Originally posted by: Kaido
widescreen
15.4" widescreen on my laptop @ 1280x800. Found the background on pbase.com. I used the Royale theme for the shiny taskbar and Rainlender for the calendar.
I like to keep my desktop pretty simple, it makes it easier to find things and backup to disc. I have a projects folder for the projects I'm currently working on and a temp folder for downloads and other files. I also have a temp.txt text file for jotting down notes.
The system tray has ZoneAlarm and Macro Express. I hate having things running in the background, so I've tried to limit what's in memory. Most programs have an option to hide their system tray icon, which I use to make things a bit less messy. I also use Mike Lin's Startup Control Panel and the Startup folder in the Start menu to kill off anything I don't want running. Macro Express is pretty tight; I'm thinking of upgrading to it from Keyboard Express. Macro Express can handle the mouse, too. Keyboard Express basically lets you make custom key combos and link them to multiple commands (very useful for my work in InDesign where key combos get like five deep). ZoneAlarm is my favorite firewall because it works well and lets you choose what programs can access the net. I don't like running Antivirus software because I'm pretty careful about my downloading, I use webmail, and also because I use an online service weekly (
http://housecall.antivirus.com is the free online scanner I use). I'm considering Grisoft AVG, but system-installed AV packages are usually memory hogs, have settings issues, muck things up with all the crud they install, etc.
The Quick Launch tray has Miranda IM (I only use AIM for IM and Miranda IM is a lot cleaner), Firefox, Transparent Screen Lock, and iTunes. Transparent Screen Lock is basically a clear screensaver with a password. This way, people can't mess with your system (i.e. a certain little sister) and I can monitor program progress without worrying about messing anything up by accidentally hitting a key or moving the mouse or whatever (useful for DVD transcoding, 3D rendering, etc.). Add Adblock, FireFTP, and Flash to Firefox and you've got a great IE replacement.
Everything else is either macro'd or in the Start bar menu. I put all the programs I use in folders there. For example, I make a Maintenance folder and put Disk Cleanup, Disk Defragmenter, Windows Updates, a link to online virus scanning, Adaware, and Spybot in there, so that when I run them every week they're easy to get to. I also use Macro Express to open commonly run programs. For example, pressing CTRL+ALT+P opens up Paint Shop Pro 7.