Filed under: Software, Freeware, Internet, Internet Tools
Use a webpage as your desktop with WebDesktop
Here's a handy bit of freeware. WebDesktop lets you use any web page as your desktop picture. Simply enter the URL of a terrific website (like, say, this one), set the transparency and reload rate and you're all set! When in the background, the page you're monitoring acts as your desktop picture, but when in front, you can scroll, click and otherwise interact with that site as if you were using a typical browser.
MacDesktop requires Mac OS 10.3.9 or higher, is free, and universal.
[Via FreeMacWare]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
andy said 12:07PM on 5-10-2006
i heard this sort of thing was to be part of leopard
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Hawk said 12:24PM on 5-10-2006
I heard Leopard was actually going to be called Dachsund, and be based off Windows Vista. Ahem. Next!
(btw, i use ActiveDesktop on my work Windows PC and I absolutely love how I can have our company intranet and web calendar on my desktop background, and hate how I can't click links in it without them going to separate browser windows, so this web desktop thing better allow that)
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Steven said 12:25PM on 5-10-2006
I'm not sure why anyone would want this.
Who would want to view ads on their desktop?
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dombi said 12:34PM on 5-10-2006
There is another app that does a little more. It will actually let you to place movies, or even Flash animations in the background. Take a look:
http://www.stupidfish23.com/desktopmagik/
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BobMac said 12:38PM on 5-10-2006
I like the idea of Google Calendar on my desktop at all times.
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Tucker said 12:44PM on 5-10-2006
Yeah, real exciting.. I hate to sound the way Apple fanboys do when ragging on Windows, but "OMGWTFLOLBBQ!!! DAT IS SOOO OLDD! THEY ARE RIPPING OFF MS!!!"
Seroiously, I remember using this feature (aka Active Desktop) back in.... Help me out, Winboy lurkers, whenever MS released the Win98 shell upgrades as part of an IE 4 preview. Didn't like it then and don't really see the usefulness now, but whatever floats yer boat, I suppose.
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Brendan said 12:58PM on 5-10-2006
This has to be the most rediculous thing I've ever heard in my life!!
As No.3 said "Who would want to view ads on their desktop?" Ha ha very funny ;-)
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Brent said 1:04PM on 5-10-2006
Cool. When will Apple start selling rotary telephones?
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Daniel David said 1:19PM on 5-10-2006
Rev. 1 of the iPhone (never went to production) had rotary dialing. (Think Click Wheel with on-screen rotary dial)
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Sean Finn said 1:41PM on 5-10-2006
This level of integration between OS and Internet is scary. Microsoft is still probably konking themselves over the head for the lack of foresight in integrating a web browser so tightly into the OS that the two become inseparable - hence any vulnerability in the web browser opens up the entire OS.
I prefer my web applications to have their own protected memory space and virtually no OS integration.
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judgeFire said 2:01PM on 5-10-2006
Well, this app has been around for ages, it's 2.5 already.
And it doesn't integrate with the OS any more than any other app, it simply uses a full screen window above the desktop pic, but below the icons to render pages.
J
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iFelix said 2:06PM on 5-10-2006
This is SO Windows 98...
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Tom said 2:23PM on 5-10-2006
When there's a keynote going on from Apple I always have 3 copies of Webdesktop opened. One is for Apple.com, the other two are for different rumour sites. Love this app.
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Mark Ross said 4:04PM on 5-10-2006
Wouldn't this be kinda cool to use with something like Backpack?
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Eric said 7:16PM on 7-08-2006
I wish a simple application like this existed for Windows Vista.
Starting with IE7 Windows no longer natively supports Active Web Desktops. For example for pages likes this http://satellite.ehabich.info/nacrescent.htm
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