If you have tried conky and found that it disappears behind the desktop everytime you ALT+TAB or click an icon.

Here is the fix;

Create the file ".conkyrc" in /Home/(YOUR USERNAME) and open with leafpad (or any preferred text editor)

put this at the top

#PCMANFM Fix;
own_window yes
own_window_type normal
own_window_transparent yes
own_window_class Conky
own_window_hints undecorated,below,sticky,skip_taskbar,skip_pager
double_buffer yes

Note: instead of conky being merged with the desktop, then being hidden by pcmanfm file manager. You now have an invisible window, with no decorations that cant be moved and doesnt show up in ALT+TAB or your taskbar. Double buffer is only to stop conky flickering, you would get a slight performance increase without it.


Customise your conky;

These are the configuration options available in .conkyrc under the header "TEXT". This can be used to give your performance meter a custom look that suits your needs.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
# Possible variables to be used:
#
# Variable Arguments Description
# acpiacadapter ACPI ac adapter state.
# acpifan ACPI fan state
# acpitemp ACPI temperature.
# adt746xcpu CPU temperature from therm_adt746x
# adt746xfan Fan speed from therm_adt746x
# battery (num) Remaining capasity in ACPI or APM
# battery. ACPI battery number can be
# given as argument (default is BAT0).
# buffers Amount of memory buffered
# cached Amount of memory cached
# color (color) Change drawing color to color
# cpu CPU usage in percents
# cpubar (height) Bar that shows CPU usage, height is
# bar's height in pixels
# downspeed net Download speed in kilobytes
# downspeedf net Download speed in kilobytes with one
# decimal
# exec shell command Executes a shell command and displays
# the output in torsmo. warning: this
# takes a lot more resources than other
# variables. I'd recommend coding wanted
# behaviour in C and posting a patch :-).
# execi interval, shell Same as exec but with specific interval.
# command Interval can't be less than
# update_interval in configuration.
# fs_bar (height), (fs) Bar that shows how much space is used on
# a file system. height is the height in
# pixels. fs is any file on that file
# system.
# fs_free (fs) Free space on a file system available
# for users.
# fs_free_perc (fs) Free percentage of space on a file
# system available for users.
# fs_size (fs) File system size
# fs_used (fs) File system used space
# hr (height) Horizontal line, height is the height in
# pixels
# i2c (dev), type, n I2C sensor from sysfs (Linux 2.6). dev
# may be omitted if you have only one I2C
# device. type is either in (or vol)
# meaning voltage, fan meaning fan or temp
# meaning temperature. n is number of the
# sensor. See /sys/bus/i2c/devices/ on
# your local computer.
# kernel Kernel version
# loadavg (1), (2), (3) System load average, 1 is for past 1
# minute, 2 for past 5 minutes and 3 for
# past 15 minutes.
# machine Machine, i686 for example
# mails Mail count in mail spool. You can use
# program like fetchmail to get mails from
# some server using your favourite
# protocol. See also new_mails.
# mem Amount of memory in use
# membar (height) Bar that shows amount of memory in use
# memmax Total amount of memory
# memperc Percentage of memory in use
# new_mails Unread mail count in mail spool.
# nodename Hostname
# outlinecolor (color) Change outline color
# pre_exec shell command Executes a shell command one time before
# torsmo displays anything and puts output
# as text.
# processes Total processes (sleeping and running)
# running_processes Running processes (not sleeping),
# requires Linux 2.6
# shadecolor (color) Change shading color
# stippled_hr (space), Stippled (dashed) horizontal line
# (height)
# swapbar (height) Bar that shows amount of swap in use
# swap Amount of swap in use
# swapmax Total amount of swap
# swapperc Percentage of swap in use
# sysname System name, Linux for example
# time (format) Local time, see man strftime to get more
# information about format
# totaldown net Total download, overflows at 4 GB on
# Linux with 32-bit arch and there doesn't
# seem to be a way to know how many times
# it has already done that before torsmo
# has started.
# totalup net Total upload, this one too, may overflow
# updates Number of updates (for debugging)
# upspeed net Upload speed in kilobytes
# upspeedf net Upload speed in kilobytes with one
# decimal
# uptime Uptime
# uptime_short Uptime in a shorter format
#
# seti_prog Seti@home current progress
# seti_progbar (height) Seti@home current progress bar
# seti_credit Seti@hoome total user credit


# variable is given either in format $variable or in ${variable}. Latter
# allows characters right after the variable and must be used in network
# stuff because of an argument
#${font Dungeon:style=Bold:pixelsize=10}I can change the font as well
#${font Verdana:size=10}as many times as I choose
#${font Perry:size=10}Including UTF-8,
# stuff after 'TEXT' will be formatted on screen
#${font Grunge:size=12}${time %a %b %d}${alignr -25}${time %k:%M}
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

So have fun making your own custom desktop performance meter, and please feel free to share you configs and give screenshots ;)