I am very impressed with the desktop calendar utility Rainlendar2.  It does a lot of what you would expect from a calendar application and more.  Out of the box it comes with a straightforward UI of course we can always Skin it as well. 

  

Managing events and to do’s is as straight forward as it gets.  This will be very familiar for those who use Outlook.

A handy feature is being able to review all your current events in one location.  I find this great when planning future events mostly.

There are an amazing number of additional downloadable skins.  This where the “fun” comes in.  You’re likely to find a skin that will match any desktop configuration you might have.  Here are just a couple of them.

    

You can choose which windows to display and drag and drop them in any order you like.  For you Keyboard Ninja’s there is also the HotKeys feature!

Managing skins is very easy.  Just right click anywhere on Rainlendar and go to Options.  Then choose the Skins tab.

While I did have a lot of fun playing with various skins and different configurations with the UI, when you get down to the real function of the application … it can’t be beat.  I am now using Rainlendar2 as my default program to manage events and to do’s.  Also, when installing don’t forget to check the portable version as well.  While this version is free you can go Pro which allows synchronization with Gmail and Outlook.