How to display System Information on Desktop with BGInfo

By
Thomas
– September 26, 2012Posted in: Tools
  • Buffer
  • Buffer

If you need an easy way to Display System Information of a computer on the desktop, then BGInfo from Windows Sysinternals comes to the rescue. If you are an regular visitor to this Blog you know that I have written post about Sysinternals Great Tools before. Sysinternals Tools can help you to deal with all kind of problems you might have with Windows PC’s and servers. The tools are small fast and most of all they are all freeware :-)

Well back to the subject of BGInfo. BGInfo is a free tools that you can download from the Microsoft Sysinternals website free of charge. What it can do for you is that it can grab all the system information from the computer you run it on an let you chose which to display as a wallpaper each time the computer starts up.

BgInfo from Windows Sysinternals

BGInfo only consist of a single file (824 kb) that you can put into the Startup menu to make it load each time the PC boots. You can also use the Windows Task Scheduler to run BGInfo on a regular basis to ensure long-running systems are kept up to date. If you do so you should add the parameter: /timer:0 to update the display without showing the configuration dialog box.

How to configure BGInfo

BGInfo Configurations

When you configure BGInfo you can select the fields of information you want to show and remove them you don’t need. You can also change color font and size of the text if you want to.

Command Line parameters for BGInfo

The following  command line parameters are available for BGInfo for use if you start the program automatically via start menu or a scheduled task.

<path> Specifies the name of a configuration file to use for the current session. Changes to the configuration are automatically saved back to the file when OK or Apply is pressed.
/timer Specifies the timeout value for the countdown timer, in seconds. Specifying zero will update the display without displaying the configuration dialog.
/popup Causes BGInfo to create a popup window containing the configured information without updating the desktop. The information is formatted exactly as it would if displayed on the desktop, but resides in a fitted window instead.
/silent Suppresses error messages.
/taskbar Causes BGInfo to place an icon in the taskbar’s status area without updating the desktop. Clicking the icon causes the configured information to appear in a popup window.
/all Specifies that BGInfo should change the wallpaper for any and all users currently logged in to the system. This option is useful within a Terminal Services environment, or when BGInfo is scheduled to run periodically on a system used by more than one person (see Using a Schedule below).
/log Causes BGInfo to write errors to the specified log file instead of generating a warning dialog box. This is useful for tracking down errors that occur when BGInfo is run under the scheduler.

Download BGInfo from Windows Sysinternals (387 KB)

That is all from me for this time. I hope that you found this tool useful and will love if you would leave me a comment below.

 


Tags: , ,
avatar

About Thomas

I am an IT Professional that has this blog as a hobby project in my spare time. I have been in the IT business since 1996 and want to share some of the thing I have picked up over the years with people who visit this blog... Connect with me on: Twitter | Google+ | YouTube