I went to post this a long time ago when the post failed. So here is my second attempt! I hope some of this might be of help to any looking to set up a transparent looking desktop. I regret not having everything laid out in a step-by-step approach, but hopefully what is of interest you'll be able to look up and check out for yourself.
here is the video of my desktop, and some links and comments below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHX9gJcEjac I'm using a variety of programs to make a transparent looking desktop effect. I was originally disappointed with Vista because when you expanded windows full screen it turned all the borders black. MS figured that it would help people concentrate on what they were doing while I just thought it made my screen look much smaller. I realized I really liked having all the borders and titlebar just disappear. So I ended up finding and using a variety of programs to make this happen. I'm sorry I don't have all the links; I've been incorporating them over a period of time. And I forget what I did to make the gadgets transparent, or if I did anything at all.
Here are some of the programs to make all this work on Windows 7.
WinRoll:
http://www.palma.com.au/winroll/ I notice they have a WinRoll 2 out but I haven't tried it. This is the program that rolls the windows up into the title bar. It also turns windows as transparent as youd like.
VistaGlazz:
http://www.codegazer.com/vistaglazz/ this one I used a long time ago, but it basically changes some things to allow you to make your themes much more transparent than what MS allows. Its a 3 part process I think so just follow the instructions.
Transparent Desktops:
http://tinyurl.com/yjfgw25 to get inspiration for transparent desktops just do a Google search like these images links.
Dreamscene:
http://www.dreamscene.org/ this is a place to get free dreamscenes but look up dreamscene elsewhere to find out how to do work it. This works out of the box I think with certain versions of Vista but you need to hack it to make it work for some versions including Windows 7. I still cant get my desktop icon text to show correctly when I use it, but it is an awesome effect. BTW, dreamscenes only work with WMV or MPG video I believe, unless you do a further codec hack of some kind.
My short term aim is to include all this function in a 25 HP touchsmart computer screen which will also act mainly for Skype video conferencing for the household. But in the long run I would like this to be set up on a couple of 30 multi screen or larger, and Id like the dreamscene to actually stream live stationary HD video of say a river or beach front, so I could be working here in the house but feeling like Im live on a beach in California. I do have a couple of beach-scene videos I converted and they are very effective, though they take a lot of extra graphic power.
Be sure to look up Transparent, Projection and Multi Touch to see a whole tone of neat monitor ideas people are coming up with.
Also, the video sample here was Muse playing Starlight:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F22MidnAaTY
Topic: Transparent Desktop (Read 717 times)