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First Steps

O&O DeskInfo is ready to use within a minute. This page walks you through the first start and the handful of settings that are worth looking at right away.

1. Download and unpack​

  1. Download O&O DeskInfo from the product page.
  2. Extract the archive to any folder you like — for example C:\Tools\OODeskInfo, or a USB stick if you want to carry it with you.
  3. No installation is performed and nothing is written to the Windows registry apart from the optional autostart entry.

2. Start the application​

Run OODeskInfo.exe. Two things happen:

  • The information panel appears in the top-right corner of your primary monitor.
  • An icon appears in the Windows notification area (the system tray) showing a live graph of the current CPU load.
tip

If you cannot see the tray icon, it may be hidden behind the small arrow in the notification area. Drag it onto the visible part of the taskbar so that it is always at hand — it is your access point to every setting.

3. The welcome wizard​

On the very first start, a short wizard greets you. It has three steps:

  1. Welcome — a brief introduction to what O&O DeskInfo does and how desktop integration works on your Windows version.
  2. Quick setup — the settings most people want to change immediately:
    • Application start — whether O&O DeskInfo should start automatically with Windows.
    • Display profile — how much information is shown (Default, Full or Minimum).
    • Monitor selection — which monitor the display should appear on.
    • Window position — which of the four screen corners to use, with a live preview.
    • Appearance — text size and text opacity, so the display stays readable on your wallpaper.
  3. Explore more O&O products — a short overview of the other O&O tools for Windows.

The wizard is shown only once. You can reopen the quick setup at any time from the tray menu via Quick setup…, and the product overview via Explore more O&O products….

4. Choose what is displayed​

Right-click the tray icon and open Information displayed. Four ready-made profiles are available:

ProfileContent
DefaultThe recommended selection: user and machine, operating system, CPU and RAM, graphics card, hardware, system status, battery, network (basic and advanced), virtual machine, all drives, system utilization and network utilization.
FullEverything the Default profile shows, arranged in a single column.
MinimumOnly the essentials: information message, user and machine, operating system.
Drives onlyOnly the drives, without labels — a compact drive activity display.

If none of them fits, build your own with Edit Custom Profile…. See Display Profiles.

5. Position and appearance​

All of this is in the tray menu:

  • Position — one of the four screen corners.
  • Monitor — a specific monitor, or All monitors for a simultaneous display on every screen.
  • View settings → Text color — Automatically (the default: black text over bright wallpapers, white over dark ones) or a fixed color.
  • View settings → Font size — Small (10pt), Regular (12pt) or Large (14pt).
  • View settings → Opacity of the display — 100 %, 80 % or 40 %.

A complete description of every entry is in Tray Icon Menu.

6. Start with Windows​

Enable Start with Windows in the tray menu so that O&O DeskInfo is available after every logon. This writes a single autostart entry for the current user and needs no administrator rights.

For automated rollouts use the SetAutoRun setting instead — it configures autostart without asking the user.

7. Try the clipboard function​

Right-click the tray icon and select Copy info to clipboard. All currently displayed information is copied as plain text, and you are offered to open it in Notepad right away. This is the fastest way to send a complete system overview to a colleague or to a help desk. See Clipboard and Support.

What next?​