Great idea (In my view) for a new program

**Ashylay** · Jan 14th, 2008, 12:33 PM

Chances are people probably wont be able to make this, It is based on Object dock but its worth a shot :P

Okay so on Object dock you can have custom icons kinda like a quick launch but more interactive. You can also have icons of the currently opened windows, and in plus you can have the system tray icons.

So here's my idea. Make a program thats a new taskbar. In ObjectDock you can hide the taskbar so hide the real taskbar, display this program then on your program have a start menu button, and quick launch icons. The start menu button is pritty much self-explanatory and for the quick launch icons have the settings you can have for objects on objectdock.

then have a clock at the end and have the system tray icons there too.

Basically you are creating your own taskbar with all the same functions as the windows one and using that instead of the windows task bar. This is good for many reasons like:

You can have a skinning feature where you skin just the taskbar and set the taskbar button etc
You can have other features that you dont have on most windows taskbars like you can have thumbnails like you have on vista and for quick launch you can have the zoom effect ect.

I dont know wetehr there are stardock forums or whatever to post this on but if there is could somebody please quote this on there if they have the time i cant really be botherd :P

Thanks; Ash

**RobDog888** · Jan 14th, 2008, 12:41 PM

I dont mean to crush your idea but you can do all those things with the actual Windows Taskbar plus other apps may not act properly if you try to add them into your taskbar.

**Ashylay** · Jan 14th, 2008, 01:11 PM

not things like the zoom effect on icons? And most computers dont have aero so things like thumbnails etc will all be added features :P and you can skin only the taskbar too, so it fits with your desktop background for example. and you dont have to change your full theme.

**RobDog888** · Jan 14th, 2008, 01:35 PM

You can skin the taskbar individually from the current windows theme too. Also can skin the system clock etc. Maybe others will have some other viewpoint on this and other inputs. Good luck with it

**Ashylay** · Jan 14th, 2008, 01:41 PM

:P Thanks. No way I'd be bale to do it, I dont know where to start and Ive only got VB. Dont know why Im just assuming youd need something else like C#, C++ etc.

And skinning the taskbar and clock. Could you go into more detail please? Im interested :P

**ComputerJy** · Jan 14th, 2008, 06:33 PM

I don't know why people keep assuming that C# is better than VB, maybe it looks more of a C style programming language, but it's still a .Net language.

Besides I think calling windows API doesn't really require using C++, because that's what you'll be doing most of the time.

About the program, I really doubt that anyone will find it useful. But if you try making an applet toolbar with some interesting applets for windows taskbar (Just like Ubuntu's)

**RobDog888** · Jan 14th, 2008, 07:07 PM

Oh just wanted to add that regardless of what we say, it would be a good learning excersize anyways.

**Ashylay** · Jan 15th, 2008, 02:18 PM

I love this forum. Everybody knows how to use constructive criticism

**Shaggy Hiker** · Jan 15th, 2008, 08:43 PM

Go to chit-chat, and you'll see that not all of our criticism is constructive, some of it is downright bizarre.

**Lord Orwell** · Jan 15th, 2008, 10:54 PM

not saying c# is superior, but i WILL say that there are a lot of tasks (such as giving events to run-time created controls) that are much easier and intuitive in it. Also some of the controls have extended functions not available in vb.net.

On-topic, creating a task-manager requires two things that most people would have an issue with:
1. showing tasks (probably some sort of z-order on a minimized window but what about when there's a whole bunch?)
2. the system tray: How to duplicate that feature.

Note: It is possible to give the start menu a different skin than the rest of windows using windowblinds.

Not sure what the "zoom" effect in quicklaunch is that he's referring to?

**Ashylay** · Jan 16th, 2008, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Lord Orwell

not saying c# is superior, but i WILL say that there are a lot of tasks (such as giving events to run-time created controls) that are much easier and intuitive in it. Also some of the controls have extended functions not available in vb.net.

On-topic, creating a task-manager requires two things that most people would have an issue with:
1. showing tasks (probably some sort of z-order on a minimized window but what about when there's a whole bunch?)
2. the system tray: How to duplicate that feature.

Note: It is possible to give the start menu a different skin than the rest of windows using windowblinds.

Not sure what the "zoom" effect in quicklaunch is that he's referring to?

look up object dock. Find some google images maybe, basically its an effect like on embedded youtube videos where your mouse nears the icon the icons size increases

**Lord Orwell** · Jan 16th, 2008, 10:19 PM

oh. I have a program that does that. aquadock. totally free and open-source, and can use objectdock's plugins. The expanding icon is stolen from Mac os X.

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