Desktop Earth

Desktop Earth is a wallpaper program that will appeal to people who are curious about what the Earth looks like from space. Operating on a simple premise, this is a fun and interesting way to spice up your desktop.

This free program, which embeds its icon in your desktop tray, displays a photograph of Earth from space that takes up the full desktop background. The continents appear clearly and most views provide a glimpse of the northern and southern hemispheres and slightly less than half of the entire globe from east to west. The photo updates itself to reflect the view that someone would have from space at that particular time.

You can cycle through all the time zones in the world to zero in on the corner you want to view from space. There is also a drop-down menu where you can set the picture to be updated every 5 minutes, 15 minutes, or 1 hour. With a slider, cloud cover can be erased for a clearer picture of land and sea. Finally, you can adjust the daytime image to get a better topographical view and the nighttime image to show natural moonlight, city lights, and other things.

Desktop Earth is a simple app that gives desktops a lot of character. Thanks to its clean picture and intriguing options, we highly recommend this download.