Overview
O&O DeskInfo is a small, portable Windows application that permanently displays system information on your desktop. This page explains what the application consists of, how it behaves on your screen, and which typical scenarios it was built for.
The three parts of the user interface
O&O DeskInfo has no classic main window with menus and toolbars. Instead it consists of three elements:
| Element | Purpose |
|---|---|
| The desktop display | The actual information panel. It is drawn on the desktop and updates itself continuously. |
| The tray icon | An icon in the Windows notification area that draws a live graph of the current CPU load. It is the entry point to every setting. |
| The tray icon menu | The right-click menu of the tray icon. It contains all settings you normally need — profiles, position, monitor, appearance, graphs, update speed and more. See Tray Icon Menu. |
Anything that is not in the menu — margins, exact colors, graph dimensions, help desk messages, restrictions for managed PCs — can be set in the configuration file.
Two display modes
O&O DeskInfo can present its information in two different ways. You switch between them from the tray menu via View settings → Show integrated with the Desktop.
Integrated with the desktop (default)
The information panel becomes part of your desktop background. It is placed in front of the wallpaper and behind the desktop icons, so icons, open windows and taskbar always stay on top. The panel is click-through: mouse clicks pass to the desktop underneath, so your normal desktop usage is unaffected.
Windows offers two technical ways to achieve this, and O&O DeskInfo selects the right one for your system automatically:
- Standard mode places the window behind the desktop icons. This is used on Windows 10 and on most Windows 11 systems.
- Fallback mode places the window on the lowest layer — behind all other windows but still in front of the wallpaper. This is used on Windows 11 systems with the newer “raised desktop” composition model where the standard mode is not available.
If Windows Explorer restarts (for example after a crash or after changing display settings), O&O DeskInfo restores its position on the desktop automatically.
Sliding window
If desktop integration is switched off, the information is shown in a small window with a colored tab button at the edge of the screen. Clicking the tab or the tray icon slides the window in and out. In this mode you can additionally
- keep the window always on top of other windows,
- choose the background opacity of the panel,
- choose the button color of the tab,
- and hide the tab button entirely (the tray icon still toggles the window).
Typical use cases
Help desk and IT support. The most common reason to deploy O&O DeskInfo. Users can read the machine name, the Windows build, the IP address or the serial number right off their desktop, and Copy info to clipboard hands over everything at once — no command prompt, no msinfo32, no walking users through system dialogs. Add your own contact details with the InfoMessage setting.
Performance observation. The history graphs for CPU, RAM, GPU and network traffic make load patterns visible over time and help identify bottlenecks. A double-click on the tray icon opens the Windows Task Manager for a deeper look.
Machine inventory. Manufacturer, model, serial number, mainboard, BIOS version, TPM version, Secure Boot state, domain membership and Windows activation status are all available and can be copied out.
Kiosk, lab and classroom PCs. With a prepared configuration file you can define exactly what is displayed, pin the position, and lock the whole application down so that users cannot change anything. See Enterprise Deployment.
Freeware
O&O DeskInfo is freeware. There is no paid edition, no trial period, no license key and no functionality reserved for a premium version. You may use it on any number of computers, privately and commercially, and pass it on unchanged.
If you manage more than a handful of PCs, have a look at O&O Syspectr — our cloud-based management and monitoring service. It collects the same kind of system information from all your machines centrally, and is free for a number of computers as well.