"modern" Taskbar replacement, without replacing the entire shell.

[jdc20181]

I am doing a little science experiment if you will with customizing Windows (Although we all know this is a bit more complicated due to the proprietary nature of the OS). My first task was to replace the entire Taskbar/start menu with a customized one. My workplace (note: this isnt my job, I am doing it for fun). Uses an entire custom shell of sorts, with a task bar that is not the windows task bar. (but they also do not have a start menu in theirs). After some research it turned up that one of the real only ways, without digging too deep (or maybe this is deep?) is to replace the entire shell.

So I guess this is more of a theoretical type thread, how would one replace the taskbar without the entire thing. For the purpose of entertainment, I would want to mount this on the top screen and not replace the current one entirely [even though I do want that functionality inside my code.]

There are a few windows taskbar replacements, but I do not think any of those are in VB/C# at all. And require a lot more work than I am wanting to put forth. A lot of those are also too proprietary or require a fee to use, without offering source code.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

In XP you would simply kill explorer and run your own shell and possibly an alternative file manager such as Q-Dir.

In later versions of Win, Vista + it became more difficult to kill explorer and keep it killed. In addition, the desktop functionality including the background would all disappear, so all had to be replaced with alternatives.

Instead, much more simple to place the taskbar out of harm's way at the top of the screen and then place your alternative taskbar on the bottom of the screen. In this manner you have the best of both worlds.

You can see my own taskbar replacement described here:
https://www.deviantart.com/yereverlu...Pt-2-830399731

It is written in VB6 but isn't ready yet to be released though it works really rather well and is my default taskbar on all my systems. It is really a replacement for objectdock/Rocketdock which in turn were clones of the os/x taskbar functionality that you still find on Mac os/x. In my opinion it is superior to Window's taskbar but there are times when you want the taskbar and you certainly want the the desktop.

My taskbar is certainly not 'modern' to the layman who just looks at it and does not think any deeper - but that's the default steampunk imagery that provides the look-and-feel. You can use any icon set that you require to achieve a look-and-feel that suits your needs.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

This taskbar uses straight VB6 and uses GDI+ to place the animated, transparent icons on the desktop, it uses a timer to redraw the images multiple times per second, only using large versions of the central three or four core icons to reduce cpu overhead. When the dock is not animating then all cpu usage is curtailed. I use quite a large number of APIs to achieve the operating system type functionality and so you will have to become equally familiar with the same APIs if your taskbar is going to become similar to the Windows taskbar in functionality.

Working with VB6 to do this is similar to forcing the tool to do it. It is not easy. It will expose you to the intricacies of Windows and how it does what it does, VB6 doesn't do a lot for you by itself, in fact it iis ill-suited to ease of use in this role. I chose GDI+ for the task because I wanted to familiarise myself with technologies that were available when VB6 was around. There are better alternatives but it is still a solid approach that works.

Doing it with VB6 will expose you to the inner workings of APIs and is a good learning environment. I hope I haven't put you off.

[yereverluvinuncleber]

That's my dock and its associated tools. Right click and view image to see in more detail.

[.paul.]

This shows how to create a docking taskbar, but not how to use it as a replacement…

https://www.vbforums.com/showthread....ML-ticker-tape