Simulating Longhorn Sidebar

[Navin Mishra]

Hi,

Is there a component available to simulate Longhorn style Sidebar on
Windows XP ? Or is there a sample application somewhere to show how to do
that ?

Thanks in advance and regards

Navin

 

[Eric Cadwell]

Do you mean this:

http://www.codeproject.com/cs/miscctrl/xpgroupbox.asp


HTH;
Eric Cadwell
http://www.origincontrols.com

 

[Guest]

You could always use "bandit" and dock any app you want into the com
deskband on the start bar and just put it on the side, face it, until we get
widescreen monitors, having it on the side is just a waste of space.

 

[Steve Hiner]

How about Doug Thews' LocalDesktop:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/archives/000078.html
the updated version is here
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/archives/000093.html
but the first link has a screenshot.

It's an ASP.NET web site you run on your local install of IIS then embed in
your desktop using the ActiveDesktop feature (finally a use for
ActiveDesktop!). Currently it only shows blog entries and a short favorites
list but since you get the source code you can make it show whatever you
want to. I embedded a java clock into mine and I'm adding a few more
features then Doug said he'd make my version available too but it's probably
a week away at a minimum. I don't remember everything that's in the Sidebar
but some of it could easily be put into LocalDesktop with a little coding
time.

Steve Hiner

 

[Herfried K. Wagner [MVP]]

Is there a component available to simulate Longhorn style Sidebar on
Windows XP ? Or is there a sample application somewhere to show how to do
that ?

What's a _Longhorn_ style sidebar?

--
Herfried K. Wagner
MVP · VB Classic, VB.NET
<http://www.mvps.org/dotnet>

<http://www.plig.net/nnq/nquote.html>

 

[Eric Cadwell]

Sounds like some kind of docked start bar.

MVPs should get a free trip to PDC!

-Eric

 

[Gleb Dolgich]

Why would anyone want to simulate such a bad design? It's a waste of screen
real estate. IMHO, of course.

--
Gleb Dolgich
Proggle
http://www.proggle.com
Installer/GD - a better installer for Windows software
LabelsWin - MacOS-like file labels for Windows

NM> Hi,

NM> Is there a component available to simulate Longhorn style Sidebar
NM> on
NM> Windows XP ? Or is there a sample application somewhere to show how
NM> to do that ?

NM> Thanks in advance and regards

NM> Navin

 

[John Montgomery [MSFT]]

IMO, the Longhorn sidebar is actually pretty useful -- and especially so if
you have a high-resolution screen (1280x1024).

 

[Alvin Bruney]

Affectionally known as Sidebar bob

One problem, its only useful with a WIDESCREEN , normal aspect ratios need
not apply.

 

[Michael Giagnocavo [MVP]]

Depends on the size of the sidebar and the use of the computer. I know many
people who would use the sidebar even at 800x600. No, they aren't "power
users" or devs. However, they make up the majority. Same reason that the
new Longhorn explorer shell uses a ton of space at the top (when showing it
to other programmers, their reaction is "yuck! that's 30% of the screen!",
while other people go "wow, looks great."

Also, for the timeframe longhorn is looking at shipping in, I'm guessing
MSFT is hoping there will be more widescreens (yuck for movies, sometimes
useful for computing) in circulation. Judging from a lot of the newer
computers being sold even at retail stores, I think this is quite realistic.

-mike
MVP

 

[Jack Mathews]

I'm really curious why the taskbar itself isn't defaulted to the right?
I've been running with my desktop like that for years (quick launch bars and
taskbar on the right) and it's so much nicer. Plus, it seems from all the
longhorn screenshots that there's a big waste of space where that would fit
nicely. Plus, after you're running 10 programs or so, the taskbar on the
bottom gets less and less useful (especially when it needs to start grouping
windows).

Jack

 

[Christian Kaiser]

Well I have two monitors (dual display) with 1280*1024 each, and still I
would not like any sidebar that is a monstrous as the Longhorn Pre-alpha
one.

If there's any chance, I would also reduce the size of the title bars....
but then, here I have NT4 and at home I use XP in "classic" style, so maybe
I'm not an average user.

Christian

 

[Floyd Burger]

That's why there are alternate shells. There are several themes for
LiteStep that already have the Longhorn style, and all of the themes can be
extensively customized to suite the environment.

Floyd