PowerBGInfo – PowerShell alternative to Sysinternals BGInfo

Once DesktopManager was ready to get and set wallpaper, Imageplayground allowed me to modify wallpapers. I was prepared to create PowerBGInfo, an alternative to Sysinternals BGInfo made directly in PowerShell. I'll admit I've not spent ages testing this module regarding the placement of the text, which should probably be improved. The trick with Desktop Background is that your image is not always a direct fit to the resolution. That's why Microsoft added the ability to fit (aka set position) desktop background to current resolution using one of the options such as Center, Fit, Stretch, Fill, Span, or Tile. This means that while ImagePlayground can add text to the right bottom corner of the screen, or the top left corner of the screen without much of an issue, depending on the resolution and position of the wallpaper, it may hide PowerBGInfo content from the screen. You may want to play with it to understand the behavior. What I think could be a future solution is to create a new desktop background (and not reuse the existing one) that is a direct fit for the current screen resolution, but still, that would be different from server to server and the person using it. Let's dive into how to play with PowerBGInfo and achieve the desired results.

New-BGInfo -MonitorIndex 0 {
    # Lets add computer name, but lets use builtin values for that
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue HostName -Color Red -FontSize 20 -FontFamilyName 'Calibri'
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue FullUserName
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue CpuName
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue CpuLogicalCores
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue RAMSize
    New-BGInfoValue -BuiltinValue RAMSpeed

    # Lets add Label, but without any values, kinf of like section starting
    New-BGInfoLabel -Name "Drives" -Color LemonChiffon -FontSize 16 -FontFamilyName 'Calibri'

    # Lets get all drives and their labels
    foreach ($Disk in (Get-Disk)) {
        $Volumes = $Disk | Get-Partition | Get-Volume
        foreach ($V in $Volumes) {
            New-BGInfoValue -Name "Drive $($V.DriveLetter)" -Value $V.SizeRemaining
        }
    }
} -FilePath $PSScriptRoot\Samples\PrzemyslawKlysAndKulkozaurr.jpg -ConfigurationDirectory $PSScriptRoot\Output -PositionX 100 -PositionY 100 -WallpaperFit Center