I use some widgets and objects, rainy, OD+ and windows taskbar/startmenu. This does pretty much everything I need right now without having to rethink the wheel....
Here's my list from another thread....
I'm going to shoot for the stars, since I don't know a thing about building DX stuff....
Desktop object/widget launchpad that takes up very little real estate and can be toggled between simple and complicated/full mode. The reason I say this is that while I like using objects/widgets that have to access the internet, such as weather, I don't like that they try to do it as soon as I boot up my PC, I'm on dial-up. They continue to do so until I unload DX or connect to the net. Should be away to have a DX theme come up and with the click of a button switch on all your netcentric objects/widgets, or switch off.
Minimal information displayed in the launchpad, but when you click on it a full-blown object/widget pops up on your desktop. So like a calendar object/widget just shows todays date and time and when you hover the mouse pointer over it a tooltip shows your next few scheduled appointments, but when you click on it, a full calendar displays that you can go backward and forward by month and add appointments, etc. like a real calendar.
Stuff like that on the launchpad. Here's another one for example, a hardrive object/widget that just shows its name. Hover over it and get how much space is left. Click on it and get more details, but also useful stuff like being able to run the different MS disk tools (defrag, scandisk) or customizable for someone that uses different disk tools, like Nortons System Utilities.
Skinnable interface, so the interface needs to be simple enough so that there are very few images. Click on a button to bring up a menu wuth a choice of included skins. Click on a button in this menu to bring up a mini basic skin editor, that lets you import graphics and set margins. Also lets you export as an object/widget that you can share with others. All the other person would have to do is click on the skin object/widget to install it while the launchpad was running.
Functions to Include...
No animation or optional.
Lets me choose from available Media Players.
Calendar with appointment book.
Weather.
Drives with system tools.
Whatever else you can think of, but be able to toggle off stuff you don't use.
