Simple Way To Display Script Output On Windows Desktop? (Like GeekTool on OSX)

I'd like to display the output of some command-line scripts on my Windows desktop. I believe Rainmeter and Samurize can do this, but I find Rainmeter kind of baffling and frankly it's just overkill for my needs anyway. And Samurize looks like a dead project at this point.

For an example of exactly what I want, look at GeekTool for OSX: http://projects.tynsoe.org/en/geektool/

For each desktop item, Geektool lets you choose colors, the script command whose output you want to display, how often to refresh it, and you can also choose colors and transparency. That's basically it and that's all I want.

Is there a Windows equivalent? I don't need any fancy system monitoring capability built into the app itself.

John Rose

Posted 2010-06-25T18:01:05.047

Reputation: 345

Answers

Samurize doesn't look to me like a dead project, just slow in development.
Perhaps you were looking at the old site, rather than the new site.

Version 1.64.3 Final was posted on September 2009.
The latest software, PluginPak 1.09, was posted on July 2010.

For info about using Samurize, see this article:
Geek to Live: Incorporate text files onto your desktop

harrymc

Posted 2010-06-25T18:01:05.047

Reputation: 306 093

The 'new' website seems dead to me, at least currently. – Rabarberski – 2012-01-03T09:58:14.067

@Rabarberski: Domain name seems to have elapsed. Unless it comes back, one would need to google for PluginPak 1.09. – harrymc – 2012-01-03T10:08:51.520

Find a transparant console: http://www.hanselman.com/blog/TransparentCommandPromptInWindows.aspx

Alternatives: Transparent Command Prompt in Vista?
Keep the window from going active or in front of your windows by writing a simple script: http://www.autoitscript.com/autoit3/index.shtml
Hide the title border:
http://my.opera.com/AyushJ/blog/winchanger

Tamara Wijsman

Posted 2010-06-25T18:01:05.047

Reputation: 54 163

On OSX, couldn't you just use terminal, and cat to display text file, if you are using constantly updated logs then perhaps tail?

Sisyphus

Posted 2010-06-25T18:01:05.047

Reputation: 217

Thanks for the reply. That would work from a technical perspective.

However, I am thinking of something unobtrusive that could display some text on the desktop itself (ie, it would be a transparent window that floats below all other windows)

Sort of like a desktop widget, basically. In fact, maybe one of the existing widgets out there does something like this. – John Rose – 2010-06-25T18:19:07.903

BgInfo by Sysinternal is an excellent tool for Windows to write system info on the desktop. You could configure it to display your script output

armannvg

Posted 2010-06-25T18:01:05.047

Reputation: 275

1That looks like a neat utility (love Sysinternals!) However I'm looking to display some script output and not just system info. Thanks for the reply, though, because I think Bginfo will come in handy at some point. – John Rose – 2010-06-25T18:22:37.833