Outlook on the Desktop

Filed under: Business, Utilities, Windows, E-mail, Office, Productivity, Microsoft, Freeware

Outlook on the Desktop

by Jason Clarke Feb 21st 2007

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!]

Tags: Microsoft Outlook, MicrosoftOutlook, Outlook, Outlook on the Desktop, Outlook views, OutlookOnTheDesktop, OutlookViews, widget

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Sergio Gandrus said 11:39AM on 2-21-2007

Too many widget.
In near future we need 1 TB of RAM!

dp said 12:48PM on 2-21-2007

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!

Andrew Hillman, Andrew Hillman said 10:02PM on 2-21-2007

Good work guys with this one!

Seth Feldkamp said 10:06AM on 2-22-2007

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!

Featured Time Waster

Civiballs is a beautiful, soothing physics puzzle Time Waster

I have an absolute weakness for physics games, and while Civiballs isn't the strongest physics-based game, what it lacks in the physics department it makes up for a few times over in style and fun.

In Civiballs, you are presented with a few colored balls, and your goal is to get those balls into the same-colored urn on the level. The "civi" part of Civiballs is that there are 3 sets of levels to play, each representing a different civilization. While the civilization doesn't affect gameplay, the artwork for each level is beautifully themed to it's appropriate era.

To play the game, you are given only one tool - a sword with which to cut the chains that are holding the balls. The puzzle part of the game is in figuring out what order, and with what timing to cut each chain. Do it right, and all the right balls end up in the right urns, with no stray balls entering an urn (a no-no). Do it wrong, and you get to start over again.

Civiballs is not terribly deep on gameplay; the entire game can be completed in about 15 minutes. But if you enjoy this type of game, it will be a very enjoyable 15 minutes.

View more Time Wasters