Filed under: Fun, OS Updates, Windows, Freeware, Windows x64
XWindows Dock is a better Leopard dock clone for Windows
by Lee Mathews Mar 27th 2009 at 4:00PM
However, one small failing right off the bat is that XWindows Dock doesn't support drag and drop - which might be a deal breaker for some users. I don't change my dock icons all that often, so I wasn't put off by the few extra seconds required to browse for my go-to programs.
PNG icons are supported, and the dock's effects are configured in myriad ways. Icon size, transition effects, transparency, zoom level, reflections, shadows, and much more can be precisely tweaked. You can also choose to display your dock in a 2D or 3D view.
Leopard's stacks feature is also built in, and the Dock will automatically choose the best viewing style. You can specify manually of course, with grid, fan, gallery (pictured), and list views available.
One other shortcoming of note is that you can't change the location of XWindows Dock - it sits at the bottom of your screen. Development is very active, though, so maybe we'll see drag-and-drop and repositioning options soon.
The developer states "no other Windows application of this class has so many graphical subtleties such as reflections, transparencies, shadow and blur in a single package," and I'm inclined to agree. If you're using RocketDock, try XWindows Dock and let us know how you think it stacks up [insert groans].
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
Saint Seminole said 7:14PM on 3-27-2009
Drag and Drop is a necessity for me. Like you, I don't change my icons that often, but when I DO want to change them, I don't want to fiddle around too much.
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jsmorley said 10:11PM on 3-27-2009
This has promise, but a LONG way to go. You can't in fact (that I can see) change the icon for a program to a .png file, it just uses the embedded icon from the program and the quality is terrible.
Another feature from ObjectDock which is missing is to get the Windows context menu when right-clicking an icon. This just gives you the XWindows Dock context menu, where ObjectDock gives you both.
Drag and drop to add items of course, although I could live without that. As said, Folks don't change what is on the dock very often once it is set up.
Promising... I will check back in a few months.
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Lee Mathews said 10:52PM on 3-27-2009
Right click an icon and choose Edit, then browse for your PNG. Presto!
They just default to whatever the EXE specifies. Note that the icons in my screenshot don't look terrible.
Jeremy said 11:06PM on 3-27-2009
I think it's pretty nifty except when I installed it, it popped up some kind of start error with some numbers but still worked; can't find it in the start menu though. AIM won't work with it though.
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Matt said 12:49AM on 3-28-2009
I'm still using Y'zDock.
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phizm said 9:28AM on 3-28-2009
Me too, it's still the best.
Though come Windows 7 windows docs will be pointless.
Jon Doe. said 1:03PM on 3-28-2009
Windows 7's task bar is still more useful.
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Tech-Mike said 7:47PM on 3-28-2009
"Development is very active, though, so maybe we'll see drag-and-drop and repositioning options soon."...
..."Now I haven't any time to continue working at the dock. Thanks." -BOBAH13
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Level 5 said 8:31AM on 3-30-2009
Not quite ripe yet. I've tried ObjectDock and it was decent. This dock however lacks one very key feature, it cannot hide the Windows Taskbar! Without this, it's pretty pointless.
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Joe said 1:10PM on 5-03-2009
What exactly do you mean that it doesn't support drag-and-drop? I'm able to drag-and-drop icons from anywhere directly to the dock without any problems. Admittedly, it is a little quirky. The dock seems to glitch out a bit when bringing a new icon to the dock, but aside from a visual hiccup, it works just fine.
The only gripe I have with XWindows Dock is that if you're like me and you press Win+D to immediately bring up your desktop, XWD seems to be hidden by this command, as well as your windows, which is something that RK Launcher (my previous dock of choice) performed perfectly.
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kachilda said 5:10AM on 5-30-2009
It has drag and drop. You have to select it in it's preferences menu.
Shows promise but i'm inclined to wait. I'll defintly keep an eye on it though.
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