Some problems I have with object dock
First post!! :)
Tuesday, March 15, 2005 by hotnikkelz | Discussion: Docks
Hello everyone, i'm brand new to this whole customisation thing, i have Object dock 1.04 plus, and it's all good. Anyway here's some of the problems I have with it, i hope some of you guys can help me out a bit, or at least share the same problems that I have.
I have 3 docks in total, i'll go through each one individual and list the problems i encounter, although small, some of them irritate me to no end, must be the perfectionist dna strand in me
1)Dock on the left with all my regular stuff, like my drives, internet connections, document folders etc etc.
Problems:
Sometimes even when i move the mouse away from the dock the magnification remains, small issue, but it is still irritating to see it still swollen like a balloon when i'm not even near it. Design flaw? or just me?
When i insert the My Computer icon into it, (not a shortcut), since i want to be able to right click it and bring up the properties so i can access device manager etc. I did this to remove the My Computer icon off the desktop. There is a permanent little black triangle on the left side of the icon, which seems to mean that the program is always running. To test this i checked a box in the dock settings which says if the shorcut is running bring program to foreground only. When i do open it, then try to open it again so taht it will come to the foreground, nothing happens. Sometimes i think object dock just closes without warning *shrug* weird, i know.
2)Tabbed (drawer) docked at bottom, tabs are main, taskbar, www, apps, office
Problems:
I've set the tabbed dock to ALWAYS BE ON TOP, yet it does not happen this way as consistent as i hoped. Sometimes when i open shorcuts (MAXIMISED) on the left dock for eg. My Documents folder, it hides the tab dock. It only happens in maximised windows obviously. It happens periodically with the maximising of different windows as well. To semi-correct this problem, i'm forced to creating a hot spot at the bottom, to bring it back up. Annoying, since i prefer to have to click my the dock/tabs to bring it up.
3)Tray dock, autohide, bottom right corner
Problems:
I was under the impression (corect me if i'm wrong), that when i hold the mouse button on docks it is supposed to allow icon change, however, what it does, is grow my tray dock. Let me explain this more clearly. I have an icon size setting of 16 pixels, no magnification, very simple. However when i move the mouse on it and whole the button it grows to like 48 pixels. The thing is the dock setting does not change, it still says 16 pixels, but noticeably much bigger. TO correc thsi problem i have to reclick the tab on the 16 pixel mark, and it reverts for itself. Talk about weird.
That's all the problems i've encountered with docks so far. Now i have a list of suggestions/complaints about the design of the program itself. Hopefully you all can bring me into the light on these things, since i'm new and all
1)Is there no way to put different icon settings for each dock? I find this a very big *miss* I want a big font on my left magnification dock, and obviously very small font for my tray, yet I can only put one font setting for everything. Another thing, why no font customisation? No colour or anything, just size, bold and italic?
2)Flyout menus need to be able customised i think. not much, but i should at least be able to customise the automatic speed of the scroll between programs, as how far they come out etc. Little things i think, will help it out.
3)More tab customisation can help i think. I've seen some docks from people here in teh (show us your dock thread), and they've done many impressive things with their docks that I haven't been able to reproduce some using the settings available, either i need more creativity to understand what they did, or they have some object dock addition which i don't have hehehe.
4)Limited Positioning. I think this is one of the biggest drawbacks of object docks. THe only dock which seems to give 'free' positiong (correct me if i'm wrong) is the tabbed docks. I was able to move it around the screen, and put it where i want. My left dock on the other hand, is jsut restricted to the cardinal points. What if i want in between somewhere. In other words, i would like all my docks draggable to anywhere on the desktop, and then be able to lock it into place. I would also like to be able to put my dock at an angle instead of jsut a straight line, but that's just me pushing it
5)Customisation improvement in general. Little things like being able to customise each tab in a dock independently to the rest of tabs, like making that tab mnagnify while the other doesn't etc. I think such little things will improve object dock quite a bit, but that's just me. There's a list that i have (i'm greedy i guess haha) i won't list them here though
Anyway, I'd like to thank stardock, for a nifty little program, it's quite good, i'm happy with it actually, havne't experienced detrimental problems like computer crashes etc. So i'm thankful for the stability etc. I'm looking foward to additional builds or updates in the future
Some other unrelated notes
How do i remove the recycle bin off the destop?
IS there a way to change the SIZE of desktop icons, but not change the size of icons in every window that is set on the view items at icon size?
There's a coloured background fuzz of many behind my desktop icons which does not want to go, what do I do?
On one of my windows xp accounts, i can comfortable view 1280x1200 wallpaper in 1024x768 view, but in another account it drops the resolution badly, to the point where i rather just use 1024x768 wallpaper period. how do i fix this?
How do i convert pngs -> ico?
is it ok to post my desktop with my docks i this thread? or put a link to it?
thanks in advance!
I have 3 docks in total, i'll go through each one individual and list the problems i encounter, although small, some of them irritate me to no end, must be the perfectionist dna strand in me
1)Dock on the left with all my regular stuff, like my drives, internet connections, document folders etc etc.
Problems:
Sometimes even when i move the mouse away from the dock the magnification remains, small issue, but it is still irritating to see it still swollen like a balloon when i'm not even near it. Design flaw? or just me?
When i insert the My Computer icon into it, (not a shortcut), since i want to be able to right click it and bring up the properties so i can access device manager etc. I did this to remove the My Computer icon off the desktop. There is a permanent little black triangle on the left side of the icon, which seems to mean that the program is always running. To test this i checked a box in the dock settings which says if the shorcut is running bring program to foreground only. When i do open it, then try to open it again so taht it will come to the foreground, nothing happens. Sometimes i think object dock just closes without warning *shrug* weird, i know.
2)Tabbed (drawer) docked at bottom, tabs are main, taskbar, www, apps, office
Problems:
I've set the tabbed dock to ALWAYS BE ON TOP, yet it does not happen this way as consistent as i hoped. Sometimes when i open shorcuts (MAXIMISED) on the left dock for eg. My Documents folder, it hides the tab dock. It only happens in maximised windows obviously. It happens periodically with the maximising of different windows as well. To semi-correct this problem, i'm forced to creating a hot spot at the bottom, to bring it back up. Annoying, since i prefer to have to click my the dock/tabs to bring it up.
3)Tray dock, autohide, bottom right corner
Problems:
I was under the impression (corect me if i'm wrong), that when i hold the mouse button on docks it is supposed to allow icon change, however, what it does, is grow my tray dock. Let me explain this more clearly. I have an icon size setting of 16 pixels, no magnification, very simple. However when i move the mouse on it and whole the button it grows to like 48 pixels. The thing is the dock setting does not change, it still says 16 pixels, but noticeably much bigger. TO correc thsi problem i have to reclick the tab on the 16 pixel mark, and it reverts for itself. Talk about weird.
That's all the problems i've encountered with docks so far. Now i have a list of suggestions/complaints about the design of the program itself. Hopefully you all can bring me into the light on these things, since i'm new and all
1)Is there no way to put different icon settings for each dock? I find this a very big *miss* I want a big font on my left magnification dock, and obviously very small font for my tray, yet I can only put one font setting for everything. Another thing, why no font customisation? No colour or anything, just size, bold and italic?
2)Flyout menus need to be able customised i think. not much, but i should at least be able to customise the automatic speed of the scroll between programs, as how far they come out etc. Little things i think, will help it out.
3)More tab customisation can help i think. I've seen some docks from people here in teh (show us your dock thread), and they've done many impressive things with their docks that I haven't been able to reproduce some using the settings available, either i need more creativity to understand what they did, or they have some object dock addition which i don't have hehehe.
4)Limited Positioning. I think this is one of the biggest drawbacks of object docks. THe only dock which seems to give 'free' positiong (correct me if i'm wrong) is the tabbed docks. I was able to move it around the screen, and put it where i want. My left dock on the other hand, is jsut restricted to the cardinal points. What if i want in between somewhere. In other words, i would like all my docks draggable to anywhere on the desktop, and then be able to lock it into place. I would also like to be able to put my dock at an angle instead of jsut a straight line, but that's just me pushing it
5)Customisation improvement in general. Little things like being able to customise each tab in a dock independently to the rest of tabs, like making that tab mnagnify while the other doesn't etc. I think such little things will improve object dock quite a bit, but that's just me. There's a list that i have (i'm greedy i guess haha) i won't list them here though
Anyway, I'd like to thank stardock, for a nifty little program, it's quite good, i'm happy with it actually, havne't experienced detrimental problems like computer crashes etc. So i'm thankful for the stability etc. I'm looking foward to additional builds or updates in the future
Some other unrelated notes
How do i remove the recycle bin off the destop?
IS there a way to change the SIZE of desktop icons, but not change the size of icons in every window that is set on the view items at icon size?
There's a coloured background fuzz of many behind my desktop icons which does not want to go, what do I do?
On one of my windows xp accounts, i can comfortable view 1280x1200 wallpaper in 1024x768 view, but in another account it drops the resolution badly, to the point where i rather just use 1024x768 wallpaper period. how do i fix this?
How do i convert pngs -> ico?
is it ok to post my desktop with my docks i this thread? or put a link to it?
thanks in advance!
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Corky_O
Reply #22 Wednesday, March 23, 2005 10:12 PM
Reply #22 Wednesday, March 23, 2005 10:12 PM
hotnikkelz,
"sdmcp.exe" is the Stardock Smartstart process (you can disable it by starting Stardock Central and going to "Tools>Settings" and deselecting "Enable MCP Smart Startup. If you start to see some strange behavior in the Stardock products, you will probably want to enable it again - I leave it on and see no issues that would make me want to turn it off. (Note - turning it off does disable the Object Desktop splash screen that tends to flash for a second at startup).
"ccApp.exe" is a file residing in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec" on my machine.
Not sure on the "PDVDServ.exe", the "DVD" reference is interesting - perhaps media software related?
I would run a search for any files you want to know about, and you should be able to find the root folder for the process by right clicking the file and selecting "Open Containing Folder", this should give you an idea as to whether you want to end the process or not - (make sure to set search to look in hidden files and folders via the advanced search options).
On the experimentation, if you can get another drive to clone to, go for it. There is nothing wrong with hacking your own system to check things out. Just be prepared to swap out, or go without if things go awry.
Will check back later, Peace.
"sdmcp.exe" is the Stardock Smartstart process (you can disable it by starting Stardock Central and going to "Tools>Settings" and deselecting "Enable MCP Smart Startup. If you start to see some strange behavior in the Stardock products, you will probably want to enable it again - I leave it on and see no issues that would make me want to turn it off. (Note - turning it off does disable the Object Desktop splash screen that tends to flash for a second at startup).
"ccApp.exe" is a file residing in "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Symantec" on my machine.
Not sure on the "PDVDServ.exe", the "DVD" reference is interesting - perhaps media software related?
I would run a search for any files you want to know about, and you should be able to find the root folder for the process by right clicking the file and selecting "Open Containing Folder", this should give you an idea as to whether you want to end the process or not - (make sure to set search to look in hidden files and folders via the advanced search options).
On the experimentation, if you can get another drive to clone to, go for it. There is nothing wrong with hacking your own system to check things out. Just be prepared to swap out, or go without if things go awry.
Will check back later, Peace.
hotnikkelz
Reply #23 Friday, March 25, 2005 2:30 PM
Reply #23 Friday, March 25, 2005 2:30 PM
Aye thanks as usual.
Is there a way to change the icons in the start menu without changing from classic view? I personally adore the classic view and i don't want to change it but i want to change the icons like run, search etc etc. Is there anyway to do this.
Also my taskbar is a dark blue, and i'd like to change the colour of it without using an additional program. What do i do?
Is there a way to change the icons in the start menu without changing from classic view? I personally adore the classic view and i don't want to change it but i want to change the icons like run, search etc etc. Is there anyway to do this.
Also my taskbar is a dark blue, and i'd like to change the colour of it without using an additional program. What do i do?
Corky_O
Reply #24 Saturday, March 26, 2005 1:16 AM
Reply #24 Saturday, March 26, 2005 1:16 AM
hotnikkelz,
Sorry, I think you are out of luck on the Classic Start menu changes to icons like Run, Search, etc. If I am not mistaken, these icons are static and do not reference a ".dll" or any other location which would allow you to change them.
I don't know of any registry changes that can be made through regedit or gpedit that will allow changing the Taskbar color. I suppose one could design a skin that works with the "Themes" service, but I would opt for using WindowBlinds and SkinStudio. You could create images for the taskbar, taskbar buttons, start button, systray parts and leave the rest of the default items in place, and use SkinStudio to assemble them and create a skinned taskbar.
I have not used TweakUI, so I am not familiar with the full abilities of that program, though there may be some abilities to do what you want that way.
Here is a link to "winguides" which has a lot of information pertaining to the registry and may interest you Link
That's all I've got for now.
Sorry, I think you are out of luck on the Classic Start menu changes to icons like Run, Search, etc. If I am not mistaken, these icons are static and do not reference a ".dll" or any other location which would allow you to change them.
I don't know of any registry changes that can be made through regedit or gpedit that will allow changing the Taskbar color. I suppose one could design a skin that works with the "Themes" service, but I would opt for using WindowBlinds and SkinStudio. You could create images for the taskbar, taskbar buttons, start button, systray parts and leave the rest of the default items in place, and use SkinStudio to assemble them and create a skinned taskbar.
I have not used TweakUI, so I am not familiar with the full abilities of that program, though there may be some abilities to do what you want that way.
Here is a link to "winguides" which has a lot of information pertaining to the registry and may interest you Link
That's all I've got for now.
hotnikkelz
Reply #25 Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:58 PM
Reply #25 Wednesday, March 30, 2005 10:58 PM
Oh damn hehe, well that sucks that i can't change them. Well actually the default icons aren't really bad coming to think of it. I did make some icons for myself though for the first time I'm using photopshop 7. Hard as hell, anyway my icons are beautiful at resolution 48x48 and 128x128 but for some reason they're choppy at 16x16 i don't know why. I don't know how people get it smoothe at that resolution, if anyone knows about graphic editing and stuff holla. Making icons is fun 
I haven't explored tweakUI either, i might try it out soon, but first I'm trying to find out how to change my taskbar without additional programs. I'm trying to figure out how to change the windows as well, like how stefanka did with his theme. How does he do it?
I'm using photopshop 7. Hard as hell, anyway my icons are beautiful at resolution 48x48 and 128x128 but for some reason they're choppy at 16x16 i don't know why. I don't know how people get it smoothe at that resolution, if anyone knows about graphic editing and stuff holla. Making icons is fun 
I haven't explored tweakUI either, i might try it out soon, but first I'm trying to find out how to change my taskbar without additional programs. I'm trying to figure out how to change the windows as well, like how stefanka did with his theme. How does he do it?
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Reply #21 Wednesday, March 23, 2005 9:24 PM
Unrelated questions:
When i ctrlaltdel, under process you know there's teh things the systrem runs, and do the stuff that the user runs. I see somethings i'm unfamilar with, I wanted to know, if tehre's a way to trace the purpose of these processes, and where they're coming from, and how to stop them from running.
The few i'm unfamilar with are
PDVDServ.exe
ccApp.exe
sdmcp.exe
they're bugging me out, cuz i dunno what the hell they are, and i don't think they're spyware either.