[Final Update] Windows 7 Taskbar-Minimalistic

[picea892]

Minor edits:April 05th, 2009 - Fixed clock, winexist error

[FINAL UPDATE: APRIL 02, 2009] Entire script rewritting using GDI+ and layering. This version has grouped buttons and eye candy. hover and press left and right buttons, Alt+# or simply use mouse wheel to navigate windows. Due to the significant change in this script, I am leaving the previous version up if some prefers that one. Feedback always appreciated

Picea

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March 27th Update

I am quite pleased at how the new window preview turned out. If you have taken a look at this script before, I strongly encourage you to try it again.

Improvements (see screenshot for summary):

1) Icon button hover generates window preview

On window preview

- Right click black taskbar turns off always on top

- Left click black taskbar turns on always on top

- Left click red X closes window

- Left click preview toggles restore/maximize

- Right click preview minimizes

2) Alt+# will activate window of corresponding icon

3) Shift+Click Icon button will open new program (from same exe)

4) Left click Icon button will activate window

5) Right click icon button will minimize window

6) Minimized windows will only show black taskbar and close button. Clicking on the fake taskbar will behave as is you clicked on preview (minimize, toggle state)

7) Now sorted by process name

I attempted to make this program fast and low on resources, so previews are only refreshed when a window is opened or closed or a window is activated from a minimized state via a button or alt key.

One think you might note. Clicks are checked for every 100 ms. Apparently I sometimes click faster than this and it doesn't register. This is easily changed, but if set to 50ms will likely change the CPU usage from 0% to 3 or 4%

One last tip. Put this script in it's own folder. It will generate temporary jpg files of each window and save it to the script directory. If you run it from the desktop you will have some temp files to clean up

I think that is about it. As always, please suggest new ideas, better methods or grab it and run with it and tweak as you like. I tried to keep the code well commented and easy to follow

Enjoy!

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Previous updates.

UPDATED March 13th

Significant Update March 15th

Hi everyone

This is my first script that I have posted to the forum. It was inspired by Mr. Creator's Imitation Taskbar. I was unable to tweak his script the way I wanted to and so made my own. What does it do?

The latest update of March 15th is a significant improvement and a bit of a rewrite. I believe it works flawlessly now.

Features:

1) Alt+Number will activate window associated with icon or minimize window if presently active.

2) Mouse hover of icons will now result in a "peek" experience and produce a tooltip. If the window associated with the icon is not minimized, all other windows become semi-transparent and the window is shown.

3) Left click icon activates window, right click icon to minimize window

4) Icons are sorted by memory usage

5) Ctrl+Shift+` will exit script

6) To refresh icons press ` Otherwise icons only refreshed when window opened or closed.

Again, I could have muddied the waters and added many _ispresseds and hotkeysets but I want to keep this pure for simplicity. I experimented with grouping icons the way Windows 7 does it and have had some success, though it's not completed. I'm undecided whether that is good funtionality or not.

I would love thoughts on improvements/requests or if someone wants to take the bull by the horns and do it, even better. This will likely be the last update for a while. I have to use it for a while to see how it can be improved.

Finally, I want the community to know there are portions of this script that I obtained from the forums. I would give credit to those individuals now. Pieces I did not create:

1) Mask to hide GUI

2) Process get icon

3) the winlist exclusions list method which everything is built upon.

4) The great code provided below.

I hope you like it as much as I do, look forward to seeing whatever tweaks people will make. I have never used windows 7 beta so don't know close or far I am.

Thanks

updates

PicV1.au3

finalversion2.zip

Edited April 6, 2009 by picea892

[FireFox]

@picea892

Screenshot ?

Cheers, FireFox.

[picea892]

Here you go. Not really much to look at.

Should mention I developed it for Windows XP so not sure how it will behave on Vista

[FireFox]

@picea892

Its a good idea, its just the start; i think i will add some features, improvements on it

Cheers, FireFox.

[GEOSoft]

The best part of Windows 7 is the taskbar, hands down

Some people might disagree with that. It's okay at high resolution but otherwise it's not great. Under any circumstaces it's not as good as what the Mac uses. Edited March 12, 2009 by GEOSoft

[James]

Some people might disagree with that. It's okay at high resolution but otherwise it's not great. Under any circumstaces it's not as good as what the Mac uses.

Someone had to mention that.

[Achilles]

Works decent...

Here's some suggestions:

-Have it adapt to screen size, with my 1680x1050 this thing was sitting a little below the middle of my desktop

-Add tooltips over the buttons that display the full name of the window

Edit:

Here's a better GetYear() function:

Return StringRight(@YEAR, 2)

Edited March 13, 2009 by Achilles

[WideBoyDixon]

This is very nice. I hope you continue to work on and improve it. One thing I did notice is that you're using multiple windx() functions when you could just use one and check the @HotKeyPressed value to determine which application to activate. Something like this:

If $aRetWinList[0][1] < 10 And $aRetWinList[0][1] > 1 Then HotKeySet("!" & $i, "windx")
If $aRetWinList[0][1] = 10 Then HotKeySet("#0", "windx")

...

Func windx()
    If @HotKeyPressed = "#0" Then
        WinActivate($aRetWinList[2][0], "")
    Else
        WinActivate($aRetWinList[Int(StringMid(@HotKeyPressed, 2, 1))][0], "")
    EndIf
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% ¤°Ðä¬5½¡]d¬Ô°Ü¤¤)¹Õ¹ìôôÐíÑå=]¬()Õ¹Ñ5½¹Ñ  ¤(%IÑÕɸ}]¥¹A%}Ñ1½±%¹¼¡}]¥¹A%}ÑUÍÉÕ±Ñ1
% ¤°Øܬ5=8¤)¹Õ¹ìôôÐíÑ5½¹Ñ ()Õ¹ÑåÈ ¤(%IÑÕɸMÑÉ¥¹I¥¡Ð¡eH°È¤)¹Õ¹ìôôÐíÑåÈ()Õ¹}]¥¹A%}Ñ1½±%¹¼ ÀÌØí1½±°ÀÌØí1
QåÁ¤(%1½°ÀÌØíIÍÕ±Ðô±±
±° ÅÕ½Ðí­É¹°Ìȹ±°ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½ÐíÑ1½±%¹¼ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÀÌØí1½±°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÀÌØí1
QåÁ°ÅÕ½ÐíÁÑÈÅÕ½Ðì°À°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°À¤(%%ÉɽÈQ¡¸IÑÕɸMÑÉÉ½È Ä°À°ÅÕ½ÐìÅÕ½Ðì¤(%1½°ÀÌØí±Á   ÕÈô±±MÑÉÕÑ
ÉÑ ÅÕ½Ðí¡ÉlÅÕ½ÐìµÀìÀÌØíIÍÕ±ÑlÁtµÀìÅÕ½ÐítÅÕ½Ðì¤($ÀÌØíIÍÕ±Ðô±±
±° ÅÕ½Ðí­É¹°Ìȹ±°ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½ÐíÑ1½±%¹¼ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÀÌØí1½±°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÀÌØí1
QåÁ°ÅÕ½ÐíÁÑÈÅÕ½Ðì°±±MÑÉÕÑÑAÑÈ ÀÌØí±Á    ÕȤ°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÀÌØíIÍÕ±ÑlÁt¤(%%ÉɽÈ=È ÀÌØíIÍÕ±ÑlÁtôÀ¤Q¡¸IÑÕɸMÑÉÉ½È Ä°À°ÅÕ½ÐìÅÕ½Ðì¤(%IÑÕɸMÑÉÉ½È À°À°±±MÑÉÕÑÑÑ ÀÌØí±Á  ÕȰĤ¤)¹Õ¹()Õ¹}]¥¹A%}ÑUÍÉÕ±Ñ1
% ¤(%1½°ÀÌØíIÍÕ±Ðô±±
±° ÅÕ½Ðí­É¹°Ìȹ±°ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½Ðí±½¹ÅÕ½Ðì°ÅÕ½ÐíÑUÍÉÕ±Ñ1
%ÅÕ½Ðì¤ìÐÑ¡Õ±Ð1
%½ÈÑ¡¥ÌÕÍÈ(%%ÉɽÈQ¡¸IÑÕɸMÑÉÉ½È Ä°À°À¤(%IÑÕɸMÑÉÉ½È À°À°ÀÌØíIÍÕ±ÑlÁt¤)¹Õ¹

Regards,

WBD

Edited March 13, 2009 by WideBoyDixon

[Kip]

The best part of Windows 7 is the taskbar,

Did you mean: The worst part?

[picea892]

Hi again

Thanks for such great ideas and code.

I have made the alterations asked for (see original post)

The Tooltip was actually a bit of a challenge. Since the buttons can change ever 300ms I couldn't use the GUICTRLSETTIP function so used tooltips. My toolbar was picking up the tooltip so had to isolate the handle and exclude.

A problem I've noticed but am having difficulty fixing is when you have all but one window minimized you can't minimize the last window. I'll look into it further this weekend.

Thanks again

[picea892]

Script works flawlessly now and has many new functions including a "peek" clone.

Likely will be the last update for a while.

Enjoy

[James]

New screenshot?

[picea892]

Okay

Original post edited.

New screenshot showing peek and toolbar added

Edited March 15, 2009 by picea892

[James]

Instead of the date being a button, can it not be a label?

[picea892]

Instead of the date being a button, can it not be a label?

Sure could, just change line 16 to this

$date = GUICtrlCreatelabel("taskbar", @DesktopWidth-221, 8, 211, 25,$SS_SUNKEN)

Maybe I'm not artistic enough, but never have much luck in making labels look very nice. If you have a nice looking label format, colour etc. Please share.

I guess boring gray buttons get old fast

[Kip]

The best part of the windows 7 taskbar are the visuals, and that's missing here.

I advise you to use this script to do that:

expandcollapse popup

#include <GDIPlus.au3>
#include <WindowsConstants.au3>
#include <GuiConstantsEx.au3>


_GDIPlus_Startup()

$pngSrc = @ScriptDir & "\LaunchySkin.png"
    $GUI = _GUICreate_Alpha("Title", $pngSrc)
GUISetState()


While 1
    $msg = GUIGetMsg()
    Select
        Case $msg = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE
            ExitLoop
    EndSelect
WEnd

_GDIPlus_Shutdown()


Func _GUICreate_Alpha($sTitle, $sPath, $iX=-1, $iY=-1, $iOpacity=255)
    Local $hGUI, $hImage, $hScrDC, $hMemDC, $hBitmap, $hOld, $pSize, $tSize, $pSource, $tSource, $pBlend, $tBlend
    
    $hImage = _GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile($sPath)
    $width = _GDIPlus_ImageGetWidth($hImage)
    $height = _GDIPlus_ImageGetHeight($hImage)
    
    $hGUI = GUICreate($sTitle, $width, $height, $iX, $iY, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_LAYERED)
    
    $hScrDC = _WinAPI_GetDC(0)
    $hMemDC = _WinAPI_CreateCompatibleDC($hScrDC)
    $hBitmap = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateHBITMAPFromBitmap($hImage)
    $hOld = _WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hBitmap)
    $tSize = DllStructCreate($tagSIZE)
    $pSize = DllStructGetPtr($tSize)
    DllStructSetData($tSize, "X", $width)
    DllStructSetData($tSize, "Y", $height)
    $tSource = DllStructCreate($tagPOINT)
    $pSource = DllStructGetPtr($tSource)
    $tBlend = DllStructCreate($tagBLENDFUNCTION)
    $pBlend = DllStructGetPtr($tBlend)
    DllStructSetData($tBlend, "Alpha", $iOpacity)
    DllStructSetData($tBlend, "Format", 1)
    _WinAPI_UpdateLayeredWindow($hGUI, $hScrDC, 0, $pSize, $hMemDC, $pSource, 0, $pBlend, 2)
    _WinAPI_ReleaseDC(0, $hScrDC)
    _WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hOld)
    _WinAPI_DeleteObject($hBitmap)
    _WinAPI_DeleteObject($hImage)
    _WinAPI_DeleteDC($hMemDC)
EndFunc;==>SetBitmap (lod3n)

[picea892]

Hi Kip

Thanks for your interest and for the script. It's a quick and easy demo of alpha blending. I looked into the functions a bit more using the forum and the helpfile and did some fiddling with it. I'm starting to think from this research that this script would only work on a png. Do you think this is right?

The only way I could see this working would be to extract the icon from the exe and save it to a temp file as a png. I have no clue how one would do this and seems that every post on the forum points to external programs as the solution.

Am I missing something, can you point me in the right direction if I am?

Below is a barebones script I was playing with, just so you can see what I am talking about. Make sure notepad is open and the turn on and off the four lines I flagged.

Picea

Ps: I have to agree that this is missing the eye candy of Windows 7. It would be great to add some of that.....somehow.

CODE

#include <Array.au3>

#include <Winapi.au3>

#include<Misc.au3>

#include <Process.au3>

#include <StaticConstants.au3>

#include <GuiConstants.au3>

#include <ButtonConstants.au3>

#include <WindowsConstants.au3>

#include <GUIConstantsEx.au3>

#include <GDIPlus.au3>

_GDIPlus_Startup()

$pngSrc = _ProcessGetIcon(_ProcessGetName (WinGetProcess ("Untitled - Notepad")))

GUISetIcon($pngSrc)

;MsgBox(0,"",$pngSrc)

; Make sure notepad is open first

;;;;;;;;;;;Turn these one for alpha blending way (Not working);;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;$GUI = _GUICreate_Alpha("Title", $pngSrc)

;$n1 = GUICtrlCreateIcon($pngSrc, -1, 0, 0, 32, 32)

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;End;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;turn these on for old way;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

$hGUI = GUICreate("", @DesktopWidth, 34,10,@DesktopHeight-35, $WS_POPUP)

$button=GUICtrlCreateRadio("", @DesktopWidth-215, 0, 205, 32,BitOr($BS_PUSHLIKE, $BS_ICON))

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;End;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

GUICtrlSetImage(-1, $pngSrc, 0)

GUISetState()

While 1

$msg = GUIGetMsg()

Select

Case $msg = $GUI_EVENT_CLOSE

ExitLoop

EndSelect

WEnd

_GDIPlus_Shutdown()

Func _ProcessGetIcon($vProcess)

Local $iPID = ProcessExists($vProcess)

If Not $iPID Then Return SetError(1, 0, -1)

Local $aProc = DllCall('kernel32.dll', 'hwnd', 'OpenProcess', 'int', BitOR(0x0400, 0x0010), 'int', 0, 'int', $iPID)

If Not IsArray($aProc) Or Not $aProc[0] Then Return SetError(2, 0, -1)

Local $vStruct = DllStructCreate('int[1024]')

Local $hPsapi_Dll = DllOpen('Psapi.dll')

If $hPsapi_Dll = -1 Then $hPsapi_Dll = DllOpen(@SystemDir & '\Psapi.dll')

If $hPsapi_Dll = -1 Then $hPsapi_Dll = DllOpen(@WindowsDir & '\Psapi.dll')

If $hPsapi_Dll = -1 Then Return SetError(3, 0, '')

DllCall($hPsapi_Dll, 'int', 'EnumProcessModules', _

'hwnd', $aProc[0], _

'ptr', DllStructGetPtr($vStruct), _

'int', DllStructGetSize($vStruct), _

'int_ptr', 0)

Local $aRet = DllCall($hPsapi_Dll, 'int', 'GetModuleFileNameEx', _

'hwnd', $aProc[0], _

'int', DllStructGetData($vStruct, 1), _

'str', '', _

'int', 2048)

DllClose($hPsapi_Dll)

If Not IsArray($aRet) Or StringLen($aRet[3]) = 0 Then Return SetError(4, 0, '')

Return $aRet[3]

EndFunc

Func _GUICreate_Alpha($sTitle, $sPath, $iX=-1, $iY=-1, $iOpacity=235)

Local $hGUI, $hImage, $hScrDC, $hMemDC, $hBitmap, $hOld, $pSize, $tSize, $pSource, $tSource, $pBlend, $tBlend

$hImage = _GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile($sPath)

$width = _GDIPlus_ImageGetWidth($hImage)

$height = _GDIPlus_ImageGetHeight($hImage)

$hGUI = GUICreate($sTitle, @DesktopWidth, 34,10,@DesktopHeight-35, $WS_POPUP, $WS_EX_LAYERED)

$hScrDC = _WinAPI_GetDC(0)

$hMemDC = _WinAPI_CreateCompatibleDC($hScrDC)

$hBitmap = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateHBITMAPFromBitmap($hImage)

$hOld = _WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hBitmap)

$tSize = DllStructCreate($tagSIZE)

$pSize = DllStructGetPtr($tSize)

DllStructSetData($tSize, "X", 32)

DllStructSetData($tSize, "Y", 32)

$tSource = DllStructCreate($tagPOINT)

$pSource = DllStructGetPtr($tSource)

$tBlend = DllStructCreate($tagBLENDFUNCTION)

$pBlend = DllStructGetPtr($tBlend)

DllStructSetData($tBlend, "Alpha", $iOpacity)

DllStructSetData($tBlend, "Format", 1)

_WinAPI_UpdateLayeredWindow($hGUI, $hScrDC, 0, $pSize, $hMemDC, $pSource, 0, $pBlend, 2)

_WinAPI_ReleaseDC(0, $hScrDC)

_WinAPI_SelectObject($hMemDC, $hOld)

_WinAPI_DeleteObject($hBitmap)

_WinAPI_DeleteObject($hImage)

_WinAPI_DeleteDC($hMemDC)

EndFunc;==>SetBitmap (lod3n)

[picea892]

Hi everyone

I made some pretty neat updates to this script.

Please take a look and give me some advice, thoughts on what it needs......I know it needs eye candy. I'm struggling with that. But the window preview is a good start. Here's a screenshot to get your interest.

Picea

[picea892]

I have completely reworked the script as per Kip's direction. It now uses GDI+, layered windows and the launchy png. It now has eye candy, grouped buttons and maintains the minimalistic look. The toolbar grows and shrinks to accomodate the number of buttons.

I need to thank everyone in the GUI forum who answered my questions and provided great example scripts. Especially Malkey and Yashied. Thanks for the help.

Picea

[picea892]

I've noticed a problem, which I thought I'd let people know. The clock only refreshes when a window is opened and closed. I could set it to refresh once a minute quite easily but the entire toolbar would refresh and make a noticeable flash. I have no other solution to the problem. How do you refresh one guictrl on a layer and none of the others. Anyways if anyone has ideas.......

;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;

I must of been tired yesterday. Anyways the solution is to add this to the while 1 loop

$refreshing=1+$refreshing
    if $refreshing=30 then
        $wactive=WinGetHandle("","")
        
        $a=""
        GUISetIcon($a)
        if @DesktopHeight=1024 then
            $b=0
        Else
            $b=18
        EndIf
        GUICtrlDelete($test)
$test = GUICtrlCreateIcon('', 0, 28, $b, 100, 64)
Setdate($test, 0x373737, $a, 0, 70, 32,Update())
        
    ;refresh()
        WinActivate($wactive,"")
        $refreshing=1
    EndIf

also need to set a global $refreshing=1, $test

I'm not going to tweak the first post for this minor change and leave it to the user to make this change.

Edited April 3, 2009 by picea892