EarthDesk

You can find numerous applications on the Internet that can make your desktop more interesting. If your hardware is powerful enough, you can use animations or even videos as your default wallpaper. EarthDesk offers something new for your desktop. If you are fascinated about space and how the planets revolve around a star, you should definitely try this application. It replaces your old and boring desktop with an image of our planet, which constantly updates, to show you the night and day zones, clouds and more.

EarthDesk comes in Windows and Mac OS X editions. The setup package for Windows is about 25 MB large. You may spend some time downloading the file if your Internet connection is not fast enough, but it will take less than a minute to install the application.

Launching the application will instantly replace your desktop's background with a high-resolution image of our planet. As previously stated, the image updates itself constantly, showing you the night and day cycle in real time. It is just like looking at the Earth from outer space. When you have nothing to do on your computer or if you want to take a brake, you can just sit back and enjoy the view. Alternatively, you may double click the software's system tray icon, to bring up its tabbed settings panel and make a series of tweaks and settings.

It is possible to enable satellite cloud images, which are also updated almost in real time. If your computer's performance allows it, you can activate high-resolution cloud images. The cloud intensity, as well as the contrast and update frequency, can be adjusted on a different tab. You may also zoom in or out, select a different image, with natural colors, shaded relief or a political map.

In addition, the software provides various projection modes. You can opt for an equirectangular view of the planet, a globe view and many more. You may also choose to center on the map's center, on the subsolar point or antipode, on the equatorial sunset or sunrise or other points. The software lets you center on a city as well. A list of major cities can be found on the same settings panel and you just need to select one. If a city is selected, the map will not move and you will see how the sunlight passes over the area.