Windows taskbar replacement xp

Is possible to use File Explorer replacement with Fences 2. Is there a program that can get me that end result, be it a customization program or a shell replacement? Thanks, David. Page 1 of 2. Litestep can do the same but much more is involved to do it.

You talk the talk but can you walk the walk? DX works great on this 5 year old XP machine! Let's see what you are talking about. Post a screenshot to illustrate how much better emerge is. Tell us why it's better other than open source and replacing the explorer shell. Aston replaces the explorer shell too and it uses less memory. I've used Aston but because it doesn't work right with IP I don't use it anymore.

Make me see why I should try emerge other than you saying it is better. I must add one thing. Unless you are living in memory RAM is not an issue anymore. If you don't have it then you can't play. What OS are you using? XP works great with a gig. That's been more than enough to run most of the Stardock stuff on this old machine.

It's typically not very Classy to come to anothers site and trash their products while bumping your own. LiteStep can do all of the above, Replaces the Explorer shell, is open source, etc.. Notice how I did not need to resort to using insults or condescending remarks to achieve my point? It's typically not very Classy to come to another's site and trash their products while bumping your own.

Use your wits in script and you can get whatever you want. Messy scripts and heavy graphics consume memory. I run DesktopX at mb of Ram and it runs very swiftly and nicely. There are certain script funtions like desktopX. I believe you get your money's worth from the Stardock alternatives This is the Right-Click program by Stardock I haven't had the time to check this is a screenshot I uploaded last month which has both and kinda shows what I mean The thing that struck me most about this thread and found fair enough to point out is that it's never really a good idea to just walk into someone else's house and tell the inhabitants therein how the food at your house is better than that "garbage" they're currently being fed in theirs.

Notwithstanding insults, sarcasm and condescension, if anyone did that in your house you'd think them a jackass and ignore them at best, or call the cops at worst, and one would invariably be drawn towards the latter. In addition, "free speech" and the "promotion of self-directed thought" should always be dealt with carefully and courteously if the arguments are to hold any weight with a new audience, especially as a newcomer. After all, the freedoms afforded to any guest, whether in the form of speech or otherwise, are ultimately subject to the discretion and whim of it's owner, even in democratic environments.

Granted, this isn't "real life" and no one's going to be calling the cops, but it stands to reason that the same standard of common courtesy should be exercised, no matter what the situation or medium of communication if you want your voice to be heard and respected. Getting back to hydrotemplar 's question Having used DesktopX myself for years now, I can highly recommend it as a platform in which to build your dream desktop, and even go beyond.

On our PC, it covered the complete Windows 11 Start button, but if I clicked in the blank space to the left of it rather than directly on the button, I still get the Windows 11 Start menu.

The larger, rectangular Start button can solve that problem, but it may cover over parts of your other icons. Another possibility is to uncheck Replace Start Button in Open-Shell's options menu and use the classic taskbar hack see below and then you'll get a clickable, Windows style Start button.

If you've installed Start11 or StartAllBack, the programs will automatically enhance your taskbar with some options so we recommend that you skip this section.

However, in order to get Open-Shell to use a Windows 10 Start button icon, you need to enable the classic taskbar in the Registry. This taskbar looks and feels a little bit more like the Windows 10 taskbar and has a Search box and a Task View button. However, neither of these works.

The Search box does absolutely nothing when you click on it and the Taskview, in my experience, almost always crashes, causing icons even of open apps to disappear temporarily, so in other words, don't click it , or better yet, hide it , which we'll show you how to do. Open Regedit. Close regedit and restart Windows The classic taskbar will be there, but you'll notice on the left side that the clock, audio and networking icons are missing.

Toggle Clock, Volume and Network to On. The icons will now appear on the left side of the screen. Hide the "Task view" icon optional. Since this function tends to crash, I recommend hiding the button by right clicking on the taskbar, selecting Taskbar settings and toggling Task view to off.

Hide the search box optional. The good news is that the Start menu replacements have their own search boxes built in. In the end, you will have a taskbar that works with any of the utilities and looks a bit more Windows like. You'll also have the Windows style File explorer and right-click, jump-list menus that look like Windows 10 and have all the options on them.

Overall, though, we recommend using StartAllBack or Start11, both of which can properly align themselves on the taskbar and prevent Windows 11's native Start menu from appearing.

If you want to do even more to give your Windows 11 a classic look, see our article on how to make Windows 11 look and feel like Windows Avram Piltch. Topics Windows. Operating Systems. See all comments Overall not a significant change and nostalgia and fear of change would be the only reason I can see for people wanting to stick to the old look.

I for one will miss the Windows 10 Start menu. Not because of Live Tiles, that was a nifty feature but I never saw it used in a way that was "useful" other than maybe the weather app tile.

Since Windows 8, I've adopted an approach of pinning basically everything that I could need to the start menu. It's laid out in a way that makes sense to me and I know where everything is. On Windows 11, I think you can only pin 18 items before having to scroll through them. Once the user clicks the window button to activate the window, your application can display the message. Version 4. From an application, you can now add, remove, and activate taskbar buttons. Activating the item does not activate the window; it shows the item as pressed on the taskbar.

You can then use the methods of the ITaskbarList interface to modify the contents of the taskbar. For example, you could do this when a taskbar icon displays a shortcut menu, but the user cancels it by pressing the ESCAPE key. Applications commonly put icons in the notification area of the taskbar to serve as status indicators.

You can provide additional information when the user performs mouse actions, such as moving the mouse pointer over the icon or clicking the icon. The system notifies you of mouse and keyboard events by sending an application-defined callback message that is associated with a particular icon. In this way, the system can notify an application when the user, for instance, clicks the icon or selects it by pressing a key. You define an icon's callback message when you add the icon to the taskbar.

When an event occurs, the system sends the callback message to the window procedure of the window specified by the hWnd member. The wParam parameter of the message contains the identifier of the taskbar icon in which the event occurred. The lParam parameter holds the mouse or keyboard message associated with the event. Typically, clicking the icon causes the application to display a window with additional information, right-clicking displays a shortcut menu, and double-clicking executes the default shortcut menu command.

For an example of how to change the tooltip text associated with a notification area icon, see Balloon Tooltips for Status Bar Icons. Versions 5. The differences are as follows:. With Microsoft Internet Explorer 4. When the taskbar is created, it registers a message with the TaskbarCreated string and then broadcasts this message to all top-level windows.

When your taskbar application receives this message, it should assume that any taskbar icons it added have been removed and add them again. This feature generally applies only to services that are already running when the Shell launches. The following example shows a very simplified method for handling this case. On Windows 10, the taskbar also broadcasts this message when the DPI of the primary display changes.

This section includes examples that demonstrate how to add icons to the taskbar notification area and how to process callback messages for taskbar icons. The structure members must specify the handle to the window that is adding the icon, as well as the icon identifier and icon handle.

You can also specify tooltip text for the icon. If you need to receive mouse messages for the icon, specify the identifier of the callback message that the system should use to send the message to the window procedure.