Software to show info or notifications on peoples computers

I was wondering if there was some kind of software that allows you to put a kind of translucent window that displays info or events for people to see without it interfering with their work.

For example, Lets say a company has a help-desk and they want to display info on how to reach them for all their users in the company.

I want something that we could just put a small notification translucent window or box showing theses but not disrupting people.

Taylor Bell

Posted 2011-08-02T14:44:16.547

Reputation: 105

Do you want it to be always there? cause that gets annoying fast... If you only want it to be there sometimes, why not make it part of the background? – soandos – 2011-08-02T14:46:09.440

yeah i do always want it to be there so they can see this information. I know it might get annoying but i want to try it out and gather feed back on it. Also note this would be on XP so if windows 7 has any features like that i wont be able to use it. – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-02T15:35:18.280

And making it a part of the background wont do it (so when they want the info, they just look at the background)? I assume a window that is always on top also won't do it? – soandos – 2011-08-02T15:39:56.797

Dont want to do it as a background. Basicly we went to have a small window that is translucent a little over the background, but you can put other windows over it so it wont be annoying for people. and so we could just have small messages like " oh such and such software is available now at the helpdesk" or " note we will be restarting server blah at this date". So just small usefull notes or tips for the people that we can change. Tbh im not sure if this is a software that even exists yet, im just wondering if there is something like it. Does this help clear things up more soandos? – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-02T16:12:00.017

I would be careful forcing windows to be always-visible on other people's computers, for any reason: This is extremely disruptive to lose screen space like that when it's not wanted. If you want them to have the information available when they need it, put it in the background that they can access when they need it, or store it on the company intranet website. Then users can just go to http://mycompany.local/ (or however it's configured) and view the info.

– Darth Android – 2011-08-02T16:12:28.393

Also we dont want to do backgrounds beacause we have different locations and each location has different info they will be displaying. Also people have the option of changing their background and that isn't something that we can change(due to higher ups) so thats why backgrounds are out. – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-02T16:15:22.870

Answers

You should look at setting up Rainmeter with a company RSS feed. This will sit on the desktop, below other windows and above the background, with a translucent window (if you pick a theme that has one) and display news items.

Darth Android

Posted 2011-08-02T14:44:16.547

Reputation: 35 133

Ok So i really like the looks of this, but it seems like only each individual user has to change the info for themselves. Do you know if this supports having 1 user edit it and send that info to other users? – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-02T16:47:03.237

You still need another tool to publish an RSS feed from somewhere. This tool will automatically download and display the news items from that feed. – Darth Android – 2011-08-02T16:47:53.123

Awesome. i will try that out and if i have any other problems ill let you know. Thanks so much. – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-02T16:53:13.573

Darth Do you know of a way you can lock the text box in Rainmaker in the bottom corner? We would like to make it so the info stays in one spots and not have the user moving it all over the place. Other then this the program looks really really slick and i really like it. – Taylor Bell – 2011-08-03T12:18:53.680

I'm not sure what capabilities Rainmeter has in that regard, since it's largely designed to be customized by the end user; that would be a great question to ask here on SU, though. Personally I would hope that if my company did something like that, that they would set it up with a default configuration and then actually allow me to move it where I wanted it, but that doesn't take into account all the issues that would be had with people deleting it and being unable to find it, etc. Perhaps you could find an acceptable compromise. – Darth Android – 2011-08-03T13:58:53.697

The only product I've had first hand experience is the old school Winpop messenger. But you aren't going to get something like notification ballons or "transparent windows."

This brings back memories of the old school Win Messenger service. That is another option, but again, it's going to be more intrusive than what you imagined.

surfasb

Posted 2011-08-02T14:44:16.547

Reputation: 21 453