Download ObjectDock 1.9

Stardock released version 1.9 of ObjectDock yesterday. This program is the Windows counterpart of Apple’s Dock, in which shortcuts to applications, games and tools can be placed. If you move the mouse over an icon, it lights up, as it were. The program is available in a free and a $20 Plus version, the latter of course offering more options. on this page the two versions can be easily compared. Below is the long list of all the changes made since version 1.5:

What’s changed in ObjectDock 1.9 over 1.5:

• Fixed mouse lag on startup / when ObjectDock is busy.
• Improved system tray, should now work more reliably than ever! Outlook 2007 and Windows Live Messenger should both now work reliably.
• Fixed issue where autohiding tabbed docks would not autohide anymore after you right clicked anything.
• Fixed up a couple minor resource leaks
• Improved task bars / thumbnail behavior.
• Added option to turn off tabbed docks’ ability to automatically dock to the edge as a drawer when dragging. Option available in “misc options”.
• Fixed multimonitor issue with the Start Menu functionality, and added better problem-notification.
• Fixed issue with flyouts where if they contained 9+ items and zooming is disabled, they could show up partially behind the dock.
• Fixed issue where icons for url-shortcuts would not get remembered
• Lots of UI improvements
• Custom icons set for program file shortcuts now automatically sync with custom icons set for windows of a program in taskbars.
• Ability added (to be shown off in the release version) of ObjectDock to apply included default images for programs that do not have high-resolution icons already included with them. For example, a default Notepad shortcut on XP would use the included custom high-quality icon, but on Vista where a high-quality icon is available for Notepad, ObjectDock will use the actual Notepad icon.
• New “Troubleshooting” dialog with quick access to disabling features of ObjectDock
• Fixed various bugs that cropped up in the previous beta, including issue where top-halves of icons on docks on the top/left side of the screen would be unclickable, and where launching url-shortcuts would just launch a browser not actually open the page . Various attempts made to help solve lagging-on-startup problems some users saw.
• Variety of little glitches fixed involving such things as autohide, drag & drop on zoomer docks, etc.
• Increased drawing optimization code’s ability to manage images. Should result in quicker than ever drawing and decreased memory usage for zooming docks.
• Zoomin/Zoomout smoothness significantly enhanced, and is now adjustable! Find the new options in the “Quality & Performance” settings
• Fixed a significant number of “little glitches” in behavior
• Completely redone z-ordering system. See the new “interaction” area in zooming dock’s positioning options. Should help eliminate problems people were seeing where dock would lose always-on-top.
• Improved handling / awareness of full-screen applications
• New mode: “keep on top, hiding off-screen for maximized applications”, which makes the dock always on top except when a window is maximized, at which point it will automatically temporarily turn on autohide
• Docks can now not only be left/right/center aligned, but anywhere in-between. See the new slider in zooming dock’s positioning options
• Brand new “Show Start Menu” functionality! Will show your existing startmenu/startpanel right next to the cursor when you click it. Add one by right clicking dock and choosing “Add -> New Start Menu Entry”
• Background code *significantly* improved. Should no longer ever be able to see the background not behave properly / leave gaps / etc.
• New option available to turn on “proportionate stretching” for backgrounds
• Added better extension handling. Not only can mailto:// and http:// now be used to bring up your apps associated with those protocols (email, web) but also this works with any other protocol as well (aim://, bittorrent, etc)
• Dialog flow / layout improved for zooming docks
• Ability to export backgrounds added to the DockZip packaging format. Try this feature today by right clicking the dock and choosing “Pack images for sharing”
• When packing up icons, you can now reliably drag dock items on to the “packager” dialog, and the icon associated with that item will automatically be added to the package you’re creating
• Can now drag/drop “Internet” and “Email” shortcuts from start panel into dock
• Dramatically improved behavior during right click menus on zooming docks. When you right click and the dock’s zooming locks in position, if you click/right-click on another item ObjectDock will now correctly select the item that your cursor was over at the time, not what i would be after the zoom lock is released. Similarly, if you begin dragging an item while locked, the program will behave appropriately instead of its prior very unpredictable behavior.
• Improved dock’s ability to judge what maximum size it should be. Dock will now exactly fill the screen when you set it to be as large as possible, and it will properly maintain this as you add/remove items.
• Colorizing a background now also colorizes the indicators you’ve selected to use
• Improved autohide ability in general. Also, added ability for autohide to give activation back to the window that had it if an autohidden dock gets activated temporarily and then hides.
• Drag & drop smoothness enhanced
• Significant improvements when using an extension only in shortcuts. If you now create a shortcut with “.doc” to open your word processor, “.mp3” to bring up your mp3 player, etc, the shortcut’s icon will update automatically upon next load if the association changes. Also, if you append “icon” or “file” to the end of your extension, ObjectDock will use the icon associated with that individual filetype for the icon rather than the program used to run its icon.
• When using extension-only in shortcuts, the item’s title will now automatically update to the name of the application, not just its filename.
• improved delete-item animation so that there is no longer a delay when you delete something from the dock
• improved shortcuts so that the dock pauses longer for a moment when you run something
• clicking empty space directly above/below a zooming dock that is still part of the background (eg a shadow) no longer causes the dock item below it to get selected. similarly, right clicking that area will bring up options for the dock itself, not the item below where you clicked.
• Grouping updated to work with special taskbar modes.
• Improved compatibility for restore animation.
• Fixed glitch with choose image dialog.
• Fixed excessive task bar flashing.
• VISTA: “Live previews” for files and folders are enabled! While folders will not have their icons updated
• automatically if their contents change, when loaded folders will show as their correct preview.
• The same with other types of documents that offer a live preview (PDFs, etc)
• VISTA: Live thumbnails for all minimized applications have a visual representation on the dock. In a future
• build, this will be extended to windows that are not minimized as well). Note: this feature is only
• available for zooming docks, it does not support tabbed docks.
• VISTA: New minimize effect on Vista! When Live Thumbnails are in use on Vista, windows will now do a
• nice minimize animation into any zooming dock. In this test release, holding the Shift key will slow the
• animation, and holding the Control key will skip it. Let us know if you’re having trouble with this feature!
• VISTA: Live minimize effect should be smoother than any other implementation available! Effort was made to make it work with minimal to no interference to your workflow, and the animation should never jump around / flicker heavily at the end unlike other versions of this effect you may have seen.
• New weather module! The weather module is capable of flying out the current weather forecast
• upon click/mouse over. Also, you can now enter in locations by name, not just zipcode. Includes
• international locations, but they can be a little more finicky. (Eg “London, United Kingdom”
• works, but “London, England” currently does not.) Your existing weather plugin will automatically
• be replaced by the new one. Note: the on mouseover is only available in zooming docks currently,
• not tabbed docks.
• You can now zoom icons up to 256×256.
• Zoom algorithm further improved, entrance animation should be smoother than ever. Coming soon, adjustable initial zoom speed.
• ObjectDock is better than ever at picking up the best high-quality icon for your file, particularly in Windows Vista.
• Two new modes have been added for the taskbar: “minimized tasks only” and “non-minimized tasks only”. Note: these do not work with 64-bit apps on 64-bit Windows versions.
• Completely redone system tray mechanism, which is more lighweight and does not require any additional resident EXE (that’s right, sdmcp.exe will be a thing of the past ) System tray will not currently work on 64-bit versions of Windows, but they do work with Windows Vista, including the new “Special” tray icons in Vista.
• Recycle bin now behaves properly on Windows Vista
• The “no color” setting for tab color on tabbed docks now reliably sticks
• Work has been done to further tune always-on-top performance
• VISTA: Taskbar should now show / be able to interact with applications ran as administrator when UAC is enabled in vista, even if ObjectDock isn’t elevated. Minimize animations / thumbnails might behave unusual / not work however.
• Performance and memory usage has been improved. Lots of optimizing for CPU usage.

[break] Click on the image for a larger version.