Making my desktop less like a desk of clutter and more like an actual desktop

from Stardock Forums

So, I have been a long time supporter of the games Stardock has produced and published.  I bought Galactic Civilizations I and II, and loved Sins of a Solar Empire.  Now its time for me to be more productive.

I really like the idea of organizing my desktop with the Fences program, but I'm also looking for two more things.  I would like to be able to have a bar, lets say on the left hand side of the screen that says "Applications" and when I click it all my application shortcuts slide out and are displayed. Or have another slider bar right below "Applications" which says "Work Files" and then all my work files or shortcuts I have in there slides out.  Also I would like to be able to reserve a certain portion of my desktop to load google.com/calendar, kind of like you used to be able to do with the old active desktop on windows XP.  Then possibly reserve another portion of my desktop for another web application, say that manages my tasks.

Is there any way to do all this with Stardock's products?

15,236 views 21 replies
Reply #1 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Check out some of the DesktopX themes

https://www.wincustomize.com/explore/desktopx_themes

There plenty there with slide-out docks for both left and right sides. You can configure them to call up many different programs. HardWood DX by RedneckDude is one example.

Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top

You can use DesktopX as mentioned above or ObjectDock.  ObjectDock is more effective if you buy it since you can have more options for your bars.

 

https://www.stardock.com/products/objectdock/

Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top


 I would like to be able to have a bar, lets say on the left hand side of the screen that says "Applications" and when I click it all my application shortcuts slide out and are displayed. Or have another slider bar right below "Applications" which says "Work Files" and then all my work files or shortcuts I have in there slides out.
End of quote
Look at ObjectDock.  It has tabs taht may do what you like.

Reply #4 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Give ObjectDock a go, also have a look at Winstep

 

Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Object Dock is more configurable too. Just sayin.....:-"

Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top

On a side note RND, can DX display a web page on your desktop like a wall paper?

I did find some windows gadgets that can do this, but the most promising had a iframe virus.

Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting tazgecko, reply 6
On a side note RND, can DX display a web page on your desktop like a wall paper?
End of tazgecko's quote
Yes . . with some work.

This is super-rough but is a start

Code: vbscript
  1. Control.navigate2 "https://forums.wincustomize.com"
  3. Object.Top=0
  5. Object.Left=0
  7. Object.Height = System.ScreenHeight
  9. Object.Width = System.ScreenWidth

I don't know if you can put it under your icons though . . that would require more than teh three minutes I spent  . . and it's time for bed.

 

I'll poke again tomorrow.

 

 

Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Hmm.

Sadly there is no .OnBottom or .OnDesktop equivalent for Object.OnTop.  Also, while you can set the webpage object to be at the desktop level in teh object properties it's still on top of the icons.

It would be possible (and easy) to replace the existing desktop objects with eqivalent DX objects or one object as a pop-up menu of your desktop icons to achieve a web-wallpaper + icons desktop

Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top

This is an older article I wrote about some ways to use ObjectDock.  It's old, but still very applicable to OD+ today.

https://forums.wincustomize.com/158498

 

Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top

OD is the right program for you. Look into it. If it doesn't work for you, then try Nexus (Winstep Dock) the Nexus Ultimate program might answer if ObjectDock doesn't. It's at www.winstep.net .

Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Thanks Zu. :)

Looks like there is a demand for an active desktop and people are looking for a solution for windows 7. How cool would it be to have live streaming on your desktop.

Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Looks like there is a demand for an active desktop and people are looking for a solution for windows 7. How cool would it be to have live streaming on your desktop.
End of quote
If you wanted separate web objects scattered across your desktop . . that would be a lot easier than what I thought you were looking for (I think).

The fact that youtube (for example) supplies a URL for "popping out" a video could be leveraged easily in DX.

Reply #13 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Quoting Zubaz, reply 12
If you wanted separate web objects scattered across your desktop . . that would be a lot easier than what I thought you were looking for (I think).
End of Zubaz's quote

Yes it would. X| :thumbsup:

Vandetta, if you are still after an easy way to display Google calendar on your desktop have a look at Rainlendar Pro

 

Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top

Thanks for all the responses everyone.  I definitely wasn't expecting so many replies.  I've looked into Rainlendar Pro before, but its more than just google calendar I would like to be able to display on my desktop, I would also like to be able to have my rememberthemilk.com tasks appear right on my desktop too. There may be another web app that would be nice to have on my desktop too.  I think it would be great if you could partition different sections of your desktop into little web windows.  I think I'll look into Object Dock, and what is DX?

Reply #15 from WinCustomize Forums Top

and what is DX?
End of quote

See reply #1. the link is there.

Reply #16 from WinCustomize Forums Top

tazgecko . . I've almost completed a widget that, when you enter a Youtube URL in a DX form .. it plays in another DX window.

It's ugly and barely works . . and I'd hope a real DX skinner does somethign better before I opst . . . but it's interesting.

Reply #17 from WinCustomize Forums Top

It sounds it, Zu ... I didn't thought something like that was possible with DX. Goes to show how flexible it can be.

Reply #18 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Personally I think DX is the way to go but that's just me.

Reply #19 from WinCustomize Forums Top

So . . it needs integrated search . . . and it should do better parsing of URLs (I failed to write a good function to use rexexp to get teh video ID and thus failed to send teh user a message if they paste in a non-youtube URL).  And I wanted to use the desktopX edit control . . but the inputbox was easier.

It's set to run at normal z-order but a user could set the properties (right-click) to always be on teh desktop.  This would look sweet if it had a better background like Tiggz' Killer series of DX gadgets

 

Not sure if I want to upload it to WinCustomize.  Thoughts?

 

 

 

Test drive it here: http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4086499/YouTubeMiniViewer.exe

 

And here's a video you can test with: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOxJztGyR80  ;)

Reply #20 from WinCustomize Forums Top

Updated.

I added a form for the URL instead of a new window popping up.  So now the Youtube loge takes you to youtube where you can search for a video.  

If you copy a URL from teh address bar and click on teh acronym URL on the widget the address will be pasted into the form.  Just hit enter to launch teh vid.

Still no error checking to see if the URL is valid.  Oh well.   I don't knwo enough about vbscript and regexp.

{edit:  the version in the gallery is updated with a better background, and some extra error control.  Still working on URL issues.}

Reply #21 from Stardock Forums Top

Quoting Zubaz, reply 20
Updated.

I added a form for the URL instead of a new window popping up.  So now the Youtube loge takes you to youtube where you can search for a video.  

If you copy a URL from teh address bar and click on teh acronym URL on the widget the address will be pasted into the form.  Just hit enter to launch teh vid.

Still no error checking to see if the URL is valid.  Oh well.   I don't knwo enough about vbscript and regexp.

If you want to test it again (or for the first time) it's available at http://dl.dropbox.com/u/4086499/YouTubeMiniViewer.exe
End of Zubaz's quote

sounds nice point.