Elyse Betters Picaro / ZDNET ZDNET's key takeaways Conky is a customizable desktop widget for Linux. It can display all sorts of information. With a handy GUI, Conky is easy to set up. I love a cool Linux desktop configuration and have spent many an hour tweaking them. Over the years, I've found there's one way to make the most out of your desktop, and that's with an app called Conky. Conky is an overlay app that displays certain types of information. For example, Conky can display the time, date, day, system resources, and more. You can theme Conky and configure where it lives on your desktop. In fact, there's practically no limit to what you can do with Conky. It's super flexible. You can even configure multiple widgets in Conky for a totally personalized look. Before I continue, there are two ways to configure Conky: the hard way and the easy way. Since this is an introduction to Conky, I'm going to show you the easy way of installing Conky, adding themes, and configuring your widgets. Don't worry, it's really simple. Let's make some Conky magic. Also: Elementary OS 8 continues the tradition of a beautiful, user-friendly desktop Installing Conky and Conky Manager What you'll need: To install Conky, you'll need a running instance of Linux and a user with sudo privileges. I'll demonstrate this on Pop!_OS Linux. 1. Open a terminal window First, open your terminal window app. Show more 2. Install Conky Next, we'll install Conky with the command: Show more sudo apt-get install conky-all -y Allow that installation to complete. 3. Install the Conky Manager Next, we'll install a GUI that makes it easier to run and configure Conky. To do that, you must first add the necessary repository, which is done with the command: Show more sudo add-apt-repository ppa:ubuntuhandbook1/conkymanager2 After you've added the repository, install Conky Manager with the command: sudo apt-get install conky-manager2 -y With those two pieces of the puzzle taken care of, let's run and configure Conky. Using Conky It's time to put that manager to use. 1. Start Conky Manager Open your desktop menu and search for Conky Manager. Click the launcher, and the GUI will open. Also: These 6 Linux apps are the secret sauce to my creative process 2. Start Conky Look for the right-pointing arrow (looks like a "play" button from a music app) on the left side of the toolbar. Click that button to start Conky. You won't see anything appear on your desktop, because you haven't selected a widget. The Conky Manager makes using Conky so much easier. Jack Wallen/ZDNET 3. Add a widget Conky Manager includes a few widgets by default. Click on the one titled ~/.conky/Gotham/Gotham, and the widget should appear on your desktop. Out of the box, that widget is kind of ugly, so let's spruce it up a bit. 4. Configure your widget Click on the small green icon (it looks like a computer monitor) to open the Edit Widget window. On the first tab, you can customize where the widget lives on your desktop and even increase or decrease the horizontal and vertical gap (the space between the display edges and the widget). There are plenty of customizations that can be easily handled with Conky Manager. Jack Wallen/ZDNET You can also configure the size of the widget, the transparency, the time, and the network adapter (if available) to use. It should only take a few quick clicks to get a much better-looking Conky widget. Adding new themes If you're not satisfied with the default themes, you can always download more. Head over to the GNOME Look Conky themes page, and you can scroll through page after page of Conky themes. To add a new theme, find one you like and download it to your ~/Downloads directory. Once you've downloaded the theme, go back to the Conky Manager and click the Import Theme button (looks like a folder icon in the toolbar) and then locate the theme you just downloaded. Once you've imported the theme, it should appear in the list of Widgets (not themes). Click the radio button associated with the new theme to enable it. Also: 7 things every Linux beginner should know before downloading their first distro If you find the theme doesn't work for you, disable it, find another, and install it. How well a theme will work for you will depend on your needs, aesthetic preferences, and desktop wallpaper. Take your time looking for themes, and you'll find one that perfectly suits you.