topbanner_forum
  *

avatar image

Welcome, Guest. Please login or register.
Did you miss your activation email?

Login with username, password and session length
  • Tuesday March 19, 2024, 3:37 am
  • Proudly celebrating 15+ years online.
  • Donate now to become a lifetime supporting member of the site and get a non-expiring license key for all of our programs.
  • donate

Author Topic: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button  (Read 12004 times)

apfel

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2006
  • *
  • Posts: 63
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« on: August 18, 2008, 12:29 PM »
Hi, had this idea of a clean taskbar, which only shows the opened windows and tray.
   
summing-up:
- no start button, but space should be usable
- no clock
- tray should be visible (btw. i use ps tray factory to hide some icons)
- whole taskbar should only be visible, if more than one window is present and on mouseover

hope someone can do this.

apfel.
« Last Edit: August 18, 2008, 12:35 PM by apfel »

TucknDar

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2005
  • ***
  • Posts: 1,133
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #1 on: August 18, 2008, 12:47 PM »
Have you looked into alternative shells?

http://en.wikipedia....op_shell_replacement has links to quite a few

Personally I use LiteStep. Note that it can possibly take quite some time to get used to shell replacements and if you want it to behave just like you want, at least LiteStep requires some text file editing. Others, such as bbLean (blackbox for windows essentially) can mostly be configured through menus.

apfel

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2006
  • *
  • Posts: 63
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #2 on: August 18, 2008, 03:26 PM »
I dont really want a shellreplacement for this.

tomos

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 11,958
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #3 on: August 18, 2008, 03:48 PM »
I remember there were thread(s) about removing the Start button, no idea if it was also possible to remove clock too - maybe someone remembers threads or search might produce something!

[edit] of course this
- whole taskbar should only be visible, if more than one window is present and on mouseover
probably wouldnt be covered ...
Tom

jgpaiva

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2006
  • *****
  • Posts: 4,727
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #4 on: August 18, 2008, 04:10 PM »
Removing the clock is simpler than one would think :)
Just right-click the taskbar, go to "notification area", and untick the clock! (this is in Vista, but I'm pretty sure it's there in XP too).

VideoInPicture

  • Honorary Member
  • Joined in 2008
  • **
  • Posts: 467
    • View Profile
    • Circle Dock
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #5 on: August 18, 2008, 05:01 PM »
I think I may have a solution....It's 90% there and is based off of an open source project. I'll see if I can make it work.
Author of Circle Dock: http://circledock.wikidot.com
Author of Video In Picture: http://videoinpicture.wikidot.com
Author of Webcam Signature: http://webcamsignature.wikidot.com
Author of Easy Unicode Paster: http://easyunicodepaster.wikidot.com

AndyM

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 616
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #6 on: August 18, 2008, 08:20 PM »
LClock , on the "other" tab has a box to "hide Start Button". 

http://www.neowin.ne...php?showtopic=157465

lanux128

  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2005
  • *****
  • Posts: 6,277
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #7 on: August 18, 2008, 08:42 PM »
summing-up:
- no start button, but space should be usable
- no clock
- tray should be visible (btw. i use ps tray factory to hide some icons)
- whole taskbar should only be visible, if more than one window is present and on mouseover

good idea, eventhough currently it can be done separately. e.g. Start Killer can help reclaim the space while the clock can be hidden (see pic). item 4 is quite similar to Skrommel's FadingTaskbar.

ws-taskbar-sm-prop-1.png

apfel

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2006
  • *
  • Posts: 63
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #8 on: August 19, 2008, 07:09 AM »
LClock , on the "other" tab has a box to "hide Start Button". 

http://www.neowin.ne...php?showtopic=157465

Cant use this methode, because of PS Tray Factory. (problems)

AndyM

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 616
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #9 on: August 19, 2008, 12:33 PM »
LClock , on the "other" tab has a box to "hide Start Button". 

http://www.neowin.ne...php?showtopic=157465

Cant use this methode, because of PS Tray Factory. (problems)

What kind of problems?  I run PS Tray Factory also (couldn't live without it).  Plus I run quite a bit of other stuff.  I'd like to know what problems you had - might be clues for me to figure out some of my system's idiosyncrasies.

apfel

  • Participant
  • Joined in 2006
  • *
  • Posts: 63
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #10 on: August 21, 2008, 09:53 AM »
LClock relocates the Start Button to hide it and everytime I start PS Tray Factory, the whole tray gets covered by the start butto.

AndyM

  • Charter Member
  • Joined in 2006
  • ***
  • Posts: 616
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #11 on: August 21, 2008, 02:24 PM »
LClock relocates the Start Button to hide it and everytime I start PS Tray Factory, the whole tray gets covered by the start butto.

Ah, I don't hide my start button so I haven't seen that behavior.

app103

  • That scary taskbar girl
  • Global Moderator
  • Joined in 2006
  • *****
  • Posts: 5,884
    • View Profile
    • Donate to Member
Re: IDEA: clean Taskbar without clock and start button
« Reply #12 on: August 30, 2008, 11:12 PM »
If you don't feel like going through any taskbar settings to turn off the clock (or just have trouble remembering where it is), I once made a small utility to test some code, that does it. (was never tested on Vista)

http://appsapps.info...oads/removeclock.zip

It may leave a space, but that will go away when one or more icons in the tray refreshes or is added/removed.

As far as the start button goes, I remember some application called TClock2 that might be able to hide/change it. (doesn't work on Vista)