Display summary of system information on a Windows PC background
In rolling out a windows based application recently to a bunch of workstations via login script I thought it would be helpful for the desktop support guys to be able to get any pertinent information about the system at a glance or easily talk a user through getting troubleshooting information for tech support staff. I settled on BGInfo which is a SysInternals (now owned by Microsoft) application that lets you gather and format system information from multiple sources.
The sources available in the current version are environment variables, registry values, vb script output, WMI query, file version information, file time stamp, or file contents. Those are in addition to the canned information it gathers for you Boot Time, CPU, Default Gateway, DHCP Server, DNS Server, Free Space, Host Name, IE Version, IP Address, Logon Domain, Logon Server, MAC Address, Machine Domain, Memory, Network Card, Network Speed, Network Type, OS Version, Service Pack, Snapshot Time, Subnet Mask, System Type, User Name, and Volumes.
The formatted output of the fields you pick and arrange in a wordpad like edit window are imposed on the desktop background in the area of the screen you describe. The program can be run on a schedule to update information over time (potentially useful on a server) or on login in a login script for workstation environment.