ObjectDock is a program that allows you to have a nice animated launchbar/taskbar on your screen that reacts to your mouse when you mouse over it. In short, it's a task bar and program launcher that does it with style.
1.9 (Aug 18, 2008)
I just installed the 1.9 version, after not using it for a long time, and I really like what they have done with it. It's not perfect, but it has more of the features that I really want then any other Dock for Windows. If you want, you can set it to function a lot like the Microsoft Office Shortcut Bar, only the icons look better.
But you can reserve the right side of the screen and choose to have it in front all of the time, so when you maximize a dialog window, it actually stops right at the edge of the Dock and does not block it out.
I have it on the right side of the screen, and though it does not automatically stretch from top to bottom, you can insert enough separators to make it extend to the top and bottom of the screen if you want.
So, I have the Windows Task Bar running horizontal, and the Object Dock at the far right going top to bottom. Makes it look like a mirrored "L" at the edges of the right and bottom of the screen and stays out of the way and does its thing.
I like that you can adjust the Alignment in very precise increments but also just choose LEFT, CENTERED or RIGHT if you want. That level of detailed configuration allows you to line it up exactly how you want, a pixel at a time.
I guess the only downside that really bugs me is that it seems to no longer be developed.
But it is still free, so it rates a solid 4, imo.
1.9 (Apr 27, 2007)
From soneone who's tried em all, Objectdock was the first dock I tried but it was much too much of a hog, since then I've used y'z dock, RKlauncher, and most recently rocketdock which until now I considered the best. New version of objectdock is great, many features and slim on system resources. Many themes and Icons available, many icons included in the program too, for example I dragged firefox and trillian onto the dock expecting to see blurry icons I'd have to change, but no OD automatically gave them nice High res icons.
1.9 (Apr 26, 2007)
I'm using ObjectDock for years and never had performance problems, the memory usage is very low and the program run very fast here. I'm using the Plus version now and I like a lot the new weather Docklet (that expland on mouse over to show the weather for the next four days) and the new position configurations.
1.9 (Apr 26, 2007)
ObjectDock is a great app -- been using the free version for a while and think I'll upgrade to plus now. Rocketdock is a lame ripoff, a serious lack of innovation.
1.9 (Apr 26, 2007)
Wow, huge improvement over the last version. Totally blows RocketDock away despite what any of the fanboys here say. ;)