DesktopX

OD should have an option to get rid of the taskbar, at least on Plus it does.

sure, desktopx will work, if you want to pay for a memory-intensive program that runs on top of windows' explorer.exe shell.

or... you can use emerge, which is free. and open source. and it replaces explorer.exe shell which frees up memory. and it's far more flexible and customizable and it has lots of great features.

but it's up to you to weigh out the advantages and disadvantages of each...

Try DesktopX.

thanks garbanz0, emerge is d*mn close to what I was looking for... i tried desktopx, and it gave alot of options, but not the opacity option for the background of the taskbar which was the hardest thing to find... however, I am using Object Dock because it gives more options than Emerge Launch... and Chasbo, here's a screenshot from my shiny new Emerge desktop:
http://i25.photobucket.com/albums/c51/hydrotemplar/Untitled-1-1.jpg
i wish it had text in the taskbar, but i was browsing the site, and that should be in the works...
but yeah, thanks again garbanz0
David

hydrotemplar, i miss the text in the taskbar too, but here's a tip. i assume you have emerge tasks reserving an edge of your desktop. if so, you can access the right-click menu even if you have a window maximized. if you edit that menu, you can add a folder called Tasks that will display all the running tasks (open windows). very handy addition to emerge tasks when you start to get a lot of windows open at once. your screen looks great! and i agree that objectdock (or rocketdock, or rklauncher) is better than emerge launcher.

but if you really want to complete your new emerge system, go get a program called Launchy (or Keybreeze, which has more features, but is less pretty and slightly more irritating to use because its demand for perfect spelling).

and HG_Eliminator, well what can i say, i'm just not a very classy guy. anyway it's not like emerge is real competition for stardock. you are all about eye candy, while emerge focuses on simplicity an ease of use. don't get me wrong, i ran the stardock suite for ages, and loved it, but my computer is getting on in years, and i can't afford a new one, so i've switched my focus from a pretty desktop to a useful one so i can better use my RAM on other things. anyway, emerge is not 'my' product. i just like it.



um, what insult did i use? oh yeah, i said you were not very classy. no wait, that was you. hang on, i can do this! was it when i called desktopx memory intensive? that must be it. or maybe it was when i referred to Chasbo's condescending post as 'garbage'. on that note, when was i ever more condescending than the sentence i quote from you above?

finally, what is 'original' about litestep? sure it's been around for over 10 years, but there were literally dozens of shell replacements available before it. even Norton made one way back in the win 3.x days. anyway Litestep really can't make a desktop like the OP was after...

is it really imprudent to exercise free speech, and to promote change and self-directed thought? i suppose that's why governments kill people. thanks friend, it's all coming together so clearly now. you may have saved me undue hardship. in fact, the time may come where i can rightly say i owe you my life. but then again, i might not heed your advice. i might get really evil, and to to a photoshop forum to promote gimp!

the way i see it, desktopx is capable of hiding explorer, then emulating a minimalist environment in lieu of said shell; conversely, emerge is what desktopx can only imitate. imitation may well be the best form of flattery, but why pay for an imitation when the real thing is free?

but perhaps we are going about this all wrong. perhaps the best solution here is to suggest to the OP that he install both, thereby gaining the advantages of each piece of software. emerge would give him with the productive, minimalist shell environment he is after, then desktopx can use all the leftover memory to clutter everything up with clocks and calendars and lasers and dancing bears. now that's a party that could last all night!

yours truly, and with a plethora of social niceties,
an imprudent, software slighting boy with little or no class.

I found it interesting so I spent some time with it......your first comment looks factual, I haven't tried everything possible but memory load seems to be an improvement.....one reason shell replacements have kinda fallen by the wayside is the fact that ram is so cheap and memory management so much better than pre-WinXP.

The second statement so far I cannot agree with. It does have potential but I can't say that it's more flexible or customizable than DX. DX is more "eye candy" whereas this is a true shell replacement. Here again you have to weigh the impact of DX on performance over it's abilities. All in all I like what I see for an open source program it's a pretty good option.

I think it's still got a ways to go before it's as good as Aston or Winstep but then again it's free. It also needs to address Vista or it will be no more than a footnote in the market. As this site's all about customization thanks for pointing it out.

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.
Your view of the types of desktops you can build with the application itself should not be coloured or limited by the kind of content put out by the more artistic and intrepid users. You can just as easily make your desktop as minimalistic and easy-to-use as anything you could build in Emerge.

As garbanz0 pointed out, the real issue now is determining which application you find suits your own needs and requirements better.

Good luck.

garbanz0 it's not territorialism but, merely differences of opinion. Just because someone doesn't agree with you doesn't make them a fanboy either. In fact many of the posters in this thread are as hard on Stardock about some of the issues/shortcoming of DesktopX.

Once and awhile I run DesktopX without explorer. While this isn't a true shell replacement it is significantly easier on resources plus more flexible than most shell replacements in my opinion.

I would like to know if there are any of these shells that support scripting? That IMO where the flexibility is in DesktopX. Yes, I would like to do hard coding but, being on dial up makes it impossible to download any of the free or open source development tools.

I would be interested in what you found that the emerge menu could do that right-click cannot. Right Click has support for embedded gadgets, RSS feeds, and scripting via plugins which Emerge does not. Both have the ability to show running tasks, but Right Click can also show the System Tray.....please enlighten me....

what it didn't do was work smoothly. at least not with emerge. when i tried to bring up the menu, it would either flicker and go out, or i would get two menus at once - the regular rightclick menu, plus the 'add items' menu. the system tray function showed 2 out of the 7 items in my tray, even when i select 'expand tray'. and the taskbar item filled the whole menu with buttons, but in emerge, it makes a nice, clean pop-out menu. overall emerge's menu is quicker and leaner - that's what i am looking for. plus, the biggest thing that emerge's menu does that stardock's doesn't is that it provides me with what i want for $0 instead of $10. every little bit counts.

edit - i just tried it with explorer. the system tray function worked there, kind of. it was pretty buggy, but at least all my icons showed up. biggest problem is that when you tell it to take away your taskbar, it doesn't reserve part of the desktop, so you have to access the menu via a hotkey. if i'm on the keyboard, i don't use the right-click menu, i use launchy. i only use the menu when i am using a mouse-intensive program and don't want to switch to the keyboard to open a folder or bring up a program quickly. so why would i want to use a hotkey to bring up a mouse menu??

sure i could install objectdock and let it reserve the desktop, but that would just be another program installed that i really don't need. so thanks, but i'm going to stick with what works for me.