Desktop Widgets: Small and Powerful

Ever had a problem monitoring computing activities of your laptop? Or do you want your laptop to look the way you want it to? You can go beyond the standards of desktop appearances by using widgets, which are tiny programs designed to do specific tasks like monitor your laptop battery life or give you a 5-day weather report.

A free plug-in that you can download from Yahoo, here are a few widgets that can help you improve your desktop activities:

WiFi Monitor

A simple widget, this helps you monitor your current wireless signal. It displays the name of the router that you are currently connected to and there is also one widget available to monitor battery life.

Neon Clock Cube

This simple widget gives off a neon lighting effect. The cube displays time in both 12 and 24-hour formats, current date and the day. Colors of the cube can be customized to suit user-preferences. This is particular useful for those who dislike the provided and very small clock found on the bottom right of their desktop.

Shortcut Dock

Don't have space on your start bar because of the million shortcuts that you have placed on it? You can lose the whole shortcuts tab completely by using a docking widget instead. It mimics the program dock found on a Mac and whatever is found on your shortcuts menu will be displayed in the dock. The dock can be moved around any part of the screen in a horizontal display with large icons which will be easy on users' eyes.

Dual Processor Monitor

One of the most simple of widgets, this one is designed to monitor the activity of dual processors. This is particularly useful for laptops that run on the Intel Centrino Duo standard, or laptops that use two processors. The widget is a black and white resizable meter that displays usage of the processors by percentage.

Yahoo Weather Widget