by Gina Trapani

Click to view You've gotten into the habit of stowing away information into text files. But how do you make sure your todo.txt doesn't languish in the dark depths of your hard drive, untouched?


If you keep your daily worklog, grocery shopping list, todo's, project ideas or even your calendar in text files, you can embed that information right onto your Windows desktop automatically with free Windows system monitoring software, Samurize.

Among other things, Samurize displays a constantly-updated text file right on your computer desktop, no text editor or command shell required, for quick and easy visual reference.


Note: Back in the dog days of July, we dashed off a post on Samurize, but to the newbie, it's not the most intuitive piece of software. This article serves as a detailed tutorial on getting started with Samurize.

Download of the Day: Samurize Windows only: I asked for a Windows software that can display command line output and text files on Read more

Check out a Windows desktop with Samurize configured to display several .txt files on it, as well as a short process list:


What's nice about plain text on the desktop is that it displays information without requiring a separate app. Unlike widget engines that put big old chunky eye candy everywhere, its plain Jane appearance isn't much of a distraction.

Here's how to get it set up.

1. Download Samurize from here and install. Confusingly, the Samurize site lists the app and a config download on the same page - be sure to download the second item on the page, "Serious Samurize 1.64."


2. Launch Samurize. The work area will consist of 3 panes: the far left shows your desktop "meters" in a list, the second is the workspace, which represents your desktop and the meter placement, and the third shows the details of a "meter," as shown (click to enlarge.)


All of this information is saved in a Samurize config file. Start with the provided Sample.ini config file and make a copy by choosing "Save As" from the File menu and naming it my-config.ini . Any time you make changes to your configuration, back up your current file and work on a copy.

3. Add your first text file meter. From the Meters menu, choose Add Text file.


You'll notice a selected area placed within your workspace. Choose which text file you want to appear on your desktop in the TextFile Properties pane on the left. There you can tweak appearance like font and color. Also, to add a header (like "My todo list", in the Display tab, enter your text then place the "%v" below it, like so (click to enlarge):


Rinse and repeat for all the text files you want to include on your desktop. Adjust the size and the placement in the workspace area. Name your meters on the far left to keep track of what's what, and be sure to save your config file as you work. Right-click the Samurize icon, and from the "Select config file" menu, choose the name of your config (like my-config.ini ). This will activate your working config on your desktop. As you make changes to a config, save them, and then from the right-click menu, choose "Reload Config" to see the changes on your desktop.

If your desktop wallpaper makes the text output hard to read, try using a Drop Shadow. On the Display tab, check off "Shadow." The default shadow color is black (ugly!) but you can hit the Shadow Color button to choose something better (I like a light gray.)


5. For command-line lovers, Samurize can also display the output of text commands on your desktop, like a constantly updating process list. To do so, in your working config file, from the Meters menu choose Add > Console Program.


In the Source tab on the Meter Properties panel, type TASKLIST as the command (or any other that produces text output). Hit the "Test Command" button to see the output in your workspace.

You'll notice that the output is in columns, but the font isn't fixed width by default so all the columns are uneven. Scroll down the Display tab and click the "Select Font" button. Choose a fixed width font, like Terminal, to get all the columns lined up. (Thanks, BlogJones!)


If you don't want to display ALL your tasks (it can be a long list), narrow it down to just the processes using more than 10000KB, use the TASKLIST filter operator, like TASKLIST /FI "MEMUSAGE gt 10000" .

We've barely scratched the surface of Samurize, which is actually a quite advanced system monitoring tool which has all kinds of features and functionality. Display the current weather, the distance your mouse has travelled, the temperature of your CPU, how many unread messages are in your POP account and more with Samurize and its growing library of plugins and meters.


More on plain text


Are you a Samurize user? What are your favorite meters or scripts? Let us know in the comments.

Gina Trapani, the editor of Lifehacker, loves her .txt right on the desktop. Her semi-weekly feature, Geek to Live, appears every Wednesday and Friday on Lifehacker. Subscribe to the Geek to Live feed to get new installments in your newsreader.