Snapshot:

Hi,
currently developing a tasklist panel like the one in explorer, and almost finished implementation. Currently developing skin support.

Any suggestions are welcome, and reply to here to request panel send to you

Implementation is finished. Bug fix requests accepted.
See ya

New Features:
- Application window preview in deskbar details window

STATUS:
- Skinning: 100%
- Coding: 100%
- Packaging Status: 100%
- Properties page: 100%

Will Fix:
- may be grouping facility (comment on this item please)
- may be drag and drop to tasklist (comment on this item please)
- may be multiple column display (comment on this item please)

FIXES/Improvements:
- mouse commands by right clicking on the buttons
- setting save problem fixed
- scrolling functionality with mouse wheel (sry 2 button users, scroll list items will consume space) Long live hooks!
- Icon disappear problem fix
- Button Frame drawing: 100%
- Icon for the panel: 100%
- Add Icons before text: 100%
- Updated focus status of windows' faster
- Exception on panel location change fixed
- Button disappear on panel location change fixed
- Flickering problem should have gone
- Autofit problem fix V2, dont think any more problems
- Moved to system category
- Visual enchancements
- Tooltip window is now above the cursor

NOTES:
- .NET dependency: None
- Platform dependency XP tested/2000 should work without problem, 9X users should be able to run it without transparency effects
- Dll Dependency: None, static link

Known problems:
- Some applications are not detected as foreground window although they are. (rarely occuring problem)

a72mp-subscribe@yahoo.com

you mean just like this one?

http://www.desktopsidebar.com/forums/index...?showtopic=3823

A bit different in appearance and functionality, let me describe it a bit:
- Have buttons representing windows like it appears on the task bar
- Clicking the windows button moves app to foreground or background depending on state of the window
- will have the same commands that appears like when you right click on the buttons on the explorer's taskbar (Restore, Minimize, Move, Size, Maximize, Close)

Most time consuming task is adding buttons and learning the programming interfaces though

What about this then?
http://www.desktopsidebar.com/ffdetails.php?id=209

It is a really close implementation to my plans, I also want to have the text appear near the icons. My wishes are mostly cosmetic though.

Functionality of the panel you have mentioned is quite good by the way.

The Taskbar panel enables you to view the text beside the icon. In Panel Properties - "list view" if I remember correctly.

zopzop, you are at 90% already. Whatever happen, please.. finished it. Upload it and let the users decide. I would like to see your panel potential

How about posting a screenshot for teaser?

I agree, finish it on out.

Some people around here have a bad habit of trying to find inelegant ways or unpreferred way of doing some things, rather than the right or preferred way.

Even if it's similar to another panel already out, I'd like to see it. It's not like there's a glut of new panels coming out, so any new panel is a good panel...


-- Primis.

It's not that things are not elegant. Sometimes demand is high and devs rush to get something working out, and then no longer have time to improve on it. However, I do agree that a different style might be more appealing to other people, so finish it out and users will pick which they'd like to use.

Of course developement continues on. See the attached file for installation. Warning: appearance should be much better with XP/2000. Did not have a chance to test on NT4/9X machines, but I expect it to work without the transparency effects.

Contact me if any problem occurs, supply me feedback, you'll get a patched release in a few days then.

-Enjoy

Wow! very nice!
Suggestions I have so far:
1) The tooltip that comes up when you hover the mouse over an item is partially blocked by the mouse pointer. Is it possible for you to show the tip above the pointer and not below? (I can get you a screenshot if you need)

2) It is hard to tell which window is selected in the panel. Do you think you could make it a little clearer?

3) Autofit isn't always working. I'm tring to figure out what is causing it not to work right.

4) There is something wrong when you try to move the panel or add it from the Add Panel dialog. My windows flicker repeatedly and I don't know how to make them stop. Nothing shows up in the panel at all. I think everythign is fine after restarting DS.

5) How often does this panel check for changes in window titles? The other task panel is faster in reflecting this change.

Great work !

My suggestions:
Change the panel's category. You should put it in the system category so instead of writing "tasklist" write "system_cat" and it will put your panel in the system category

Removing the panel causes problems - check it.

BTW, can you do it like the Longhorn sidebar : http://www.winsupersite.com/reviews/longhorn_alpha.asp ? Look at the screenshots at the right. It would be great

Removal bug reported by yyy, is prob what is causing the crash i get when I try to move the panel since it closes when it moves.

Oh, yes - I ment moving the panel, not removing

Great job on the panel Since everybody already reported the bugs so I want to suggest a few things:

- text color/font - inherit from the skin
- tooltip color/font - inherit from system
- flashing button - if the panel didn't have one

Further suggestions will follow

EDIT
- Opera icon didnt show up

Good feedback, check back in for updates, plan to update it in a day or two. Thanks

Ok, changed my mind in replying everyone, thanks for the feedback all, I'll handle them quick, want to have a nice working panel. (And will check the longhorn panel, will be easier since I now have complete control over my button control, was learning its coding in the beginning )

Great - I like the way the Longhorn panel look like I have another suggestion - I know it might be copmlicated but, I will really appreciate an option to scroll the list when you scroll the mouse wheel, or maybe you can add special buttons for that. I don't have much space in my sidebar so I can only allow 2 rows to be seen.

And one more (If you have time ) - adding an option to see the application's screenshots in the tool tips will be huge But I already request too much

Good ideas, I think it will be good some fancy icon, or even a snapshot of the window will be good on the tooltip (but how big should the snapshot be? a small size will not be recognizable, on the other hand big snapshot will occupy the screen. Hmm, need to think a bit more on that

Make it the size of the details window - which of course is resizeable. Capture the bitmap of the window (there's some code on CodeProject to do this I think) and scale it to fit.

Taking snapshot of the app should not be a problem. I'll check details window implementation, good idea!

I downloaded the latest build to see how it perform. So far so good, I think the bugs is gone. But, the latest build doesn't look as good as the last so I hope it will look much better in the next build.

BTW, can you left align the text too?

I'll be preparing an options panel that the settings like text alignment, refresh frequency, and some application behaviour can be set.

The main visual appearance is probably becouse of the skin file, try to toy with it and see what happens, since the colors are overlayed on top of the background in a transparent manner, every setting generally appears fine with different global skin settings with the panel.

I am currently also looking for a better way of getting running applications icon, current one is not working with all programs, they just seem not to be registering the icon with the window class. If you have suggestions on this item, please post a reply here to help me!

Enyoj it

I'm currently using the latest version and have a bug to report.

The tasklist is showing Adobe Reader entries that are no longer open, also it is showing a My Computer entry that is also no longer open.

Otherwise, great pane and keep up the good work.

James

*edit*

One other thing, a feature request if I could. Could you make it group similar items like the windows taskbar? EX. If 3 instances of excel are open, only show 1 entry on the list which would open a menu listing the 3 instances if the entry in the tasklist was clicked.

Thanks

Autofit still isn't working right. I just opened firefox, and it didn't show till i clicked the title to collapse and expand it again. I think you just have to call ArrangeChildren every time you recored a window open or close.

Wow competition! BTW: My source is posted in it's thread. If there is anything there you want to use, please do by all means!

Great Work!

Yes, you might want to consider using esolu's source, perhaps to speed up how long it takes the panel to register changes( which has gotten faster, nice job!). Make sure you thank him and give him credit for his work if you do.

Suggestion: I think that reversing the way in which the background of the buttons draw to show which window is selected is a bit confusing. I like the green for the tooltip, and the pink on hover. Perhaps you should put the blue color back in for active window?

BTW, I am interested in keeping up with the latest release of this panel, but I didn't know you updated the first post last time. Perhaps you should write a quick reply to this thread saying you did so, since it lets us know to check out your changes and you can get them quicker.

Thanks for the suggestions

I'll look to the code and if the owner permits so (and seems that he/she permits!), I can use the code there by giving the author credit. Be sure that I am not racing with anybody, just trying to make useful addons and at the same time trying to learn the SDK system deskbar is using meanwhile, hey, two is better than one, three is much better!

By the way, I'll supply the full source code as VS project once it is finished.

You can always check the file update time from the first post title, I always write release date and status like March 8, Patch1... I am planning to release Patch 2 two/three days later. I'll be changing the title to reflect the patch release also!

This would be a good place to post your source code .

OK, just waiting the code to be stabilized. I need to include credits for the author of the Button code I am using from. I still did not implement about menu to display a popup to display info and credits.

Nice work on the new version

But report for second patch:
In the properties window, the Up/Down buttons for space between buttons doesn't work.

Well, right! And here comes patch V2.2 for it. And for integer entry limitation for some fields.

Since the button space value only have the value of 1 till 4, I suggest that you use combobox for that purpose.

good idea, will handle that

sweet i prefer this to taskbar (sorry whoever made it) although at the moment i cant actually read it because the skinning isnt working with my skin (flourescence) i get blue ext on a grey background and its not really wrking.

cool all the same tho

Thanks for the comment! I am also planning to set the text color automatically depending on the panels color. But I will have to check how much cpu power it needs to check the back color pixels. (I may do it once 10 secs or sth like that)

Patch 2.3 is out, although only a small improvement in that. Check the first post for the link.

Latest Status:
-I have given up looking to mouse wheel at the moment and postponed to check it later, may be I am doing something wrong (I am almost new to ATL)
-Patch 2.4 will include app icon and app snapshot on tooltip view. (Let's see if I can handle that )

Patch 2.4 is out.

FIXES:
- Icons may disappear after sometime

NEW FEATURES:
- App preview on mouse hover

PLANS:
- Add text shadow for button texts, so that text can be visible on all surfaces (Patch 2.5)
- Have color buttons in customization panel work (Patch 2.5)
- Check platform specific calls and disable options from config panel when not available on current platform
- Right mouse click on buttons shows app menu (Patch 2.6)
- Mouse wheel for list scrolling (Patch 2.7)
//Panel will be released
- Drag drop to buttons brings app to front (Patch 3)

KNOWN PROBLEMS:
- Some window's content do not appear in app preview window
- Minimized app's content appear as caption only in app preview window (No solution for that unless application window is restored to normal size)

Still open to discussions. Please provide feedback also!

Enjoy

Great work I'm starting to like it However, can you put the information in the details window instaead on the tooltip ? I don't really like the tooltip since it covers the rest of my sidebar.Another feature I really would appreciate is to be able to actually see only the thumbnail in the panel, and being able to click that thummbnail and see the application


BTW, can you make the thumnail look smoother ? It doesn't look so good currently.

Agree, window covering the taskbar is not good reallt for app preview option. I'll move that to details window.

What do you mean by smoother? Background color is not good? The snapshot is simply stretchblt'ed to the location, do you mean antialiasing like processing of the image?

Not sure about the thumbnails view as buttons to be clicked, they will not be understandable in small resolutions (try 120x90 size from properties, I think you'll agree). What do you think of that?

Thanks for the positive feedback btw

I'll be happy to see it in the details window

Exactly - anti aliasing will be great I want the thumbnail to look smoother.

There's a program like ObjectDock which shows programs in really small thumbnails (see screenshot) and I think it is still recognizable. It is much easier to know what program you choose when you see a thumbnail, even a small one. But it's your choice

Patch 2.5 is out. Application window contents can be seen in preview deskbar details window now. (see the snapshot!) Enjoy

Very nice panel
Although, I have two requests, one already mentioned by antu^jamban:
- flashing buttons
- ability to hide the normal Windows taskbar like in esolu's DSTaskBar

Looking forward to the next version

just downloaded and installed, this is alot better than the one i was running, and i do like the little screen captures it makes, very nice

but ive noticed that this doesnt flash when when ive got a new message on MSN, is this just me?

as far as im aware im running the recent build

I concur that this is an exceelent panel. You have done a really good job. A few things i wanted to ask...

1) Like somebody else said, it would be great to be able to completely hide the windows taskbar, like in esolu's panel.

2) In the context menu, including options to cascade, tile, show desktop etc... would be great

3) In the details window, when an app is minimized, the thumbnail is odd. It looks like it takes the heading bar and warps it to the size of the detail. Is it possible to either a0 still show the app thumbnail or just show no thumbnail at all?

4) I love the look the panel has. Maybe it would be great to have an option of showing things in list format, as it is now, or in button format, where you only have buttons side by side (this would reduce the amount of vertical space taken up by the panel).

Thanks a lot, and once again, excellent job!

NC

This is a great panel.

However, to make it really useful as a taskbar replacement there is still one thing that neither Tasklist nor TaskBar provide: the ability to drag-and-drop. I do this ALL the time. I might be on a website, for instance, and find text that is interesting to me. I'll select it, and then drag it into Word or into OneNote. Or, I'll do the same between Word, OneNote, and other Office programs.

So that is my most important request.

Also, while it is neat, can the miniature window function be turned off? It can be distracting sometimes.

But keep up the good work!

You mean the details window which pops up when you hover a program in the list? yes - right click the panel, choose Panel Properties and disable the "Preview Window Content" option

Currently you can either use the Notes Editor or the Text reader panels to deal with text. I would also suggest you to try the Clipboard panel and just copy the text instead of draging and droping it. Actually it's a really nice idea to create a panel which will allow people to drop images and text into it, and then show them.

Yep, that's right! Thanks for support

Thanks for feedback to all! It is really cool to see people happy of using this panel. Be sure that I'll take all into consideration:
-drag drop and right menu will be coming soon.
-I am also planning to turn of explorer's tasklist bar as an option.
-Button flashing, well, I am not sure, but why not, it is really to implement and may be really usefull. I'll keep it in mind, though probably will add this functionality latest as long as i don't get more request on that
- will handle middle mouse button, there is still no scrolling capability, and I am encountering problems in getting mouse wheel messages (probably i found the reason i guess)

Well, having a life, playing EQII at the same time is not easy, just give me a few more days but will handle the panel for sure

Enjoy it