Outlook on the Desktop is a free application built on .Net by Michael Scriv. It allows you to pick any one of the main Outlook views (Inbox, Calendar, Tasks, etc), and display it directly on your desktop. The display is shown in a mildly opaque way, so that you can still see your desktop wallpaper (or in my case, icons) beneath the Outlook display. However, the coolest part of this utility is the fact that the view on your desktop is active; you can double click on a day if you're viewing the calendar, and up pops the standard appointment creation dialog. It seems like there have been a number of recent attempts to set free the personal management information you've got locked away in Microsoft Outlook and expose it on the desktop of your computer. I personally have two problems with this. First, I almost never have all of my running applications minimized so I rarely see my desktop. Second, over the past 6 months I have been unable to reduce the number of icons on my desktop to the point where I can actually see the wallpaper I have set, never mind trying to read something displayed there.
If you're looking for an Outlook widget type of utility on steroids, Outlook on the Desktop may be just the ticket.
[Thanks Kevin!]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-21-2007 @ 11:39AM
Sergio Gandrus said...
Too many widget.
In near future we need 1 TB of RAM!
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2-21-2007 @ 12:48PM
dp said...
Outlook is enough trouble already without having it embedded in my desktop!
As for having too many desktop icons, I solved that problem years ago with True Launch Bar. It allows me to make dropdown lists of shortcuts - so I have a row of theme buttons across the top of my display, each one of which drops down columns and sub-columns of folders, application shortcuts and weblinks. No more clutter on the desktop!
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2-21-2007 @ 10:02PM
Andrew Hillman, Andrew Hillman said...
Good work guys with this one!
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2-22-2007 @ 10:06AM
Seth Feldkamp said...
I am one of those people who make use of the Show Desktop button quite a bit. I hate having to go to an application (like outlook) to see what I should be working on next. I want to have that staring me in the face whenever I am on the desktop. I'm going to give it a try!
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