Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop

(For Windows 98-XP only) Using Windows’ Active Desktop feature, this tutorial will show you how to embed your Remember the Milk to-do list on the Windows desktop. You’ll need a Remember the Milk account, Windows, and the ability to use Internet Explorer for short periods of time without exploding. Update: We’ve covered some more webapps in this post.

Another Update: Mark Godwin has a tutorial for Windows Vista users.

Login to Remember the Milk

You’re required to use Internet Explorer. Make sure you check “Remember me on this computer” or otherwise the To-Do list we’ll embed will log you out.

To Active Desktop

Right click on any empty spot on your desktop, and select Properties.

You’ll be greeted by Display Properties. Click on the Desktop tab, and click on the button below the list of wallpaper that says Customize Desktop…

A Desktop Items window will appear. Click on the Web tab, and click on the button labeled New.

The New Desktop Wizard. Put the following URL in Location field, and click OK.

http://rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/

You’ll see the Desktop Items window again. Make sure your new entry is checked, and click OK. Then click OK to the Display Properties window. Magically, your Remember the Milk to-do list appears on the desktop. You can resize it, and move it around.

70 Responses to “Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop”

nka said on July 1st, 2008 at 3:20 pm

Thanks for the easy to follow tutorial. The screenshots make it even easier, I will definitely check this tip out. Thanks again.

-NKA

jarhead said on July 1st, 2008 at 3:24 pm

You had me right up until “the ability to use Internet Explorer for short periods of time without exploding.” Just can’t do it.

Seriously though, very nice use of Active Desktop.

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[...] list before, but if you’re a RTM user, this slight tweak is a must-have for your desktop. Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop [Third [...]

Jason said on July 1st, 2008 at 3:45 pm

@nka: You’re welcome. We try to make all the tutorials easy to understand.

@jarhead: Thanks! And IETab might work as well, if that’s a bit less daunting.

[...] list before, but if you’re a RTM user, this slight tweak is a must-have for your desktop. Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop [Third [...]

smartfather said on July 1st, 2008 at 4:15 pm

I can’t wait to try this when I get home!!! Thank you.

[...] a follow-up to embedding Remember the Milk on the desktop, we’ve compiled a list of some more web apps you can [...]

avinashsonee said on July 1st, 2008 at 9:21 pm

When i click on the login button, instead of logging in there, it opens a new page in the browser. How do i resolve this ?

Jason said on July 1st, 2008 at 9:56 pm

@smartfather: You’re welcome!

@avinashsonee: Make sure you login to Remember the Milk with “Remember me on this computer” checked in Internet Explorer.

Jörn said on July 1st, 2008 at 11:42 pm

Thanks for the tip! Although I tend to keep my desktop clutter free, I think I will give it a shot.

NKA said on July 1st, 2008 at 11:47 pm

@Jason: Thanks for the reply. Quick question, when I enabled the RTM active desktop, the name of the desktop icon shortcuts become highlighted with whatever color the desktop is set to. Is there a way to remove this highlight and have the icons appear as they do before active desktop is enabled.

If you have a workaround for this, please let me know via email, thanks!

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:04 am

@Jörn: You’re welcome! I also tend to keep my desktop clutter free, I have it without icons.

@NKA: Unfortunately, I haven’t found a workaround for that. I actually didn’t notice that until it was mentioned earlier, since I keep my desktop clear of icons. I’ll see what I can dig up.

Nancy said on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:19 am

I have done the installation. However, I have a picture as my desktop along with numerous files on the desktop. All the titles of the files now have a color associated with them rather than being transparent, so the desktop does not look as nice at all! Is there a way to restore the file titles to a transparent background - they are the color under Desktop > Color.

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 12:33 am

@Nancy: Unfortunately, that seems to be a side-effect of Active Desktop, and we’re still looking for a workaround. The only way to restore the transparency is to remove the Active Desktop item.

rich_trenholm said on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:51 am

Genius - I previously kept RTM in my Firefox sidebar but this frees up browser real estate. In conjunction with Outlook On the Desktop, my top folders, to-do list and calendar are all neatly arranged side-by-side and just a Window+D away. I’ll hold back unreserved praise until I see if the syncing works OK over the next few days, if it does I’ll be one happy to-doer.

[...] list before, but if you’re a RTM user, this slight tweak is a must-have for your desktop. Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop [Third [...]

XNet said on July 2nd, 2008 at 4:43 am

Depending on your style preferences you can also use the Netvibes widget: http://www.rememberthemilk.com//services/modules/netvibes/

Pat Friedl said on July 2nd, 2008 at 7:23 am

This is a great tip. My only problem is that the embeded page always shows the RTM login screen. Logging in launches a new IE window. Any way around that?

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 8:04 am

@XNet: That’s another possibility. I didn’t notice the difference until you pointed that out.

@Pat: Make sure you login through Internet Explorer at http://www.rememberthemilk.com/login/ and check “Remember me on this computer” beforehand.

kut said on July 2nd, 2008 at 9:23 am

Using the Gmodule one for me had the Active Desktop error constantly, but the netvibes one worked fine.

Heather said on July 2nd, 2008 at 9:54 am

Hi,
I just did this and it works great! I have one question, though: how do I retain my desktop wallpaper? The entire desktop is white now, with the RTM module in the center.

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 10:09 am

@Heather: That’s an interesting side-effect I haven’t heard of. Have you tried setting your desktop wallpaper again?

Ciaron said on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:28 pm

How often will the embedded page refresh? The only option in Active Desktop I can find is for 1 day - which kind of renders this thing a bit pointless

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:33 pm

@Ciaron: I just performed a test (opened RTM in browser, watched Live HTTP Headers for requests) and I believe it updates automatically with AJAX. No need for a manual refresh.

Douglas Reid said on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:47 pm

Any chance for a Firefox version? Regardless, thanks for the effort.

Jason said on July 2nd, 2008 at 1:56 pm

@Douglas Reid: You mean in the sidebar? This article has information on that: http://thirderror.com/webpages-in-your-firefox-sidebar/

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Marc said on July 7th, 2008 at 3:31 pm

For some reason, after working for a day, now all I get is a gray box with hidden top menu bar not matter what I do. I have tried deleting and redoing, refreshing, unchecking and saving and rechecking, and even the Google calender only displays a gray box without having worked at all. Any ideas?

Jason said on July 7th, 2008 at 8:14 pm

@Marc: Interesting. Does the page load up in Internet Explorer?

anon said on July 9th, 2008 at 12:43 am

This works without installing IE. Just use IE tab extension in Firefox to login. Then use the following registry hacks.

First set the IE homepage to RTM.
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Main]
“Start Page”=”http://rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/googleig/”

Then restore the “web” tab to the desktop properties view (which disappears when IE isnt installed)

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explore
r

Look in the right pane for values called NoActiveDesktop and
NoActiveDesktopChanges. If found, they should be set to 0. If not, then
double click each entry and set it to 0. If they don’t exist, right click
in the right pane, select New, DWord value and name them as above. Leave
them at 0.

Tada, enjoy the RTM desktop goodness without having to bloat your pc with IE.

Kimbo said on July 10th, 2008 at 10:20 am

Hm, for some reason when I embed my list at home I can’t manage the tasks from the desktop. At the office, no problem.

Jason said on July 11th, 2008 at 11:11 am

@anon: Thank you for the tip.

@Kimbo: That’s an interesting case. Does the RTM to-do list give any feedback, or do your tasks not update?

Paradox said on July 13th, 2008 at 5:02 pm

I don’t know if i disabled AD a long time ago or not, but when i add the items, nothing displays.

Paradox said on July 13th, 2008 at 5:11 pm

I found it, had to mess with some group policies.

Santiago said on July 15th, 2008 at 1:29 pm

I used the netvibes widget posted by XNet. It’s far prettier and didn’t caused me any new browser openings.
Thanks!

Robin said on July 17th, 2008 at 5:19 am

This is great, thank you! I am having an issue where none of the links on the module are working - if I click “options” or “refresh” I get “The page cannot be displayed” in a new IE window. It’s trying to open “javascript:RTMIG.reload();” for example.

Jason said on July 17th, 2008 at 3:20 pm

@Santiago: I’m glad XNet’s advice has come in handy.

@Robin: I’m not sure how to fix this. Have you tried the Netvibes module XNet suggested?
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/services/modules/netvibes/

stellasworkinc said on July 24th, 2008 at 2:31 am

thanks a lot! just what i needed!

Jason said on July 24th, 2008 at 7:28 pm

@stellasworkinc: You’re welcome. Glad you found it useful.

[...] Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop | Third Error (tags: rememberthemilk) [...]

Ganesh said on July 28th, 2008 at 8:01 pm

I tried doing this with the netvibes link for my Active Desktop and every 5 seconds, a new firefox tab is opened to:
http://www.netvibes.com/ajaxProxy.php?type=html&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.rememberthemilk.com%2Fservices%2Fmodules%2Fnetvibes%2Frpc.rtm%3Ftheme%3DWinter%2520Plain%26lang%3Den_US%26mid%3D0#RTM.RPC.Resize_1886

So when I wake in the morning, I see easily over hundreds of tabs and causes my PC to slow down. How do you stop this automatic opening of tabs from Active Desktop?

Jason said on July 28th, 2008 at 9:07 pm

@Ganesh: I’m not quite sure what’s causing Active Desktop to open new tabs. Does the same problem occur with the iGoogle module?

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Ganesh said on July 31st, 2008 at 1:30 pm

Actually no, it does not. However, the iGoogle gadget doesn’t support any of the dropdown actions like postpone, edit, etc. and leads to a popup window with a Javascript action in its URL which obviously leads to a “page not found error”. That’s the reason why I’m using the netvibes module.

I’ve documented by problem here as well:
http://www.rememberthemilk.com/forums/help/5065/#forumreply

Can you please advise? My email is [ admin edit: no need to post your email publicly ]

Ganesh said on July 31st, 2008 at 1:33 pm

I also noticed a post about using Active Desktop with firefox when IE is not installed. I followed the registry steps even though I have IE installed and it did not work. I had hoped that Active Desktop would call Firefox (my default browser) instead of IE to resolve the popup issue but that didn’t work. Any other ideas?

Jason said on July 31st, 2008 at 5:55 pm

Interesting Ganesh. Does the gadget work completely fine in a browser? I have the drop-down actions working well on the iGoogle gadget.

Ganesh said on August 3rd, 2008 at 9:47 pm

It works perfectly in the browser. IE and Firefox. Why does it not work in Active Desktop?

Jason said on August 3rd, 2008 at 11:51 pm

That’s intriguing, it should technically work in Active Desktop as Active Desktop is generally Internet Explorer on the desktop. I’m not sure how you would repair it.

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Juan said on August 13th, 2008 at 2:16 pm

I didnt know this existed, and feel silly for praying for it and not getting an answer, when a google search would have provdided your answer….

Question though?

you say “Magically, your Remember the Milk to-do list appears on the desktop. You can resize it, and move it around.”

Can you take a second to explain how to resize it or move it? Am I missing something easy, or does it entail (gasp) some coding?

thank you thank you thank you

Jason said on August 13th, 2008 at 8:27 pm

Juan: You should be able to click on it, and a gray bar at the top will appear. You can resize and move around using that gray bar at the top of the widget. And you’re welcome. Glad this tutorial is of use to you.

Juan said on August 14th, 2008 at 7:02 am

I must be missing something obvious. I don’t get a gray bar at all, when I click on or around the module, left click right click double click click and drag…. nothing. I’m running Windows XP, if that makes a difference?

Being able to resize & move the module would be great. I hope you have an idea of why I have been able to get this far and not those last few inches…

Jason said on August 14th, 2008 at 2:47 pm

Juan: Do you have “Lock web items on desktop enabled”? Disable it by right clicking on the desktop, Arrange Icons By, and unchecking the option.

Joe said on August 15th, 2008 at 6:49 am

Great article, thanks. Really simple steps to follow and the result works great. Joe

Juan said on August 15th, 2008 at 10:51 am

Astonishing!!

Thank you so much. You’re 100% right, such an obvious answer and i missed it. I’m glad you’re so responsive though, and so helpful. Thank you.

Jason said on August 15th, 2008 at 11:12 am

Joe: You’re welcome. We try and make all our tutorials simple and easy to understand.

Juan: Glad it worked out for you.

[...] here’s howto [...]

Laura said on September 21st, 2008 at 1:10 pm

haha, I had the same problem as Juan - very easy answer but I missed it too thanks a lot!

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Dimitri said on October 19th, 2008 at 2:58 pm

Thank you this is wonderful and just what I needed!!!

Jason said on October 21st, 2008 at 7:24 pm

Dimitri: You’re welcome. Glad you found it useful.

4D4M said on November 3rd, 2008 at 7:56 am

is it possible to do this on vista?

Jason said on November 3rd, 2008 at 5:20 pm

4D4M: Mark Godwin has come up with a way here:
http://markgodwin.blogspot.com/2008/10/remember-milk-on-your-vista-desktop.html

[...] Your Remember the Milk To-Do List on the Desktop (For Windows 98-XP only) Using Windows’ Active Desktop feature, this tutorial will show you how to embed your Remember the Milk to-do list on the Windows desktop. You’ll need a Remember the Milk account, Windows, and the ability to use Internet Explorer for short periods of time without exploding. Update: We’ve covered some more webapps in this post. [...]

Alpay said on November 4th, 2008 at 2:32 pm

I needed this for something else, but made my day. Thanks.

[...] alors que je suis tombé sur la solution décrite par le blog Third Error. Ce dernier explique comment utiliser le plugin pour iGoogle avec l’Active Desktop de Windows. [...]

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