FancyZones Hack!

I often remote to another Windows desktop machine (or something that looks like one!).

A common problem is how do I remember what machine I am currently using?  They tend to look terribly similar.

Introducing my FancyZones hack.  Basically you install MS PowerToys and start using FancyZones.  

• Create a layout that is two zones:  one is most of your screen, and the other is a small strip along one side.  I chose the right side for the thin vertical strip.  
• Set your desktop background colors to something obviously different on each machine:  I have blue for home and red for one of my remote sites.  
• Put all of your windows into the big zone (using shift-drag on the title bar).  This will leave a colored outline around your desktop and you can quickly see which machine you are on.  
• Bonus - take the second small zone you made and put Wordpad in there and in big vertical letters put the name of the machine.

I remember back in the day we would do something similar with coloring the title bar, but Windows changed so that it's harder to edit the title bar color and it tends to lose its color when it is not the selected window.  This new approach is more "in your face" which I find helpful.