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Chef-of-KH In reply to dpcdpc11 [2017-01-14 11:07:21 +0000 UTC]

When I found out about RocketDock (good[?] ol' Vista times), I immediately became a dock fan boy too. I still kept using RocketDock on Windows 7 and above, but I started to get to the bounds of customizing RocketDock (see this screenshot , for example) and I also found out that the developers stopped working on it a long time ago already. So I decided to develop such a dock program on my own. I wanted it to fit my customization desires and I also wanted it to work with the Windows system features (e.g. preventing maximized windows from covering it, changing to 'full screen width' look when a window is maximized). RocketDock, for example, would either be covered by windows, or you had to keep it in foreground covering buttons from other programs, or you could configure it to fade out automatically which became quite annoying over time when you accidentially moved your cursor too close to the screen edge where you placed the dock.

This dock is - as all other dock programs - not actually meant to be a replacement for the Windows taskbar or more productive and helpful than it, but to be a customizeable optical extension for it - with the ability to integrate into the user's workspace without disturbing it.

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dpcdpc11 In reply to Chef-of-KH [2017-01-14 15:05:29 +0000 UTC]

If you just need an aesthetic launcher on your screen than the dock kinda makes sense. But even then you still need to go up to the taskbar (like in your setup) if you want to reach the system tray or something plus unless it's kept in the background, it also takes valuable space when maximizing windows. That's why I think the windows taskbar from Windows 7 and up can be the best of both worlds, beautiful and useful.
Here 's an old setup I used to have where the dock (xWindowsDock... best windows dock ever made IMO) was able to almost replace the windows taskbar. It had some quirks but it was pretty cool.
Then with Win7 I've started pinning more programs to the taskbar and fewer to the dock: dpcdpc11.deviantart.com/art/Da… until finally I ditched the dock completely and added a few shortcut icons with rainmeter: dpcdpc11.deviantart.com/art/Fr…
Also I remember most docks had issues with full screen programs like games and sometimes were CPU intensive for not reason. Another reason to stick to the taskbar only.
Oh yeah... forgot about the dual screen setup where the dock was not working very well. Starting with Win8 the taskbar finally behaves like it should when using multi monitor setup. Does you dock has support for multi monitors?

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Chef-of-KH In reply to dpcdpc11 [2017-01-14 20:51:01 +0000 UTC]

Of course, it's not meant to be an entire replacement for the Windows shell (as already mentioned). And I already worked around those issues with full-screen gaming (or videos) - the dock will hide itself automatically and will use 0-1% of the CPU. Obviously, I'm testing my project and I didn't notice any performance impacts ingame.

For the multi-screen support: At the moment, it only sticks to the primary screen only, but I'm planning to implement options, like displaying the dock on another screen, on multiple screens, or maybe on the screen where the cursor is.

As you mentioned in the beginning: It's just 'an aesthethic launcher'.

Actually I just finally want such a dock that has the many customization features (animations, icon backgrounds/highlights/reflections, vector-support [yet XAML] for skins etc.) and also ability to work with Windows 10 environment (e.g. launching UWP apps [without any tricks ] or switching virtual desktops).

BTW: I also used XWindowsDock (on Windows 8) and I found it better than RocketDock, but after some time it caused the system to stop working properly (e.g. all web browsers did not work, Windows shell kept crashing - happened on many installations and in event log it said that many errors were causes by a module of XWindowsDock), so I sticked to RocketDock (which has not as many features as XWindowsDock).

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dpcdpc11 In reply to Chef-of-KH [2017-01-14 22:57:34 +0000 UTC]

I remember that xWindowsDock was specially high on the CPU when the Recycle Bin was not empty. It had some weird conflict with the antivirus.

Your version of the dock sounds pretty cool and if you need a tester or something I'm willing to give it a spin. My main PC runs Win 8.1 but I also run a Win 10 installation in a virtual machine.
So if I can help. let me know!

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Chef-of-KH In reply to dpcdpc11 [2017-01-15 12:10:43 +0000 UTC]

Ok, thanks! I'll let you know, when I have a first build ready for being tested.

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dpcdpc11 In reply to Chef-of-KH [2017-01-15 13:40:16 +0000 UTC]

Awesome! Have a great Sunday!

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