Switcher Bar

jim.dvorak · 10-07-05, 07:19 AM

Ok, I upgraded from A04 to A04 WM 2003 SE yesterday. Now I cannot find switcher bar, which used to be in the Settings | System area. It wasn't a separate install from the CD was it? Did Dell reomove it? Where can I get it?

**Frenchy** · 10-07-05, 07:23 AM

Mine is there and I have A05. Did you look for the program in \Windows folder?

jim.dvorak · 10-07-05, 07:26 AM

I see it there. Thanks!

**Frenchy** · 10-07-05, 07:33 AM

You are very welcome

flosfer · 10-08-05, 07:03 AM

Or you could discard switcher & use vBar from vieka.com.

**ksong12** · 10-08-05, 08:13 AM

Great idea!!!

Jukov · 10-08-05, 08:16 AM

or use MagicButton

d0pefish · 10-10-05, 02:20 AM

SmallMenu is another one which is reasonably good - http://tillanosoft.com/ce/smenu.html

Though I'm going to check out vBar, as SmallMenu is a pay program if you want it to be accessible from the top taskbar, otherwise you can use the free version and bind it to a hardware button - I don't really like that though.

Switcher Bar is a bit horrible... yuck. It's pixel-doubled (not VGA aware), gets in the way (covers up the program title area), and seems a bit buggy to me. I'll have a look at vBar, it looks quite good. I liked Pocket Plus's way of doing it, but Pocket Plus seems like a bit of a resource hog.

flosfer · 10-10-05, 08:42 AM

vBar is nice because it can put a dual battery/memory indicator at the top of the screen; tapping the indicator gives you a list of running programs which you can switch to or stop; and it makes the "X" at the top right of a program's screen mean Quit. Oh, and you can customize colors and icons, among other things.

jim.dvorak · 10-10-05, 06:51 PM

Actually, I switched to Magic Button. So far, I like it. Seemed a bit strange at first, but now I am getting used to it.

Xelkos · 10-10-05, 07:40 PM

Pocket Plus as a nice way of switching and closing, tho seems to not be as responsive/quick as Magic Button.

d0pefish · 10-11-05, 01:40 AM

Yeah, I agree. I would prefer something that doesnt put extra buttons all over the place and clutter my taskbar. I like the way you can just tap 'n hold close and get a menu with Pocket Plus, or tap 'n drag down to do a quick close on the current program. It's a shame we can't have that part of P+ separately... that's pretty much the only thing I want out of Pocket Plus.

I checked out VBar and hmmmmmmmmm... it's okay, but I wish the author would sort out the colour guessing code. It's a bit of a pain to have to work out the background colour by yourself and punch it in every time you switch to a new theme. Still, for the program's size - and freeware - it's pretty good. I hope the author updates it or something.

Are there any other task switchers that I haven't heard of yet? (So that's apart from Pocket Plus, Vbar, Magic button and SmallMenu)