gHacks technology news » screen http://www.ghacks.net A technology blog covering software, mobile phones, gadgets, security, the Internet and other relevant areas. Tue, 24 Nov 2009 11:26:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 en hourly 1 Create No-Go Areas for Maximized Windows http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/13/create-no-go-areas-for-maximized-windows/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/13/create-no-go-areas-for-maximized-windows/#comments Fri, 13 Jun 2008 08:42:33 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=4968 Maximized windows usually cover the whole screen but the taskbar if it is configured to be permanently displayed. The main use of a maximized window is obviously the increased space for the interface of the window or application. The drawback is that it covers every other application or window making them more or less invisible on the desktop. Some users might want to keep another part of their screen from being covered by maximized windows. This can be useful to display always visible widgets, chat interfaces, media player or information on the computer.

Hawkeye ShellInit can create margins on the screen that maximized windows will not cover. The effect is similar to that of the Windows taskbar but more flexible since users can run any kind of application in that area. Hawkeye Shellinit comes with its own basic scripting language that does take a few moments to get used to it. It is not really that complicated but a better help would be really appreciated.

Scripts manage the margins on the screen and everything else related to them. To create a margin the user would use the command Margin, 0, Top, 50. This would create a margin with a height of 50 pixels on the top that no window could penetrate (full screen games can by the way)

shellinit

Another command is being used to add applications that are allowed to cover that area with their window and another to position those windows exactly on the screen. The best way to get started is to load the Watercolor script that resides in the same directory as the main application.

The author added comments to all commands and it’s easy afterward to create your own scripts. Scripts are executed with CTRL R or by clicking on File > Run Script Now. Margins can be destroyed again by using the command Destroy Margin, # where # is the number of the margin used. (That’s the second parameter)

The software has a size of less than 100 Kilobyte and is flexible enough to cover most uses. A more intuitive interface and a tutorial would be nice though.

Tags: , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/06/13/create-no-go-areas-for-maximized-windows/feed/ 0 Reserve Screen Space http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/03/reserve-screen-space/ http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/03/reserve-screen-space/#comments Thu, 03 Apr 2008 20:56:01 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/?p=3708 Have you ever asked yourself if it is possible to add another horizontal or vertical barrier to the screen in Windows ? With another I mean that the taskbar is already something that is always visible unless you start a full screen application. It might be useful to create another area on the screen that is a no-go area for windows of all kind. Could be useful for instance if you want to display widgets in that area, information, to-do lists or everything else that makes sense to be always on top of the screen.

Mouser from Donation Coder created the application Desktop Coral [via Cybernet News] which can reserve part of the screen so that no other window can place itself over that area. Everything gets pushed away from that area once the bar gets docked to the screen and only information that are displayed on the desktop remain.

Even shortcuts are moved from the area. As I said the main use is for widgets or other kind of information that are displayed right on the desktop without windows.

desktop coral

Applications that are started in full screen mode are still displayed in that mode, Desktop Coral is not interfering with them at all. It would be awesome if it would be possible to drop another window or application in the area that is secured by Desktop Coral. This would increase the possibilities quite a bit.

Tags: , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2008/04/03/reserve-screen-space/feed/ 0 Taksi Open Source Alternative to Fraps http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/12/taksi-open-source-alternative-to-fraps/ http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/12/taksi-open-source-alternative-to-fraps/#comments Tue, 12 Dec 2006 13:33:02 +0000 Martin http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/12/taksi-open-source-alternative-to-fraps/ Fraps is a application that lets you capture videos / screens of 3D applications and is mostly used for recording in game movies. The biggest drawback of Fraps is that it is not freeware, you have to purchase it to use all of its features. Taksi steps in and provides a similar functionality with the advantage that it is Open Source, free for everyone to use and download.

The unregistered version of Fraps stops after 30 seconds of recording and adds a Fraps watermark automatically to the captured video. It does not make lots of sense to use this version but for testing purposes. Taksi on the other hand has no such limitations making it an ideal capturing application for everyone who does not want to buy Fraps.

Taksi is able to use installed video codecs to compress the recorded video on the fly which makes it possible to record very long sequences. The biggest drawback is that Taksi will not record audio as well, you need to find a different way to record the audio. (should work with harddisk ogg for example, not tested though). There are no limitations but the space on your hard disk for recording videos.

I hope the Taksi team decides to integrate audio recording to their application, this seems to be the only thing that is missing to make it a great alternative to Fraps.

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Related posts

]]> http://www.ghacks.net/2006/12/12/taksi-open-source-alternative-to-fraps/feed/ 4