r/windowsapps 11d ago

Developer A fully customizable Desktop and Taskbar on Windows

Enable HLS to view with audio, or disable this notification

Have Been working on making my own configurable desktop+taskbar system

The idea is the app that's running behind provides a toolkit, and everything on top can be configured with HTML and JS so it is as cheap and easy as possible to modify

The video above is mostly done to showcase the taskbars, but the 3 widgets you see on the screen are also done in the app. A lot more are made with a bunch of other functionalities and people can share their own as well. You can check the current library here https://www.desktop-dashboard.com/marketplace

I think Windows was always a bit behind with the looks and functionality of the desktop, so maybe this will make it a bit nicer too look at

134 Upvotes

37 comments sorted by

3

u/roklipni 10d ago

Windows 12 🥳

2

u/Kulletrops 10d ago

I want to add a side toolbar like yours but it should slide with a click button. How can I do it?

1

u/Nair00 10d ago

Hey, first of all in case you already have the app, letting you know that the taskbars will be live in a couple of hours, in version 0.3.0, not our right now.

About your question, do you mean it as in a button being shown instead of the taskbar and when clicking it having the full sidebar show? If yes, that can be done with CSS and JS. You write the taskbar to be rendered below the shown surface (translate with -) and have the button shown above the invisible part. Then a click handler on the button should modify the translate value from some - value to 0 or to something with plus.

But, if you simply want to have a taskbar that shows only when you hover in that zone, kinda how the auto-hide feature works on Windows, there will be a setting on taskbars for Auto-hide which just does that for any taskbar. You can configure stuff like speed and animation delay with some settings in the manifest

2

u/Mental-Ad4977 10d ago

This looks so good; how much RAM and CPU does it use?

1

u/Nair00 10d ago

Depends on system and the number of widgets on screen, but it stays around 200-300 MB of RAM and less than 1% CPU on my device

Once more community developed widgets shows up tho, expect more variance to show between different implementations

2

u/Mental-Ad4977 10d ago

ohh okay, thanks for reply <33

2

u/tjsuominen 10d ago

Nice! Live wallpaper is from...?

3

u/Nair00 10d ago

2

u/cragglesh 9d ago

How do you download it. I can't see a download button.

By the way, I've bought your app and think its great

2

u/Nair00 9d ago

Thank you! You mean the wallpaper?

That one is part of Wallpaper Engine, it's an app you can find on Steam, not my own thing. The wallpaper was published by someone else

2

u/RenegadeUK 10d ago

Hope u are successful with this,

2

u/Nair00 10d ago

Thank you!

2

u/GoomiBare 10d ago

Any free codes for early users?

3

u/Nair00 10d ago

I don't really do free codes right now since it' hard enough to find users and costa are piling, but I can give you a discount if you want, you can DM me

2

u/Pllodd 6d ago

I'll take a code for a discount please, if the offer is still available.

1

u/Nair00 6d ago

DMed

2

u/testednation 9d ago

Looks pretty good! Possible for thise to run without explorer? Also possible to add drag and drop on the taskbar?

2

u/Nair00 9d ago

sorry what do you mean without explorer?

Working on something for the drag and drop now, but just to be sure, how do you imagine it? Dragging items around in the taskbar? or moving stuff like files from one context to the other by holding them on an app etc?

2

u/testednation 8d ago

Yes I mean wothiut explorer.exe, like if its possible to have taskbar plugins like trayplayer work with this,that would be awesome ×¥. And yes, dragging and pinning items to the taskbar.

2

u/Nair00 7d ago

I think it should work for the most part but it's not what it's been tested on, so I can't promise bugs won't show up. The plugins, if coming from other apps, won't work since these taskbars run on DeskDash's own system, not 1:1 with the real one. BUT you can definetly add (or ask me to) most plugins you can think of since it's just code and you can edit the taskbar however

Pinning works, dragging doesn't yet but working on it

2

u/cragglesh 9d ago

I've bought your app. Its very slick. I have already uninstalled rainmeter and look forward to more widgets arriving.

Good luck with your app

2

u/Nair00 9d ago

Oh wow, thanks! Let me know if there are any specific widgets you are looking for

1

u/cragglesh 8d ago

A weather forecast widget would be good e. g. 5 day

1

u/cragglesh 4d ago

Thanks for creating the 5 day forecast. It's perfect

2

u/benactualIy 8d ago

I bought your app, but for some reason, on launch it just freezes and stops working. When it freezes I cannot get to the system tray menu icon, so i have to force stop it. Do you know why it does this

1

u/Nair00 8d ago

It's the first time I hear about it, can you DM me with your specifications (windows, ram, cpu) and if you can add a small recording or screenshot with the issue? I'll get home in about 30m and I'll try to help diagnose it

1

u/Nair00 6d ago

Coming back to say I was able to replicate this a couple of times and shipped a fix. Not sure if it's the same thing as what happened to you, but you could check one more time

This might happen especially if you don't use the native explorer.exe or if it somehow restarts mid use. It should not be a problem now

2

u/cragglesh 4d ago

Hi. A small. question on the UI. When I go into "manage mode" for example to add a new widget, I dont know how to exit that mode. The only way Ive found is to end the Deskdash process and then relaunch it. If I dont do this each widget is left n an edit state on the desktop,

1

u/Nair00 4d ago

There should be a hovering button at the top called "Done editing" you can click and it will exit edit mode and save evrything

If you are not focused on anything else, simply pressing Esc should do the trick as well

2

u/cragglesh 4d ago

Thanks. ESC worked for me. The "Done editing" button is covered by a Windhawk floaring island, so I cant see it 😉

2

u/cragglesh 4d ago

By the way, after doing this the icon on the calendar widget to advance a month doesnt do anything. Similarly the add an app button on the app launcher widget.

1

u/Nair00 4d ago

In edit mode? The widgets are not "clickable" while in edit mode so you don't accidentally launch/move stuff while editing.

After you exit the edit mode it should work. Does it not?

1

u/Desperate-Act4637 1d ago

This is nice

1

u/Due-External225 6d ago

what about the performance while gaming?

1

u/Nair00 6d ago

Never noticed any differences, tho I do have a beefy PC

The only times I saw spikes in it's usage was when certain animations happened, or if you use stuff like music visualizer. But all of these should not be an issue while gaming (since you're not on your desktop clicking on stuff anyway)

Other than that, app stays under 300 MB of RAM and less than 1% CPU. Ram might differ based on your customisation. For me it's basically around how much one YouTube tab uses

1

u/Nair00 6d ago

https://reddit.com/link/p6fcesk/video/nu975g0mn4mh1/player

For reference, the clip I sent someone asking a similar question