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Daily content on the desktop

You can add "Word of the Day", "Article of the Day", "Today's Birthday", "Today's Holiday", and/or "This Day in History" right to your desktop using Windows Active Desktop feature without installing or running any software on your computer.
  1. Right-click on your desktop and select "Properties"
  2. Windows XP only: Click on the "Desktop" tab. Click on the "Customize Desktop" button.
  3. Click on the "Web" tab
  4. Windows XP skip this step: Make sure "Show Web content on my Active Desktop" option is selected
  5. Uncheck any existing pages you do not want on your desktop, like "My Current Home Page"
  6. Click on the "New" button.
  7. Copy this URL in the Location box:
    • For Word of the Day: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx
    • For Article of the Day: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx?type=article
    • For Today's Birthday: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx?type=birthday
    • For Today's Holiday: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx?type=holiday
    • For This Day in History: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx?type=history
    • For Quote of the Day: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/_/WoD/desk.aspx?type=quote
    Note that you can add several items to your desktop by repeating this procedure
  8. Click "OK" several times
  9. The content window will show on your desktop. Put the mouse over the blue bar. The window frame will appear to allow you to move and resize the window as needed.

If you decide to remove this feature, repeat the steps 1-3 and then either disable Active Desktop; or uncheck or delete the items from the list.