The switch

The calculator widget is really great but, let’s face it, it is incredibly ugly. Luckily, it is very easy to change the background, backlight and buttons of the widgets.

Note: this will actually work with any widget.

first of, mak a copy of the calculator.widget found in /Library/Widgets. Now, right-click on the copy a select “Show Package Contents” then go to the “Images” folder and locate calculator.png - this is the file you want. You can replace it with any other picture (must be a .png file).

Once you are done. Put your modified calculator.widget file back into the /Library/Widgets folder, close and reopen the calculator widget in your dashboard and rejoice in your new skin!

Here are a couple of ideas to start you off: http://forums.macrumors.com/showthread.php?t=122241

So you like dashboard but you what some to have some of them on your desktop? Well wait no more. a little app by MesaDynamics, Amnesty will do exactly that. Currently at version 0.75b, it runs very stable and supports 3rd-party widgets although some widgets - like Sys Stat - will hog the program until near standstill.

Screenshot:

And best of all? it even runs on 10.3.9 meaning that you don’t even need tiger (or the $15 shareware konfabulator) to run widgets - albeit only on your desktop.