Serious Samurize is a freeware

Freeware

Freeware is computer software that is available for use at no cost or for an optional fee, but usually with one or more restricted usage rights. Freeware is in contrast to commercial software, which is typically sold for profit, but might be distributed for a business or commercial purpose in the...

 system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows

Microsoft Windows is a series of operating systems produced by Microsoft.Microsoft introduced an operating environment named Windows on November 20, 1985 as an add-on to MS-DOS in response to the growing interest in graphical user interfaces . Microsoft Windows came to dominate the world's personal...

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The core of Samurize is the desktop client that displays a "config" (similar to a widget/gadget) anywhere on the screen. There is also a taskbar client, a clock client, a server, and a screensaver. The client's main purpose is to display information about the computer, such as CPU usage, available RAM/HD space, network conditions, uptime, etc.. It can also be extended by using VBScript

VBScript

VBScript is an Active Scripting language developed by Microsoft that is modeled on Visual Basic. It is designed as a “lightweight” language with a fast interpreter for use in a wide variety of Microsoft environments...

, JScript

JScript

JScript is a scripting language based on the ECMAScript standard that is used in Microsoft's Internet Explorer.JScript is implemented as a Windows Script engine. This means that it can be "plugged in" to any application that supports Windows Script, such as Internet Explorer, Active Server Pages,...

, Perl

Perl

Perl is a high-level, general-purpose, interpreted, dynamic programming language. Perl was originally developed by Larry Wall in 1987 as a general-purpose Unix scripting language to make report processing easier. Since then, it has undergone many changes and revisions and become widely popular...

, Python

Python (programming language)

Python is a general-purpose, high-level programming language whose design philosophy emphasizes code readability. Python claims to "[combine] remarkable power with very clear syntax", and its standard library is large and comprehensive...

, Ruby

Ruby (programming language)

Ruby is a dynamic, reflective, general-purpose object-oriented programming language that combines syntax inspired by Perl with Smalltalk-like features. Ruby originated in Japan during the mid-1990s and was first developed and designed by Yukihiro "Matz" Matsumoto...

 scripts and DLL plugins, which provide virtually unlimited possibilities. There are scripts/plugins which can get weather reports, news headlines, music controllers, etc..
Samurize includes a WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG

WYSIWYG is an acronym for What You See Is What You Get. The term is used in computing to describe a system in which content displayed onscreen during editing appears in a form closely corresponding to its appearance when printed or displayed as a finished product...

 config editor used to create the configs. A "config" consists of a collection of "meters", and is saved into a INI file in the "configs" folder of the Samurize installation path. "Configs" can be packed to be shared with other users by using an included tool.

History

Samurize was started in early 2002 by Gustaf Lundh (Cure) and Oscar Lundh (Sim). The first iteration of Samurize went up to version 0.63c, at which point work began on Serious Samurize, which was released at version 0.80a, breaking compatibility with older configs.

The earliest predecessor of Samurize was NMeter, created by Gustaf Lundh in 2000. NMeter was followed by CureInfo in 2001 and in March 2002 the Samurize development began. The development proceeded rapidly, almost one new version in each month, until the version 1.0 was published in November 2003. Since then the development process slowed down a bit but new versions kept coming in a steady pace.