Elegantly Track System Information with DesktopMonitor [OS X Tips]

By

Desktop Monitor

Chances are, you’ll want to keep track of how your computer is working. There are many apps out there to help you visualize this info, like the app we talked about a couple of weeks ago, MiStat. Today’s tip app does a similar function with a much lighter interface.

DesktopMonitor places the information it gleans from your Mac’s running processes and places them in a nice block of text right on your Desktop, so it looks like it’s printed directly on your wallpaper.

Download the $1.99 app from the Mac App Store, and let it install, typically right into Launchpad. Click it once in Launchpad to launch DesktopMonitor, and then close all the open windows on your Mac, or move to a clear Space with Control-Right-Arrow or Control-Left-Arrow.

DesktopMonitor lists info like exhaust fan speed, CPU temperature and usage, and RAM memory usage. To change the font and color of the information, click on the DesktopMonitor icon in the Dock, and you’ll get a preferences window.

Once in the Preferences, you can change the unit of measurement to Celcius or Fahrenheit, the color and background of the font, and whether or not the app launches at Login. You can also move the informational text to anywhere on your screen, which is pretty fantastic as the default left placement conflicted with my Dock.

All in all, this is a pretty slick way to see how your Mac is performing under various stresses, like gaming or video editing apps.

Got an OS X tip? Need help troubleshooting OS X? Drop me a line or leave a comment below.

Newsletters

Daily round-ups or a weekly refresher, straight from Cult of Mac to your inbox.

  • The Weekender

    The week's best Apple news, reviews and how-tos from Cult of Mac, every Saturday morning. Our readers say: "Thank you guys for always posting cool stuff" -- Vaughn Nevins. "Very informative" -- Kenly Xavier.