Before I proceed to blab on about what I think of ObjectBar, I think that I should make one thing clear – it’s definitely not the easiest thing to use. In truth, ObjectBar actually took me a heck of a lot longer to learn how to maneuver effectively in comparison to other customization software, such as WindowBlinds and ObjectDock. ObjectBar is actually free has a shareware version which is ad-supported and expires after 30 days, but the full version comes as part of the Stardock Object Desktop 2008 suite.

I personally don’t find any use for ObjectBar asides from Mac OS X Finder emulation for Vista. With that said, it’s an interesting piece of software to work with – if anyone ever does get the chance to conceive their own way to navigate around Windows like Cairo Shell aims to do, then it could be with ObjectBar.

Installing & Tweaking New Bars

You’re really not left with much in the beginning, so it’s almost inevitable you’re going to have to download & install new bars. I was surprised to see that Wincustomize, Stardock’s resident gallery for hosting, seemed to only support ObjectBar2, those bars actually are compatible with ObjectBar. Alas, I was still galled at the lack of bars being hosted there, so I searched around for more. And more I got.

Turns out DeviantArt’s got a pretty swell collection of ObjectBar bars – as well as Googling around got me what I really wanted; the Mac Finder. After installing OB Font and Lucida Grande font types into my computer, I found that the experience was beautiful. I was getting Mac OS X emulation on Windows Vista – something that I had thought previously near impossible.

Tweaking bars isn’t too difficult – most of your work will be done within the Theme Editor segment of ObjectBar. However, if you want to change the font, you’re going to have to open the included .obskin file with Notepad and manually tweak it yourself – a task that’s not too hard, to be honest. That said, finding out how to tweak it to my liking took my morning (I guess I just wasn’t feeling the vibe).

Performance

ObjectBar’s performance doesn’t really bug the RAM or the processor, contrary to belief. I ran ObjectBar easily with my pretty standard Core 2 Duo and 2GB of RAM. No performance damage (took 2.7MB of RAM, for the record). It does what it’s supposed to – offer an alternative to the Start Menu – pretty easily, although it wasn’t an easy feat accessing my programs without the Start Menu, without the use of Launchy (thank goodness for Launchy).

Any bugs that I had issues with were mainly because of the way the Finder works as well as errors/bugs on the user’s part, where ObjectBar or Stardock really doesn’t have control over because they didn’t host the bars. So, I guess I can’t blame them there (but just know there are bugs).

Conclusion

Overall, I guess I was pretty impressed with ObjectBar – it took 2.7MB of RAM, it provided a viable alternative to the typical boring Start menu, and it’s free! If you’re on Vista and bored with your Start Menu, pick it up now. And if you need help with it, feel free to leave a comment.

Tab Launchpad is similar to Keyboard Launchpad in that it launches other programs. It’s a program that launches other programs. Thus, it allows for all of your most used programs to be cleaned off your desktop and into one of the platforms of Tab Launchpad.

My favourite aspect of the program was the different tabs – they can be arranged so that different programs are fitted under different categories. For example, my most used programs are fitted in Herbert’s Applications. If I was a graphic designer, I could put programs such as Paint.NET or Photoshop in a tab called Graphics. A gamer would put his games in a Games tab. The tabs can be created as you wish, and even icon-spacing can be altered.

What makes it interesting is how applications are added into tabs – I couldn’t for the life of me figure it out until I explored the program files. Turns out that you drag and drop short-cuts of applications or locations into the tab’s folder to make the corresponding shortcut or location appear in the tab. For example, in our scenario, my tab is named Herbert’s Applications. I dragged in the Mozilla Firefox shortcut to the folder, and – behold, the shortcut appeared on my launchpad.

Although this technology is still relatively new to me, it looks kind of outdated – the whole icon and colour scheme just doesn’t seem up to date.

In my opinion, I would have to consider Tab Launchpad kind of redundant – the word “obsolete” did come to mind, but that would be a stretch. Not because of its looks, but rather, because of the evolution of launching technology. Mac users have Quicksilver, and us Windows users have Launchy – a software that launches software through the keyboard (not functions though, so it’s different from Keyboard Launchpad). In my opinion, Launchy makes things a lot faster – in fact, I found myself launching Tab Launchpad with Launchy. Productive-wise, Launchy is a lot faster, but if you prefer to use a mouse or tabs, then try Tab Launchpad.

Unfortunately, Tab Launchpad isn’t available for download on its own – it comes with Object Desktop; I feel that even though it does bring something unique to the table, it’s in urgent need of a makeover.

On top of Object Desktop Launchpad, there’s a Theme Manager 2007 that is packaged with the Object Desktop 2008 suite.

Basically, all the themes, wallpaper, screensavers, desktop settings, bootskins, login screens, and everything else in Object Desktop 2008 are aggregated into this one piece of software. It’s a great central location to change themes – or the whole look of the computer.

I feel as though with Object Desktop Launchpad and Theme Manager 2007, Stardock has made Object Desktop 2008 that much more easier to use, but I figure that I’d probably rather be spared such conveniences and just leave it uninstalled – after all, the more free space, the better. It was already foolproof in the first place – why continue dumbing it down?