Custombar 1.0

[Jared Mriad]

http://www.custombar.net/

(cp)
CustomBar provides a small, flexible, and open-ended bar that can sit on the top or bottom of your screen. You can have your bar display system stats, control Winamp, provide shortcuts and menus to commonly used programs and sites, and much more. The prefab and plugin systems allow users to create their own additions to CustomBar. The bar is completely skinnable.
(/cp)

30-day free trial, and from what I've heard, it continues on free. The full version is 20$. Doesn't sound like too bad of a program.

[Katina Van-Derveld]

CustomBar provides a small, flexible, and open-ended bar that can sit on the top or bottom of your screen. You can have your bar display system stats, control Winamp, provide shortcuts and menus to commonly used programs and sites, and much more.It's a startbar? :huh

[Ryan Pode]

That costs 20 dollars.

[Jared Mriad]

Look at the screenshots, it fits above the start bar or at the very top of your screen.

More C/P


That's right, CustomBar is finally out, after two years. What's CustomBar and what makes it so special you may ask?

CustomBar has been a project that I have been working on, both part-time and full-time, over the course of two years. Last November I posted a thread with a few screenshots and a sign-up form asking for testers. The response I received was overwhelming, to the point where I could only accept half of the 300+ people that signed-up. This incredible amount of testers has made it possible to polish and shape the project more than I ever thought possible.

What the Heck is CustomBar?

CustomBar is a tiny 18 pixel high bar that sits at the top or bottom of your screen. It behaves very similiar to the taskbar, in that it is visible even when other programs are running. Unlike the taskbar, CustomBar allows you to place anything that you can dream of and build onto it. An extremely extensive prefab/plugin system makes your imagination the biggest limit. You could even develop apps with this thing.

To get right down to it, here's some of the functionality that comes out of the box with CustomBar. Using the editor you decide what goes on your bar, and as the community grows, there will be plenty of user-addons to download as well.

Busy drawing a master piece for an MS Paint thread? No time to open Winamp to see what song is playing? Now you can view Winamp status and control Winamp all from your bar.

Quickly make selections from your 100% legal music back-ups using the handy music menu. Comes in scrolling and column menu flavors.

Searching for hilarious images has never been easier. The customizable right-clickable search allows you to quickly search your favorite sites. Don't waste precious time flipping through bookmarks or typing into url boxes.

There's a lot of other prefabs and each one tries to pack as much functionality into the tiniest space possible. Be sure to try right-clicking everything, as most prefabs add lots of functionality that way! Examples of some of the other stuff available:

:bulletred: Numerous system stats prefabs
:bulletred: Miniature notepad
:bulletred: Volume controls
:bulletred: Generate menus of shortcuts out of folders
:bulletred: Recycle bin quick emptier
:bulletred: Right-clickable brower launcher that lets you paste in a URL to a launch in new window
:bulletred: "Special Shortcuts" such as Show Desktop, Control Panel, and even the Run dialog.

But What Will It Do For My Love Life?

Girls love long bars! For optimal results run two for more girth.

Obtaining the Software

The 30-Day Trial Version is available at http://www.CustomBar.net/download.php It is fully functional except for the time limit. You can install user addons to the trial without a problem. If you love the software and decide you can't live without it, the full version is available for $19.95. This price is hopefully low enough that most interested people can afford it, but still allows me to have some hope of recovering the two years I spent on this thing.

[Crystal]

...It's a $20 start bar with winamp controls??

My keyboard has winamp controls. :|

[Ryan Pode]

Yes Yes, but, it gives you a google search feature.

[Katina Van-Derveld]

Look at the screenshotsI did. It just looks like he took Motherboard Monitor, tacked on a Google search feature and is charging money for it. I'm pretty happy with tDesk + MBM for similar needs.

Click for huge:

http://paintedover.com/uploads/5/desktopsmall.jpg (http://paintedover.com/uploads/5/desktoplarge.jpg)

[Dan the Man]

okay, that actually looks interesting.

[Marcus Telcontar]

Originally posted by Dan the Man
okay, that actually looks interesting.

I think it looks useless, myself. But I dont like a lot of stuff everywhere.

[Dasquian Belargic]

Originally posted by Katina Van-Derveld
http://paintedover.com/uploads/5/desktoplarge.jpg

Woah. Links to where you can get the programs for that from?

[Crystal]

K, how did you your drives on your desktop? Is that part of tdesk?

[James Prent]

Originally posted by Dasquian Belargic
Woah. Links to where you can get the programs for that from?

[Katina Van-Derveld]

That's tDesk; It's just an html file you use as an active desktop. Link: http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=561372

[Titus]

Right click your start bar, select 'Toolbars' then 'New Toolbar'. Make a folder. Fill it with crap. Drag your new toolbar off of the startbar, and slap it on the side of your monitor. Right click, select 'Autohide' and 'Always on Top'. Volia, a mini-start menu.

As for the winamp options, that's what windowshade mode is for. :D

[Figrin D'an]

There's several little system tools around that'll allow the user to customize the XP desktop, and that are more functional than simply a toolbar. Besides, as was mentioned, it's easy enough to make toobars in Windows anyway.