shopping@acessford.co.uk

Join Date 09/2017

Add icons

Hi, Although I have selected Fences as the Category above, this is not exactly the area of help I need. I have always been prepared to purchase updates for programs which I especially like and use a lot. However Stardock has thrown me a curved ball. Even though the program in question is one is not a free version, but is one I have paid full price for twice, (to purchase a licence to use it on a second computer), Stardock appear to have discontinued it, (which is their prerogative of course), but do not even include a community forum to support those who, like me, find one of their older programs still excellent. I do not want to purchase Object Desktop because it is a suite of programs none of which, with one exception, I would find useful. The one exception is Fences, it being the nearest to what I already have. However, I do not want to purchase that either because the way that it works is not at all as convenient as the old program which I purchased, and which I really would appreciate just a very little help with. You may well have guessed that I am referring to ObjectDock. This program, with its "Apple-like" Quicklaunch Dock, and its Tabbed Dock (both of which I use to organise my shortcuts to programs and folders is superb and has always worked perfectly. It's only very small glitch, which it has suddenly developed, is that whilst still operating correctly - the Tabbed Dock now won't allow me to add shortcuts to three more new programs which I bought this week. Strangely, it DOES allow me to add these new shortcuts to the QuickLaunch Dock, but as that is what I reserve for very frequently used apps, (and in any case, is rather full), I want to add these new ones to the the Tabbed Dock where I keep the programs that are important to me but which I don't use every day. The method of adding to this Dock is simply drag and drop from the computer desktop, but when the mouse pointer carrying the shortcut arrives over the Tabbed Dock it turns into a black circle with a diagonal black line across it, indicating that the action is not permitted. Given that Stardock doesn't offer any other forum for ObjectDock issues, I would be very grateful if someone on here could perhaps give me some suggestions.

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basj

Join Date 03/2001

+1684

Hello,
Sorry to hear you are having issues. Yes, it is sad that ObjectDock on longer supported for Windows 10. And it development is current on halt. Someone might come along and suggest a solution or alternative for you.

Thanks
Basj,
Stardock Community Assistant.

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Thanks Basj, appreciated.

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Jafo

Join Date 03/2001

+1846

You might want to look at the properties of the Shortcut Icon you are trying to add to OD. Perhaps any relevant compatibility modes...as OD was for an OS well prior to 10 ...

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Hi Jafo, thank you for your kind suggestion. Although I have been using computers for well over 40 years - so I am a very experienced user, nevertheless when it comes to technical things it is still possible for me to come unstuck at a relatively basic level, so I might display an amusing level of ignorance which you may need to rescue me from !

Ok, so the latest three programs which I am attempting to add to OD's Tabbed Dock are all apps in Serif's Affinity range, Serif being a UK company. As a very long time user of their products I also own their now obsolete Plus range products. I'm telling you that because all four Plus apps are happily sitting on the Tabbed Dock and work correctly from it.

To test your suggestion, I re-created a shortcut icon onto the computer desktop of one those old apps, PagePlusX9. I then right-clicked to get Properties of it. On the Compatibility tab, the top text reads as follows: "If this program isn't working correctly on this version of Windows, trying running the compatibility troubleshooter." I don't need to do that as it, and it's other three sister apps all work correctly. I'm running Windows 64-bit OS x64-based processor, Edition Windows 10 Pro, Version 20H2, with the Windows Feature Experience Pack.

All three of the new Serif apps also work correctly on my machine - they were built from scratch and released as an entirely new range for both Mac and Win10 machines quite late in 2014 - with their predecessors, the Plus range, being discontinued, as I've indicated.

With reference to your mention of compatibility modes, as a double check, I've opened Properties on Affinity Photo as well as PPX9. As you can see in the screenshot below, both are set the same in the Compatibility mode section - ie. NOT ticked, so neither Win8, (or any of the earlier versions in the drop-down menus, - Vista, Win7, etc) have been applied to either app.

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In an attempt to work around the original issue that I raised about Object Dock's Tabbed Dock not accepting additional icons dragged into it from the computer desktop, I've dug into C: Program Files (x86) where Stardock->ObjectDock is launched from. I was specifically looking for the folder where Object Dock looks in order to know what icons to display in its Tabbed Dock, (and its Quicklaunch Dock for that matter.

My idea was to test whether I could add new icons by dropping them into the folder where Object Dock is already getting its existing icons from. This failed! It failed because nowhere in this location was a store of my added icons. The nearest I got was to find optional icons to add, should I wish, that launched "Applications", or "Misc Icons", both of those being folders containing icons.

Just in case this may be a productive avenue to pursue, and someone with better programming knowledge than my non-existent knowledge may be able to suggest something, here below are two screenshots of that (x86)folder.

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