If this sounds like a good addition to your PC, you can add important system information to your desktop with a couple of third-party apps. Those apps add numerous system details and stats to the top right of the Windows 10 or 11 desktop so you can immediately check your PC’s specifications whenever needed. You can add PC info to Windows 11’s desktop with those programs as outlined below.
How to Add System Details to the Desktop Info With O&O DeskInfo
O&O DeskInfo is a freeware app that adds both system specification and utilization info to the Windows desktop. It provides full OS, RAM, processor, computer name, GPU, and system architecture information. To add those details to the desktop, download and launch O&O DeskInfo as follows.
Open the O&O DeskInfo webpage. Click Download there to save the program’s EXE file. Open the folder that includes O&O DeskInfo EXE and click it to launch the program (it doesn’t have a setup wizard). When you first launch O&O DeskInfo, a welcome window will open. If you always want its system info to be visible on the desktop, select the Start automatically with Windows option there. Press the OK button to add system info to the desktop as in the snapshot directly below.
O&O DeskInfo has Minimum, Default, and Full display options. If you want to view more computer info, select the Full option. To do so, right-click O&O DeskInfo’s system tray icon and select Display > Full. Selecting that option displays 20 PC specs on your desktop along with six additional system resource utilization details.
If the regular text size is a bit small for you, you can expand the font a little bit. Right-click the O&O DeskInfo system tray icon and select Font Size. Then select the Large (12pt) size.
O&O DeskInfo also includes a Copy to clipboard option you can select to quickly copy and paste all its system details into a Notepad file. Select the Copy to clipboard option on O&O DeskInfo’s right-click menu to copy the details. Then you can select Yes on a dialog box to paste that info into Notepad. That option might come in handy if you ever need to share system info with IT support services.
Read also: How to Copy Task Manager Details to Notepad
How to Add System Info With BGInfo
BGInfo is another freely available program that adds similar system information to the Windows desktop. However, it provides more extensive network details than O&O DeskInfo. BGInfo is also more flexible because you can change all the system spec fields it displays.
BGInfo comes packaged in a ZIP. Therefore, you’ll need to extract its archive. However, no installation is required. Go through the steps below to add BGInfo’s system information to your desktop.
Open BGInfo’s Softpedia page. Click Download Now > External Mirror on that page. Navigate to the folder where you downloaded BGInfo’s ZIP file to. Open the BGInfo ZIP archive, and click the Extract all option. Click Browse to choose a directory path for an extracted BGInfo ZIP archive. Then select the Show extracted files when complete checkbox on the window. Press the Extract button to open an extracted BGInfo ZIP archive. Click BGInfo64 to open the window in the screenshot directly below. Finally, click Apply on that window to add the default system info fields to the desktop.
If you ever want to remove the system details from the desktop, you’ll need to manually erase all the info fields in BGInfo’s window. You can remove fields from the desktop by selecting them in the BGInfo window and pressing the Delete keyboard key. Select PC info fields on the right of that window and click Add to include them on the desktop.
You can add new system specs to the desktop simply by manually entering them within BGInfo’s window. Open the System Information window to find more PC details to enter in that app’s text box. Although there’s also a Custom option available to add more fields, it’s simpler to manually enter new details.
BGInfo also has better text formatting options than O&O DeskInfo. Select some text to format within the app’s window. Then click Bold, Italic, Bullet, and Underline to add some formatting effects. Choose a different font on the drop-down menu. You can expand or reduce the text by selecting a different value on the Font Size drop-down menu. Click the three alignment buttons to align text left, centrally, or right.
To reposition the system details, click the Position button. Select the Locate on screen radio button on the window shown below, and press the OK option. Click Apply to apply all selected settings.
You can also save different BGInfo system information configurations for the desktop. To do so, click the File menu and select Save As. Choose a folder to save the file to. Enter a title in the File name box, and click the Save button. Then you can click File > Open to select and add alternative saved configurations to the desktop.
Read also: How to Get System Information With the uname Command on Linux
Make System Information More Visible in Windows 10 and 11
Both the BGInfo and O&O DeskInfo apps will come in handy for anybody who needs to view system specs on a more regular basis. The default info fields BGInfo displays will be especially useful for network and system administrators. O&O DeskInfo’s RAM, processor, system type, OS version, and GPU details are all important system requirement specs to check before installing software. With important computer info displayed on the desktop, you’ll no longer need to rummage through diagnostic windows to find such information.
