from a couple of things that I've learnt.
1) Put everything out of sight. Nothing is SO important that a couple more clicks is completely out of order.
2) Play with everything. If you can fiddle with the way a skin works, do it. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you figure out Rainmeter, everything falls into place. But back to the original point; your taskbar might look good upside down and back to front. Try it!
Oop, forgot some stuff:
Docks - Once you've cleaned everything off of your desktop (and trust me, it helps), all the essential stuff can be dumped onto a Dock, like you would find on a Mac.
The two most commonly used are
http://www.stardock.com/ - They have a free version, which works quite well
http://rocketdock.com/ - A bit more basic, but definitely functional
Again, have a fiddle, see what you like, and what you come up with. Hell, post it up here, I want to see how inventive people get, and what we can come up with!
Other Links:
http://customise.org/ - Another site, where you can download just about anything for visual effect, although best used for wallpapers, and occasionally Rainmeter skins. Haven't used that much, so a report on the usefulness would help, but looks fairly sound.
Enjoy making your desktop pretty!
Hoped this helps!
Dr Drae
