Windows Vista Vista with a dock?

My wife's new Dell came with a dock on her desktop with her icons there (i.e. Recycle Bin, IE and so forth) similar to a Mac. How do I get the same? We're using identical computers and systems but hers arrived two weeks later than mine? thanks.

 

Object Dock

Try the objectdock from StarDock

Stardock ObjectDock

Free and works well in vists

 

Steve.. no, it's not the gadget/sidebar. In fact, if you look at what GordyBoy posted, it is very similar to that. It's a Mac-like dock residing at the top of her desktop and containing her Recycle Bin, IE, Movie Maker and so forth. She can drag other icons into it. When you mouse over them they expand.. sort of pop... just like a Mac dock. This came brand new from Dell and yet our systems are identical and only two weeks separate their arrival at our place. I'm very curious how this ended up on her system and whether or not I can get it.

GordyBoy... yes, it looks very similar to what you presented BUT it came free from Dell. What you have shown is something I would need to add on and pay for.

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/leushino/100_8443.jpg

This is a picture of the dock and...

 

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v290/leushino/100_8444.jpg

This shows the dock and the sidebar which is a different thing. So...where did this come from???

 

I do not know what Dell is doing these days, but both ObjeckDock and RocketDock are available for free. ObjectDockPlus has a few more bells and whistles but costs about $20.

I am currently using RocketDock on Vista/SP1. I tried them both (and a couple of others) and liked RocketDock better than ObjectDock. There are lots of icons, themes, and docklets available, too, to customize how it looks. If you have some image editors, it's not hard to make your own. I made a few over the past few days myself.

 

It reminds me of the MS Office toolbar. I was working on one the other day and changed it's properties. It went from showing the Office programs to general icons like those. BUT, that was in Win XP running Office 2003 (I think it was 2003). I don't have Office on my Vista machine.

Check if it is the toolbar for Office. Try right-clicking on it and checking it's properties (for some sort of description of what is running it?).

You might be able to identify it by comparing the Startup items in msconfig.

Matt

 

James picture shows Sidebar in Vista

In the picture, the dock is one thing but the Calendar is a Vista Widget as far as I can tell.

ObjectDock is Free from StarDock and I use it and it functions great

 

Problem resolved. Evidently, it is something that just came out... July 14th which is why my wife's computer came with it installed but mine which arrived two weeks earlier did not. It is a free download at the Dell website:

Drivers and Downloads

 

It also states that if your PC did not come with this installed it will not install; that it is for re-download only.

 

Thanks for that bit of information. But it raises another question. When I had my wife go into msconfig and to start up and to services, it shows that the Dell Dock is actually from the Stardock folks. So evidently they have some contractual agreement with them to use it. Now... we can download and install the Stardock dock (free) without having to have our computers "pre-loaded' with the dock. So why would the Dell dock be any different? In fact, from an examination of the two docks, the Stardock actually appears a bit more sophisticated. Any ideas?

 

ObjectDock from StarDock comes in two flavors: Free and Plus (~$20).

The Plus version adds some features such as tabs and the ability to incorporate the System Tray into the dock. It would seem likely that the Dell-branded version could be closer to the Plus version of ObjectDock. You can read more about the differences via the links in one of my earlier posts in this thread.

 

Thanks again. From all of the reviews on the Dell Dock (which are not particularly glowing), it seems (I could be wrong about this) that it is little more than a branded version of the Free Stardock Dock. I'm looking at what my wife's Dell Dock does and it's not much other than tidy up her desktop. Still... being the curious guy that I am, I wonder why my Dell (which is only two weeks old now) did not come with it since our systems are identical. So far... nothing from Dell. It's a mystery.

 

I like a spartan desktop. In fact, I have nothing, not even the Recycle Bin on it. Until very recently I used several custom toolbars anchored to the bottom of the screen in auto-hide mode for launching my frequently used programs. I had tried ObjectDock and RocketDock, but did not particularly like them at the time. Since that time, RocketDock came out with an updated version, so I tried them both again. As described here, I am now using RocketDock, still in conjuction with the System Tray bar (for System Tray Icons and running programs - I did not like the feel of having my running programs minimizing to the RocketDock dock). I have both the System Tray and RocketDock in auto-hide mode.

It is good to have options! The "P" in "PC" is for personal, after all!