Samurize

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Serious Samurize

Developer:	Adam Coulthard / Lee Wilson
Latest release:	1.64.3 / Feburary 5, 2007
OS:	Microsoft Windows
Use:	Widgets
License:	Semi-free Software
Website:	Samurize Homepage

Serious Samurize (or Samurize) is a free system monitoring and desktop enhancement engine for Microsoft Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista.

The core of Samurize is the desktop client (client.exe), which 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 scripts (vbs, js, pls, py, rb) and plugins (dll), which provide virtually unlimited possibilities. There are scripts/plugins which can get weather reports, news headlines, play music, and much more.

The other main component of Samurize is the WYSIWYG config editor (config.exe), which is used to create the configs. A config consists of a collection of meters, and is saved with the ini file extension in the configs folder of the Samurize installation path (C:\Program Files\Samurize\Configs). The client is then used to load the config and display it on the screen.

Configs can be shared with other users by using the ImportExportTool.exe.

An example of a basic Samurize config

The Samurize Config Editor

[edit] 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.