A way to put that menu bar to the task bar

Mac OS X has a neat feature to show menu bar at the top. There is an option to do this in Linux, but I did not find any way to do that in Windows

So I'm trying to solve this issue by myself. I've created a little application that steals a menu bar from foreground window and puts it to the task bar. Here's what I've got:

As you can see, foreground window has no menu bar. It is put to the task bar! And what's more, you can click the menus and they work.

Actually this is a result of an hour of work, so don't "shift your expectations" about it yet. There are some serious problems with it:

* Some apps refuse to reveal their menus: iTunes, QuickTime, Explorer and some other do not work. Flash, Notepad, PhotoEditor and ACDSee work (relatively) fine.

* Menu bar does not update to reflect app changes

* It does not restore the menu bar. App leaves "menu-bar-less" until the next launch.

* No images/graphics are available in my menu bar. It can not inherit menu look from the original app.

You can download my clumsy hack:

http://www.swfmax.com/osx/topmenu.rar

Instructions are included. I'm waiting for any comments. If you like the idea - let me know and I'll go on with this stuff. If this hopelessly sucks or there is someone who have accomplished this task already - let me know too. A way to contact:

http://www.swfmax.com/contact.php

#273471

Let me just tell you one thing. I've been dying for something like this so keep the development up.

There is something like this, but is pay and memory using because its part of object bar.

Comments

+When using the menu with some skins, the background behind the text isn't the default skins startmenu skin but rather some different bmp that doesn't fit it.

+Menu only recognizes when a program is openned, but I think you stated that already.

Looking forward to updates.

BTW i also sent a little comment using the php just incase you never decide to read this topic again.

#273477

pretty nice. I love the way it steals the menu from the program for that mac look . I'm not going to list all my demands for features just yet as I know this is early days. .. but please keep this going - this could quite quickly become a 'must have' app for us Aqua peeps.

#273479

Seems like it's working, nice thing. Hope you'll keep it up.

Would love to see this developed further.

#273480

This is what I've been waiting for for a long time, I finally have a reason for banishing OB! Keep up the great work!

#273492

kick ass! keep it up.

edit: i don't have to tell you that this is far from perfect, but man...is it ever a step in the right direction. i'm fairly psyched!

#273504

Thank god someone is doing it, please keep the work up.

#273505

Wow, I didn't think we would get someone developing something like this anytime soon. Keep up the work, I'm sure all of us are anxious to see how this turns out. Like Tricky said, if this keeps being developed I can see this as being one of those "must haves".

#273506

What can I say that hasn't been said already? The sought-after standalone menubar. Following this ones' development should be interesting...

#273523

Waiting for the next step in its evolution

#273533

Well, it's really great you appreciate it

In this case I have a reason to go on.

Actually stealing menus is a really messy thing. But I'll try to deal with it. Please, have patience.

#273573

Mmmm

try to search for MacbAR here (or RIMMER. It's A-S devels )

He is an author of MacBar with same functionality as topmenu... Maybe you and RIMMER can consolidate your Power and create an Uber tool that works event with Explorer, Word and FireFox?

#273599

Mmmm

try to search for MacbAR here (or RIMMER. It's A-S devels )

He is an author of MacBar with same functionality as topmenu... Maybe you and RIMMER can consolidate your Power and create an Uber tool that works event with Explorer, Word and FireFox?

Great idea, NilColor.

@.Max you should really consider contacting Rimmer and join forces.

We've got ourselves plenty of Docks With Y'z, Mobydock, OBjectdock (+) and off course RKLauncher (being developed as Beta, but allready quite usable and best OS X mimic imo),

but we lack a good Finderbar, besides ObjectBar (though granted it's the best looking finderbar so far, but hasn't been udated in ages, is still quite buggy and laggy even on fast systems, heck my emulated OS X through PearPC @1/15 th speed behaves more responsive most of the time...), McBar (still waiting for taskbar plugin), Landvermesser's Finderbar (no active windowmenu replacement, waiting for TrueLaunchbar plugin).

#273672

I've checked out McBar and found it to be pretty good. I even don't know why you were so interested in my app :?

However I will try to deal with other menu bars and then contact Rimmer. BTW he seems to be my countryman, so there should be no problem to contact him

#274321

I've checked out McBar and found it to be pretty good. I even don't know why you were so interested in my app :?

However I will try to deal with other menu bars and then contact Rimmer. BTW he seems to be my countryman, so there should be no problem to contact him

Where are you from?

RIMMER is from Russia ) And i'm too

#274674

what about lanvermesser and his add-on for win taskbar???

http://www.aqua-soft.org/board/showthread.php?t=18983

#274697

2 NilColor:

That's it. Guess what "ru.Pskov" stands for in my profile :]

2 Church Punk:

That's different. It has its own set of menus. Real aquatic FinderBar should adopt applications' ones.

Thanks to this forum I've learned 'bout Baghira for Linux. There is nothing to compare to under Windows. Deatachable menus feature is a part of KDE, so there's no pronblem with it. Unfortunately I run Win almost all the time.

#275034

2 NilColor:

That's it. Guess what "ru.Pskov" stands for in my profile :]

... а на профиль то я и не посмотрел... ))

#275053

Русский! Опять русский!!!

btw - this is international board

#275086

2 Church Punk:

That's different. It has its own set of menus. Real aquatic FinderBar should adopt applications' ones.

So that leaves us to either Objectbar or McBar.

The first costs quite some money, which is a bit over the top IMO for just a menu on taskbar instead of on top of each window, which should have been a selecable option in M$ Windows by default, just like Lock the taskbar or Auto-hide.

I know, Objectbar can do much, much more, but this is the sole feature of it that really interests me.

Mcbar was an interesting runner-up, but got halted prematurely for some reason.

So, yeah .Max, developement of your version of a Finderbar would be very much appriciated.

If I may suggest:

make that finderbar menu section a selectable toolbar on the taskbar,

instead of a complete taskbar on top of M$'s.

-']Русский! Опять русский!!!

btw - this is international board

Dang! That Russian sure's different; I can't even pronounce the characters... :cool:

Maar goed, Nederlands kunnen jullie waarschijnlijk ook geen touw aan vastknopen,

so back to Enlish again shall we?

#275138

-']btw - this is international board

i know... iknow...

@

Dang! That Russian sure's different; I can't even pronounce the characters... :cool:

Maar goed, Nederlands kunnen jullie waarschijnlijk ook geen touw aan vastknopen,

so back to Enlish again shall we?

I can pronounce a characters.... but... it looks like i'm drunk (j/k)

and yes. we back to English (IMO people with english as native are happiest ppl worldwide)

#275305

This could work out GREATLY with AveShell/AeroShell project.

#275442

Any contact with Rimmer yet? That would seem to be a logical way to go with this. Keep up the good work on it..

#275462

Nice application.

I'd like to see where it has support for applications that use a diffrent type of rendering such as firefox, and support for when you're on the desktop it has the standard Finder setup.

#275842

looks very nice!

all i would add is:

+ when the taskbar is not selected, make the font black still

+ change the font for something with a little more body

+ add current window title

other than that, its brilliant! like objectbar without the memory footprint and strange context menus.

That said, OBJECT DESKTOP 2005 is due out in 3 days, including a new version of ObjectBar (2.0), rumoured to have native PNG transparency and a simpler UI for customization, as well as the context menu customization removed (yippee!!). Still, I'd prefer yours any day.

#278330