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MetaProducts TrayIcon Pro 1.7.219
WhiteLion:
MetaProducts TrayIcon Pro 1.7.219
Supports Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003
Upgrades to TrayIcon Pro from Wingo, Trayicon, Trayicon Standard, Trayicon Menu or Trayicon Standard products are for free, please send an E-mail
Product Support [email protected]
DownLoad Trail here http://dl.filekicker.com/send/file/167696-ZLUX/tpsetup.exe
Meta Products is currently discontinuing all other versions of this product
Tested On: WinXPPROSP2, Pentium4 2.8 with 512 ram
More screenshots can be viewed here http://www.metaproducts.com/mp/TrayIcon_Pro-Screenshots.htm
TrayIcon Pro is a Windows 95/98/NT/2000/ME/XP/2003 application that was developed to let you quickly run your favorite applications and folders directly from the system tray.
TrayIcon Pro lets you add icons for these applications and folders to the tray itself or into menus that sit behind icons in the tray. Finally, the functionality of our whole TrayIcon range is brought together in one easy-to-use application.
The new version adds support for Netscape Bookmarks and Opera Hotlists as well as a history of recently browsed URLs. So, you can easily browse Web sites directly from your tray!
Another great feature is the ability to minimize any of your application to the system tray. TrayIcon Pro adds its button next to the standard Minimize/Maximize/Close button to all windows. You can choose to minimize the application to a separate tray icon or to a menu in the tray.
The new version allows you to protect icons from being started with a password - to limit access to some programs if the computer is shared between several users.
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Here is my input.
MetaProducts TrayIcon Pro is good...very good.
http://www.metaproducts.com
It is fairly easy for newbie to figure out "How To" program it without the need to dig to through the Help files.
The way it's GUI works is whats a bit abnormal.
The GUI is both tabbed and each Tab also changes with the selection on it's drop down list. While programming my user settings I found the GUI's interface to be a bit of niggle for it was un-Windows like to me. However, once I figured it out, it was a cinch....just remembering How To find an particular option setting each time was a different story.
The program's installer was smooth. I had no complaint from either Kaspersky or ZAPS.
TrayIcon Pro displays a list of shortcuts which you pre-program. To bring the list up...the amount of time....compares to me initially opening my Windows Start Menu. There is a very big hesitation. I only programed TrayIcon Pro with my DeskTop shortcuts.
I have roughly 100 DeskTop shortcut's. I have 3 HD's on board and I do expect things to be slower then average due to the amount I have.
TrayIcon Pro is just a menu of my shortcuts. The same as your regular Start Menu.
I wanted & wished more from it.
It teased me.
It's memory usage grows bigger the longer it's used. It doesn't matter if it's menu was accessed or not. It's memory usage tops at about 20 megs but never lessens after it reaches that.
I found it hard yet easy to use. The hard part was I could open things faster without it by just clicking on my DeskTop Shortcuts what this product is supposed to replace. To give it a fair shake I tested a few other products of same category and I found the above statement to be true with all ;)
I could open things just as fast with TrayIcon Pro as I can via XP's Menus. I found I was forced to read through TrayIcon Pro's list & that takes time. I'm just so accustomed to using Desk Top Icon positionings instead of actually reading to find what I need.
I tried and tested other alternatives.
I found 2 others that meet my needs but still lack.
They are both "Docks"
I don't care for DOCKS yet I do like their punch much.
They both beat Object Dock, in my book, when it comes to their memory consumption.
Y'z Dock wins when it comes to memory consumption.
It's Memory consumption is almost NIL when the "auto-Hide" feature is used....yet it is very snappy.
Download: http://gwbn2.onlinedown.net/down/yz_dck0083.zip
RK Launcher is a spin-off of Y'z Dock it is an improved GUI of the original Y'Z's
Download: http://home.cogeco.ca/~rklauncher
It accepts gadgets from StarDock consumes more memory and I think is stolen code.
Both are freeware. Y'Z' Dock's development appears to have been discontinued sometime in either in 2002 or 2003 and the website is now down(hence the direct link). It's author, M.Yamaguchi works for Konami and it appears that he really upset Apple when he made this app & released it for free to all Windows user 8) I would love to see a Vista version of it done by him.
There is also my old tried and true fall-back app which is the one I think I will return to. I use it all the time to save my DeskTop Icon's Positioning. It's fantastic for that and only needs to be run if the the positioning gets messed up. Accidentally grabbing an icon and hitting the edge of your screen with it will definitely mess them up & some games will too. It also has a feature to make the background of your icon labels invisible. That isn't even the best part yet. It has super duper bonus feature which auto hides your DeskTop Icons, until you mouse over 'em ;)
It's called Iconiod http://www.sillysot.com/
It is Sillyware and free for all. The Silly part of it is that it can actually make your DeskTop Icons Dance! That is really fun to do at the office to someone who is getting on your nerves :P
BTW, Iconiod is also working perfectly in my Vista RC1 OS. I don't know whether or not if it's installer will, but when installed via XP and launching the executable via Vista it will run. ;)
8)
WL
brotherS:
I haven't bothered to read any reviews before I take the time-out to write this one. Forgive me if this review of mine is unorthodox.
-WhiteLion (October 22, 2006, 02:37 AM)
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Hi! It sure would help if you read the 3 'pinned' posts in https://www.donationcoder.com/forum/index.php?board=42.0 and then edit your review after doing so.
You don't have to stick to the standard 100% but it sure would be nice to have some more info:
- what does it do? (copy this info from the author or some review site)
- for which OS?
- free or not?
- screenshots?
- how is it rated on other sites?
- etc.
Thanks :)
Darwin:
Welcome, Whitelion. I tend to agree with you on almost every point in your review (though it would be nice if you provided a link to TrayIconPro ). I've tried all of the docks that I've been able to get my mits on, and even purchased ObjectDock Pro (to get the tabbed docks), and agree with you that they are nice in principle but really don't deliver in practice. Having said that, my experience with ObjectDock has been that its feature set blows everything else away and its resource usage is minimal. In fact, Stardock's apps in general seem to be very well behaved. The only time I run into trouble with them is when I have many different Stardock apps running, then I run into the limitations of my integrated graphics (Centrino notebook). I digress...
I don't have ObjectDock running (though I did reinstall it to see if I could fall in love with it, but that's not happening...). The app that I settled on to provide the functionality that TrayIcon Pro offers, is TrueLaunchBar . I'm also anxiously awaiting a functional beta of VistaStartMenu 2 , which is supposed to be released imminently.
Overall, I run a tight ship - minimal icons on my desktop and a very organised start menu. I use TrueLaunchBar to access folders in My Documents and to create specialised folders from which to launch programs. Both of these features are possible from the Start menu but the way in which XP's start menu (using either the default or the win9x/2k layout) functions doesn't "work" for me... I'm not clear how, or if I'd use VistaStartMenu, but I like the developer's ideas and will try it out when a functioning version is released.
I'm also monitoring development of Mouser's LaunchBar Commander - it looks very promising, though I am in the camp that feels that it might be profitable to merge it with Find and Run Robot...
WhiteLion:
TY for your posting pointers BRO I read 'em all up and re-edited to the best of my abilities. I have no idea on how to find previous reviews though :-\
I apologize for my hurried initial post.
Thanks for Welcoming me to this nice Forum Darwin :-*
I also Thank You Much for taking the time-out for replying and giving me some valuable input in order to help me with possibly solving my yucky looking DeskTop Quest.
To be fair in my review I did also re-install OBjectDock. I didn't mention it because the version I have is very old. I liked the Tabbed feature of ObjectDock the best, yet I felt like I was crippling it by setting it to that style of view at the sametime. Geeze, let's face it the regular view packs way more eye-candy ;) The tabbed view is more usable yet not so pretty. I feel like I am in a battle on which interface to use...the damn if you do and don't approach(sortva).
ObjectDock(my Old version) did run much better on this machine I have now then it did the last time when I used it on my old machine.
I offered no input on it because again my version is old and I have inside knowledge that it has been greatly enhanced in the past few years.
In fact all of StarDock's products have been and now come all together in a buy once packaged form which is very cheap. Not to mention all the free DLs of Themes, Skins and Gadgets a paid user gets. I need to start saving some pennies.
I also found a mostly unknown sort of an endorsement by Microsoft for StarDock's products with the XP enviroment.
The link will take a bit for me to dig up so I will only post it here if you are very interested in reading it up.
Having said that I immensely agree with you that ObjectDock's Features definitely does blow everything else I have tested to date away.
StarDock's eye-candy is able to be used with each and every one of their APPs making all their goodies kinda universal in their products.
The list of eye-candy grows each and every day, anyone can DL 'em for free and use them. Any individual can use 'em & get 'em even if they don't own even 1 of StarDock products....the system icons are fantastic for starters ;)
I disagree with you slightly only on ObjectDock's memory usage. It is minimal and falls in the mid range category of similar products that have tried lately. That could be due to the version I have and I'm sure the newer versions may be much better.
I never ran many of StarDock's simultaneously. Maybe 3 at tops with no probs.
You need to upgrade badly...lol. I just got my current PC, Dell Dimension P4(Hyper-Threading enabled), 512 ram, DVD-R, CD-RW, GeForce 5200 128megs, Linksy's 4 port Firewire, CreativeLabs soundcard, 80gig HD with XPRO SP2 CD including a transferabley 4 month warranty by Dell for just 300 US even, right off of eBay from a private seller 6 months ago. Way cheaper then my first store PC, a HP Pavillion with half of everything above minus the firewire ports that I paid a cool grand for and came with HP's crappy support. It was also a tad cheaper then building my own and I ended up with extra goodies.
Thanks for your links for the Vista start menu & True LaunchBar. I am bringing both in now in order to try.
I also have already checked out Mouser's LaunchBar commander but I didn't get to far when it came to programing it.
It was FARR that initially brought me here to this forum.
I don't use FARR for launching Apps(I should go try that) but I do love it's speed performing on-board file searches and it's ability to manipulate the found files.
vegas:
Nice Review. Not a product I have a need for, but, that really was a well done second effort!
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