[How To] Use Emerge Desktop – A Novice’s Guide to Greatness

Revisions:
5-9-09:  Initial Release. More rev’s to come to do into more specifics, screenshots, and third party tools!

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Are you a PC enthusiast?  Does the thought of customizing your PC the way you want it to appear give you shivers down your spine at the mere thought of it?  Of course!  Why do you think websites such as customize.org, deviantart.com, and interfacelift.com exists?  These type of websites can give you themes, wallpapers, and additional items to trick out your desktop.

As a Window’s user, I am getting sick of my Windows XP desktop.  There are programs called Windows Shell Alternatives, in which they replace the entire GUI of Windows with a different interface.  For some, this might be disorienting in the beginning, but after a while, you get used to it.  In today’s guide, I show you one of my favorite open source Windows Shell Replacements – Emerge Desktop!

What is Emerge Desktop?

According to their website, it says:

Emerge Desktop is a replacement windows “shell” (the desktop environment normally provided by Windows Explorer) for Windows 2000 and above. In order to replace Windows Explorer as a shell, it provides a system tray (the area that collects the icons collected at the lower right corner in Explorer), called emergeTray. It will also provide access to the users programs (normally accessed with the windows “start” button) via a right-click on the desktop, via emergeCore.

What Can I Do With It?

Quite simply, Emerge Desktop is a program that replaces your entire Windows Explorer Shell. No longer are you confined to how Microsoft wants you to interact with your desktop.  Now you can interact with it even easier and simpler with Emerge Desktop.  With Emerge Desktop, you will notice:

• The right click menu from the mouse has short cuts.
• The start menu task bar and clock is gone.
• The task tray icons and system tray icons can be easily moved around on the desktop.
• Emerge Desktop uses what is called “applets”.  These applets are the soul of Emerge Desktop.
• And of course, Emerge Desktop starts off with a very minimalist theme to it.  You can make it as simple or as complicated as you want with your customizations.

Visual Examples

A good example is the picture you see at the top of my post.  Using Samurize (third party meter tool), I have the text “Welcome Back Versatile!” at the bottom of the screen.  On the bottom left and the bottom right, those are Emerge Desktop applet tray icons.  I can easily move these applets around however I see fit.

Below are some user created deskops to get your creative juices flowing:

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Stop Tempting Me! How Do I Get Started?

There is no way I can go into every single technical detail of Emerge Desktop.  What I have done instead is created a video that gives you a quick crash course in Emerge Desktop.  Watch the video below to see how it looks in real time.  Below the video, there is a link to a google website that a fellow Emerge Desktop fan created a while back.  There is a lot of good information there.  In future revisions of this guide, I will add more content, especially a section dedicated to Samurize and other third party programs.

Another website on how to use Emerge Desktop:  Link

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