Quick Launch in sidebar?

[PyX]

I saw a picture of the sidebar on Microsoft's side and it gave me an idea...

First, I'd like to ask some questions considering my idea :

1. When you maximize a window, will it be maximized over the sidebar, or will it be maximized so that the sidebar is still accessible? (I don't see why MS would want to make a maximized window use the whole High Definition interface, because then all the websites will look so small)

2. Is it possible to click on a part of a gadget and then something related about the gadget appears outside the sidebar?

If the maximized windows still makes the sidebar available and if my second question's answer is yes, then my concept would work and if MS doesn't include it in Vista, I'll search on ways to write my own gadget when Vista comes out.

My idea came from this screenshot

in which you can see a small gadget containing 4 applications.

Will MS make it so that if you hover onto the gadget, a custom list of shortcuts would appear on the left on a number of rows defined by the user? I'm very looking forward to a gadget that will do this... and will be willing to code it if it isn't available in the release of Vista.

[Rudy]

the reason i liked the sidebar from previous builds better (4xxx) was because you could completly get rid of the taskbar and "merge" it in the sidebar (start button, task list and systray and quicklaunch)

[savedandfamous]

I wish I knew what build that was. Anyway, you should be able to merge it, I like the newest sidebar, it has white glass, I say that roound it so it kind of protrudes, and you could be given the option to merge the taskbar and start button with the sidebar,and dock it on any four corners, could you imaginge this awsome glass thing at the top or bottom of your screen, that holds everything it should, and it could display open windows like the taskbar, only JUST using the live thumbnails, and when a window is maximized it'll be shrunken down to a normal taskbar, but when you're on your naked dekstop, or have a small window open it'll be the full pane. I'll do a photoshop mock up. :D

[PyX]

Yeah, I'd like to get rid of some stuff in the taskbar as well, like the Quick Launch menu and I'd rather save just some space on my screen and have bigger icons.

My current resolution makes it quite hard to see the icons in the Quick Launch menu and if I made them bigger, it'd be ugly!!!

Looking forward to your mockup!

Btw, are they starting to make the icons in the tray bar all white? I am not sure if I like it because it makes things look much cleaner, but on the other hand, I like color... :unsure:

[xelencin]

Nice to see they finally implimented the new volume control icon, also what is that thing to the right of the clock? Something to do with the sidebar I assume...

[y_notm]

I saw a picture of the sidebar on Microsoft's side and it gave me an idea...

First, I'd like to ask some questions considering my idea :

1. When you maximize a window, will it be maximized over the sidebar, or will it be maximized so that the sidebar is still accessible? (I don't see why MS would want to make a maximized window use the whole High Definition interface, because then all the websites will look so small)

2. Is it possible to click on a part of a gadget and then something related about the gadget appears outside the sidebar?

If the maximized windows still makes the sidebar available and if my second question's answer is yes, then my concept would work and if MS doesn't include it in Vista, I'll search on ways to write my own gadget when Vista comes out.

My idea came from this screenshot

in which you can see a small gadget containing 4 applications.

Will MS make it so that if you hover onto the gadget, a custom list of shortcuts would appear on the left on a number of rows defined by the user? I'm very looking forward to a gadget that will do this... and will be willing to code it if it isn't available in the release of Vista.

1. Theres supposed to be an option to have it either way: Windows can either maximize next to it or over it, depending on your preference.

2. If the gadget is coded to do that.

Last question: don't know, but that 2x2 square with messenger and IE in it on the sidebar appears to be a quicklaunch gadget.

[Rudy]

Nice to see they finally implimented the new volume control icon, also what is that thing to the right of the clock? Something to do with the sidebar I assume...

i like the new icons, they should make it so that the icons have to be white like that too......looks more professional (kinda like OSX)

[PyX]

Yup, it does look like a quick launch gadget, but I am not sure that if you hover onto it, it will display the whole list of quicklaunch items. 4 items is just not enough and useless compared to the Quick Launch menu in the taskbar.

By making it support a whole list of items that can retract themselves directly into the sidebar, it'd make windows cleaner and the bigger icons would be easier to notice.

Another thing that I noticed is that the recycle bin has been dragged from the desktop to the Sidebar, which makes the desktop look so clean... And it's cool to be able to make the whole recycle bin itself a gadget. That sidebar definately looks more interesting than what I had in mind at first. Maybe they just gave it a bad approach with the 3XXX and 4XXX builds

[y_notm]

Yup, it does look like a quick launch gadget, but I am not sure that if you hover onto it, it will display the whole list of quicklaunch items. 4 items is just not enough and useless compared to the Quick Launch menu in the taskbar.

By making it support a whole list of items that can retract themselves directly into the sidebar, it'd make windows cleaner and the bigger icons would be easier to notice.

Another thing that I noticed is that the recycle bin has been dragged from the desktop to the Sidebar, which makes the desktop look so clean... And it's cool to be able to make the whole recycle bin itself a gadget. That sidebar definately looks more interesting than what I had in mind at first. Maybe they just gave it a bad approach with the 3XXX and 4XXX builds

well, we don't know how customizable the quick launch gadget is, you might be able to specify how many icons to show, maybe it does it automatically, maybe it is hardcoded to just 4. we don't know yet. what we do know is you can have more than one instance of a gadget, so you could just create as many QL gadgets as is necessary