How to Add a Calendar to the Desktop Wall Paper

By Stephanie Ellen

Turn your dull old desktop wallpaper into a useful calendar, with important dates right in front of your eyes. Delete that tired old waterfall scene or photograph of the hubby (sorry, hubby), and replace it with a gadget you'll use over and over again. A calendar on your desktop will mean you won't miss an important lunch date or forget a birthday. And best of all, no trees are felled in the process. Adding a calendar to your wallpaper takes just seconds with Active Desktop in Windows XP or Windows Desktop Gadgets in Windows 7.

Windows XP Desktop Calendar

Choose the calendar you would like to display as your wallpaper and go to calendar settings (in most desktop calendars, the settings option should be obvious. For example, Google calendar's setting's tab is at the top of the calendar).

Select "HTML" from the options list.

Right click on the address and click "Ctrl+C" to copy the URL.

Click on "Start" in Windows and click on "Control Panel->Display->Desktop" and select "customize desktop." Click on the "Web" tab.

Click "New" and add the URL for the calendar by pasting with "Ctrl+V."

Click on "Save."

Windows 7 Desktop Calendar

Right-click a blank space on the desktop and click "Gadgets."

Click the scroll bars until you find the "Calendar" gadget.

Double-click the "Calendar" gadget to add it to your desktop.

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