Recipe2.13.Putting System Information on the Desktop


Recipe 2.13. Putting System Information on the Desktop

Problem

You want to put information on the desktop wallpaper so that when you log into a server you can automatically see its configuration.

Solution

Using a graphical user interface

  1. Open the Sysinternals BGInfo program on the target server.

  2. The default configuration information is displayed. You can modify it directly or select a new setting in the Fields box and click the Add button. You can also create your own custom settings by clicking the Custom button.

  3. Click the Background button to customize the background color or bitmap.

  4. Click the Position button to customize where the BGInfo is displayed on the desktop.

  5. Click the Desktops button to configure the desktops where you want this information displayed. You can put it only on your desktop, on all console users' desktops, or on Terminal Services user's desktop.

  6. Click the Preview button to see what the new background would look like.

  7. Click the Apply button to commit the changes.

Discussion

If you maintain more than three or four servers, it can be difficult to distinguish them when you are logged onto the console or logged on with Terminal Services. And if you support multiple vendor models that have different hardware, it can be even more difficult to remember what is installed on each computer. Fortunately, there is a simple, yet elegant solution. Why not just put system information on the desktop background so that as soon as you log in, you can see how much memory is installed, view the disk configuration, find out how many CPUs are installed, etc.? The guys at Sysinternals have come through for us yet again by providing the BGInfo utility that can do exactly this. It is a highly customizable tool that lets you put just about anything you could think of on the desktop background.

You can configure where the information should be positioned in the background, you can use any background color or wallpaper you want, and you can even choose to configure whether only Terminal Services users should see it or whether it should be available to anyone that logs on. Figure 2-1 shows the default configuration screen for BGInfo.

Figure 2-1. BGInfo default configuration


If you'd like to use this across a set of servers, consider running BGInfo as part of a Group Policy logon script. It is fully scriptable from the command line. Run bginfo /? for more details.




Windows Server Cookbook
Windows Server Cookbook for Windows Server 2003 and Windows 2000
ISBN: 0596006330
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2006
Pages: 380
Authors: Robbie Allen

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