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One of the best ways to set your computer apart from the pack is to customize your desktop. There are numerous ways to do this that range in difficulty from as easy as changing your wallpaper to as involved as a full-blown shell replacement. Somewhere in between, there’s Samurize.
Samurize is a program that lets you create and run custom desktop widgets, most commonly used for system monitoring. Because Samurize is extremely customizable, it’s a favorite tool of desktop modders who use it in conjunction with tailor-made wallpapers to create truly awesome personal desktops. Learning Samurize can be a fun project, because although there’s a lot of depth to the program and it takes practice and an artistic eye to make top-notch widgets, you can get started right away building simple meters and displays. Here we explain the basics of Samurize, including what you need to know to build your first simple custom widget.
To get started on your first custom desktop, you’re going to need to download the latest Serious Samurize release, which you can find here. Grab the most recent client installer.
Once you’ve installed the program, you have the option of running Samurize or the Config tool. Samurize is what you’ll eventually use to display your custom desktops, but for now, start the Config tool. Configs define the widgets that Samurize places on your desktop, and can include meters (which represent any of a number of system parameters) and graphics. By combining informative meters, sharp graphics, and a matching wallpaper, you can create a desktop that’s both useful and impressive.
That’s the goal, at least. But you’ve got to learn to walk before you can run, so this article will explain how to use Samurize to create a basic Config with CPU and RAM usage monitors as well as a gauge for either your laptop battery or hard disk space. It might not be the sexiest feature set in the world, but by learning how to make this simple Config, you’ll familiarize yourself with the basics of Samurize, allowing you to design more complicated and impressive desktops in the future.
We’ll add meters to our Config that graph out our CPU and RAM usage over time. Of the two, the RAM monitor is slightly more straightforward, so we’ll add that first.
In the right-hand side of the Samurize Config Editor, make sure the Edit Meters tab is selected. Since you should be staring at a blank Config, the only thing visible in the Edit Meters column should be a box that says Standard Tasks with a button labeled Add Meter. As you might expect, this button presents you with a list of customizable meters that you can add to your Config.
A little less than halfway down the Add Meter list is the Add Memory button. Press this to add a memory monitor to your Config. At first, the meter will appear as a simple textual display of free memory. You should note that meters in the Config editor use example values and do not actually represent your system’s status; you have to actually load the Config with Samurize in order for the meters to synch with your system.
Now, plain text isn’t quite what we want for our memory meter, so click it and look at the right side of the Config editor, where you can customize your meters. First, give the meter a more memorable name than “Meter 0.” This will make it easier to identify which meter we want to edit when we’ve got several meters in the Config. Once you’ve changed the name, click the drop-down list under Draw Type and select Graph. Doing this will transform the memory meter into a line graph.
Next, we’ll make sure the graph is displaying exactly the information we want it to display, so click the Source tab. Since we want the graph to show how much memory we’re using rather than how much we have available, click the drop-down list under Select Return Value and choose Used Mem. Also, change the unit to %, which will save us the trouble of assigning a minimum or maximum value for the chart.
You can fine-tune the appearance of the meter in the Display tab, which contains fields for customizing the look of the graph, including the scale, color, alpha, mirroring, and more. If you select a different type of meter in the Draw Type field of the first tab, the fields in the Display tab will be different. You can make yours look however you like—we chose a nice Matrix-green look for ours. Resize it into a square by entering a value of 100 into the Width and Height fields under the General tab.
Comments are closed on this article
Scootiep
November 18, 2009 at 1:06pm
So you said you only scratched the surface of Samurize and that future articles would be coming...I'm still drooling in suspense for those articles <taps foot on ground impatiently>.
Also, the Samurize website seems pretty shot. I don't think it's been updated since the 2007. Is the project itself dead? I'm really looking for more comprehensive guides than what I have been able to google for the most part as I would like to completely revamp my desktop and not just create some simple widgets. Anybody have any links that might help me out?
To start press any key...ohh, where's the "Any" key. - Homer Simpson
vcrguy
November 08, 2009 at 5:19am
http://forums.samurize.us/index.php?
It looks like they have been having some site problems. You can find the download link and other information on their forum pages.
Latest version looks to be 1.64.3_3 but it has not been updated in a while. The download link is again on their forum pages. They note a workaround for Windows 7 users, run the installer in compatability mode and run as admin once installed.
Enjoy!
AlBSure
November 06, 2009 at 8:12am
There site is down but i got a copy from this link
http://www.filehippo.com/download_samurize/download/cf2ab57a39075c2026f0b15665135ff4/
naxself
November 05, 2009 at 11:36pm
The link in the article and the samurize.com both return service unavailable messages.
Vardeeg94
October 12, 2009 at 10:02pm
whats the dock that is being used for this little shindig cause thats really the main reason that i clicked on this link.
Superbiz2
November 08, 2009 at 11:30pm
It's not a dock, it's a "docklet". Just go to dock settings>style>theme>get more, and it will take you to the website, which has more dock styles, but there is a tab saying "icons" "skins" "docklets" and so forth. Go to docklets, and the one in the first image was the "stacker" docklet. Hope this helps!
ErrantConstruct
September 13, 2009 at 9:59am
Any idea when we may get some more samurize tutorials? Or does anyone know where some more advanced ones can be found?
Danielt876
July 29, 2009 at 3:37am
Samarize runs at about 2-3% usage on my CPU, Intel Celeron D 3.2 GHz, 2 GB RAM, Windows 7 RC 64-Bit Build 7100. And yes Samarize does run on Windows 7, just go to the compatability section of the installers properties, and change it, Vista SP2 works best. If you are running 7 make sure you change it to Vista not XP, when you change it to XP it dosent work quite right.
Nipyf2
July 25, 2009 at 3:47pm
I ran it on 7 it uses about 10% of 3ghz dual core. so it is a resource hog
yardGNOME
July 24, 2009 at 5:30pm
Yeah it doesn't work on 7 found out in there forums, only on Vista and XP....
MeTo
July 23, 2009 at 9:38pm
Man look at the picture's of the desktops they are using 45% of there CPU,65% of there memory and 100% AC power just to run Samurize desktop. And to tell you the truth it looks like Apple dock.
ETNPNYS
July 28, 2009 at 8:34am
Exactly... You gotta understand that the CPU has to kick in to take the screenshot; by time the screen is captured, the CPU has obviously done some work. I would still agree that it's a resource hog as evidenced by other posters that say it's using 10%.
MeTo
July 24, 2009 at 7:20am
The new york picture (desktop) shows him/her running windows media player minamized to taskbar. On my win vista PC windows media player only uses 3% CPU with the system running and playing music and all the stuff in my systray. It looks like Samurize is CPU intensive. To me this is just another Microsoft Bob.
cborogue
August 01, 2009 at 11:12pm
I have samurize running on my Dual core with three different config settings loaded....... All three are pretty graphic intensive and I am running maybe 0-3% CPU usage. It is not very cpu intensive from what I have seen.
I am sure you could get it to use up your CPU depending on what you try and do but it is not even close to being a resource hog and you would probably have to have it running crazy stuff to have it use much of the cpu. Memory wise it is using 20 meg of ram for the three configs. About 5 meg each. Pretty much less than average of everything else I have running.
iexplore/firefox/iron/safari. EACH one of those programs use more CPU and more ram then this ever will. Even windows media player uses more ram than this.
This review doesn't do it much justice. There is ALOT this can do. You can add whatever graphics and make it look quite nice. However it is mainly just to display resource usage, create shortcuts to whatever (folders, programs, etc) calandar display, winamp controller, weather display........ Pretty much your basic widget displayer however it is easier to customize it than your typical widget program you would usually download which I think is what this artical was attempting to say.
But hey windows is all about having thing within your reach to click and run......... and this just makes it easier for you to make it look the way YOU want it to look. Granted you have to take some time and do it but at least you can say you have a starting point to make it possible........
Bizarre
July 23, 2009 at 7:29pm
wow, great program, lot of potential. The system monitor thing was kind of self-explanatory. I'm hoping for more advanced tutorials from you guys soon.
techmad
July 23, 2009 at 12:55pm
Looks impressive, this will keep me occupied for the forseeable future, thanks look forward to more tutorials!
ETNPNYS
July 23, 2009 at 11:27am
Did I miss something? This article is titled "Start Building Your Perfect Desktop with Samurize" - but it's showing you how to create custom monitors for your system? That's it? For a title like this, I expect some new piece of software that lets me specify what shows in the tray, what the start button looks like, how to rearrange your taskbar icons, how to separate different things on your taskbar... something more like WindowBlinds - but all without slowing your PC to a crawl. I was expecting something more like how to enable custom configurations like you can do in Linux... But all i got was a how-to on creating my own CPU monitor?
How does this article help me build a perfect desktop at all?
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huhhuh
September 30, 2009 at 11:30am
I am running Aston since 2003. It is complete shell replacement that comes with anything you need. It's so good that in days of Win2000 and early Xp used to be more stable then native explorer shell. Nowdays MS got explorer to run as it should, or at least as Aston.
No icon clutter on desktop, all these widgets, lots of 2 buttons ALT+(Something) shortcuts...the way how computer should look like.
Hg Dragon
July 23, 2009 at 1:10pm
It's titled "Start Building..." It's stated in the article that the CPU monitor creation was to get you familier with the way that the app builds its widgets. think of it as a tutorial. From the article itself:
It might not be the sexiest feature set in the world, but by learning
how to make this simple Config, you’ll familiarize yourself with the
basics of Samurize, allowing you to design more complicated and
impressive desktops in the future."and
"This how-to guide has only scratched the surface of Samurize, though,
so look out for future articles on MaximumPC.com explaining how to make
more sophisticated kinds of widgets, and how to use graphics and a
custom wallpaper to make your widgets look awesome."So sorry that it didn't just jump head-first into telling you how to build that super-ultra-flash-blinged out desktop right in the first article. I'm sure heads will roll at the mag and site for their failure in this dire, important manner...
***typo edit***
ETNPNYS
July 28, 2009 at 8:30am
...but my point is that I don't understand how custom widgets help me create a perfect desktop... They're just custom widgets... In that case, shouldn't the article be titled something more like "Use Samurize to create custom widgets and more!"?? It's like saying "Build your perfect car!" and then just directing you to some shops that sell custom wheels and saying "...but now you're on your way to understanding that you can actually change things on your own car!"
And no: heads aren't going to roll, but when a headline is as ambiguous as this you expect something at least a *little* revolutionary. I'm not arguing that it's a good piece of software - I'm arguing that the title of the article is misleading.
lunchbox73
July 23, 2009 at 10:09am
That's an awesome desktop picture. I tracked it down if anybody else wants it.
http://interfacelift.com/wallpaper_beta/details/1324/new_york_city_by_paulo_barcellos_jr..html
MeTo
July 23, 2009 at 10:07am
I have tried stuff like this and will never again. These kind of things make your PC crawl on there hands and knees. Forget about running Cryis at the same time.
cborogue
August 01, 2009 at 11:20pm
You should actually try it before saying what you have said. I have it running and I can easily run Crysis at the same time.
It sounds more like you are running a computer that can barely run Crysis at all and have to have everything off for it to run..... it would have to be that way since this doesn't use hardly any of your resources when running. Mine runs from 0-3% cpu at the most.
But I guess I can hear where you are coming from. I have run crap that will mess with your monitor while trying to play a game (flashes the images over your game) and then creates a huge swap file which eventually lags your computer to a crawl after awhile. However I have not seen that kind of issue with Samurize.
habuza
July 23, 2009 at 11:11am
Maybe you shouldn't be running a toaster attached to a keyboard ? I can run anything I toss at my desktop just fine with Samurize running.
