BGInfo is part of Microsoft’s Sysinternals. At the website it says the following: “How many times have you walked up to a system in your office and needed to click through several diagnostic windows to remind yourself of important aspects of its configuration, such as its name, IP address, or operating system version? If you manage multiple computers you probably need BGInfo. It automatically displays relevant information about a Windows computer on the desktop’s background, such as the computer name, IP address, service pack version, and more. You can edit any field as well as the font and background colors, and can place it in your startup folder so that it runs every boot, or even configure it to display as the background for the logon screen”.

The website goes on to say: “Because BGInfo simply writes a new desktop bitmap and exits, you don’t have to worry about it consuming system resources or interfering with other applications”.

You can customize it to show whatever fields you want. There is an article at Windows IT Pro that further describes BGInfo. It says: “BGInfo includes support for an array of built-in fields, referenced within angle brackets (< >) in this window’s main area. The Fields list on the right side of the Default configuration window stores BGInfo’s built-in fields, all of which print on the desktop as part of the default configuration. The Fields list on the right side of the Default configuration window stores BGInfo’s built-in fields, all of which print on the desktop as part of the default configuration”.

Custome Fields

That article goes on to say: “What if you want to display a system or application setting for which BGInfo has no built-in field? Simply click Custom to open the Define New Field dialog box. BGInfo offers a variety of potential information sources, including environment variables, registry values, file version information; even the contents of a text file.”

That article goes on to say: “The VBScript and WMI query options extend the possibilities for displayed data to just about anything. To define a new field as a VBScript file, choose the VB Script file option and enter the path to the script in the Path box (or click Browse to navigate to and select the script). BGInfo will execute the script, using the output of any invocations of the Echo command that you place in the script to replace the field value. You can even use the Field function in your script to have the script reference the value of a built-in BGInfo field.”

That article goes on to say: “To define a new field as a WMI query, choose the WMI Query option, then click Browse to open the WMI Query Selection dialog box. In this dialog box, you can select any property of any registered WMI class to have BGInfo fill in the WMI query box with a basic query that you then can edit, if necessary. To ensure that your query produces the results you expect, click Evaluate to test the output of your query.”