Extra Buttons, Add Functionality To Windows

Martin Brinkmann
Dec 17, 2010
Software, Windows, Windows software
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4

The window header has not changed a lot in the past decade. It still shows the minimize, maximize and close buttons next to the window title. That's it usually which often leaves lots of white space on the title bar.

Extra buttons is a convenient solution that uses the space to add functionality to those windows. It integrates perfectly with the window design, making it difficulty to distinguish between native buttons and new buttons that have been added by the free software program. That's at least true if the window uses the standard Windows color scheme and not a custom skin.

Even better; It is possible to remove items that are not needed from the title bar to concentrate on some of the buttons and functions only.

The available buttons are the following:

  • Send to tray
  • Send to tray menu
  • Send to box
  • Roll up / Unroll
  • Always on top
  • Send to Back
  • Transparency
  • Adjust transparency
  • Copy window

Some require explanation. The first two options, to minimize the window to the system tray or system tray menu does the following. If send to the tray individually it shows up as an icon there. The tray menu offers to place multiple icons in one menu to save space there.

Send to box offers a similar concept as the free software Fences, albeit in a simplistic form. It can be used to place windows in arrangements on the Windows desktop.

Send to back places the selected window beneath other open windows on the desktop.

Copy window finally launches a copy of the window if possible which can be very convenient in certain situations.

Buttons can be removed and added again in the program options which are accessible from the system tray.

The program adds the functionality to the window title right-click menu as well, again with options to only display select items from the available ones.

Another feature of Extra Buttons is the ability to configure keyboard shortcuts (hotkeys) for every action.

Now on to the problems. The tool displayed buttons fine in some windows, for instance in Firefox or Thunderbird. It did not display buttons in Google Chrome or Windows Explorer. Windows Explorer may be a restart issue but I'm not sure about that. Another problem was that buttons sometimes took time to move to the new location, especially after resizing windows. The last problem I encountered was that the hotkeys did not work, no matter what I tried to make them work.

I have tested the software on a Windows 7 Professional 64-bit system. Extra Buttons could become an interesting convenient service for Windows users, if the developers manage to sort out the bugs that I have encountered (provided that they are general bugs and not only on my system).

Users who want to give it a try can download Extra Buttons from the developer homepage. (via)

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Comments

  1. Alex Skrypnyk said on December 20, 2010 at 1:15 pm
    Reply

    Hi Martin

    I am one of the developers of this application and I would like to thank you for the great review.

    We know that our application contains some bugs and I’d like to inform all our users that we are currently working on new release with bugfixes and more features.

    Alex Skrypnyk
    xtrabuttons.com

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