ObjectDock

Who else out there likes a dock better than the standard windows taskbar? I have been using StarDock's ObjectDock for a few weeks now and I think I'm sold. I have hidden my taskbar and I only run a single visible dock at the bottom center of my screen.

objectdock image

I have another dock in the bottom right of my screen that I set to autohide which contains my notification tray (systray) icons. I really like to have a clean desktop (I also try not to have any icons on my desktop). The taskbar is really not that useful for me so I don't mind hiding it. I don't use the start menu because I start all my programs by using Run++.

One of the best parts is that you can create your own docklets and someone as already created a .NET SDK for these docklets. There are all kinds of analog clock docklets already but no good digital clock docklets (and I like my digital clocks) so I create a digital clock docklet (the one you see in the image) using the .NET SDK. I posted this docklet on WinCustomize and it has already gotten over 1500 downloads so some other people must also like their digital clocks ;). So that is pretty cool.

I have discovered a couple of bugs in ObjectDock but for the most part it works pretty well. Give it a try they have a free version and also a paid version ObjectDock Plus which is $19.95.

15 Comments

  • Cool. First comment post! Have you tried Konfabulator? How do they compare?

  • Last time I tried (only a few weeks ago), ObjectDock didn't work with my multi-screen setup at all. I mailed them and asked about it, thinking it's a standard Windows feature after all... but I was told they don't have enough customers who ask for it and that's why they aren't going to work on a fix.



    That missing feature (which I really can't do without) together with the attitude didn't make me a big fan of Stardock, as you can imagine.



    I'm using True Launch Bar (www.truelaunchbar.com) instead, although it certainly doesn't look as nice :-)

  • The freeware version of ObjectDock doesn't support multiple monitors, but ObjectDock Plus (the paid version) does.

  • Jerome - Glad to see you out and about. Does this mean you are actually subscribing to my blog now, cool! Anywas Konfabulator is not a dock it is an engine to create widgets it sort of compares to StarDock's DesktopX.



    Oliver - I haven't tried with multiple moniters because I only run with one, but I can see where that would be a problem it I did.

  • Hm, if ObjectDock Plus actually does support multiple monitors, the support guys have apparently kept that from me... or they changed it since then.



    But now you mention it, that was another thing I was a little sceptic about: the huge differences between the free and the "pro" version. Not because I think everything should be free or anything, but because I want to use the free version to evaluate if I'm going to buy the pro version, and if important stuff (like multiple monitors :-)) isn't supported in that one, I'm never going to find out if the pro version does better.



    I just looked at my email archive and saw that I actually asked the support guy about that latter topic as well, but I never received another reply to that message.

  • use yzDock, works great in dual monitor and its free

  • Yea, I still use yz-dock at home. Thats probably the first time you saw that program, at a lan. My work pc is too slow to run apps like that all the time right now, can't wait till my 3ghz gets here this week.

  • Hi, just wondering how you were able to hide your taskbar completly?

    thanks

  • I love object dock it runs great, I am going to hide my taskbar i have a bar at the side that autohides just for the system try and the top bar which is great for showing me the running programs. Yz-dock was good but lost support long time ago.

  • how do you get the separate system tray bar?

  • every time i try to add this docklet to my dock, the whole program crashes. any idea?

  • every time i try to add this docklet to my dock, the whole program crashes. any idea?

    Same thing here.. using Vista

  • i love this docklet. it is definitely the best one out there, even though it's not as popular as the other ones. however, the only draw back is that you really cant customize it that much. my wallpaper is black at the very bottom so i cant see what the time is unless i open something white behind it. do you think there's going to be an update for this soon? thanks a lot for this docklet.

  • This is a pretty cool docklet, but is there an easy way to change the style of it? The black numbers are hard to read on the dark dock theme I'm using, and it'd be nice to have a different clock theme, maybe w/ glowing numbers or something.

    I read the readme.txt file but I don't know what you mean by creating a ping file to change the way it looks. Do you maybe have a ping file you could upload that I could just put in the destination folder? If you can help with this, I'd appreciate it. Thanks!

  • how do you add the notification bit? ive been trying for a while now and cant seem to get it on there, anyone help?

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