Ghost-It! from Matthew T. Pandina
When is a window not a window? Or maybe I should question: When is a window really a window. Answer - when you can see through it!
Ghost-It! is a Windows 2000/XP tray application that does some very strange things to desktop windows. This is one of those applications that makes one wonder why someone didn't think of this before.
From the application's web site:
Ghost windows are very special windows. First of all, a ghost window is translucent, meaning you can see through it to whatever is underneath. Secondly, a ghost window will always appear on top of other windows. Thirdly, when a ghost window loses the input focus, it remains translucent and always on top, but all clicks will pass right through it like it wasn't even there—until it becomes the active window again.
We always talk about this window being "in front of" another, or "in the background."
Ghost-It! makes those observations relative. Simply by changing your mental focus, you can pick out information from the ghosted screen. But if you really want them out of your way, ghosted windows can be minimized just like any other window.
I absolutely cannot abide when applications steal the focus from what I am trying to accomplish on my desktop, so I really like the part about keeping the input focus where you are working. Double-clicking the ghost icon in the system tray causes the cursor itself to become a ghost, with which you can quickly change windows to ghost mode, or un-ghost them.
Who would use this? Individuals who find themselves with many windows open at once, Alt-TABbing their way between them to gather information. Bloggers and other writers, for example, often write with their material from a host of information resources embedded in sites that would normally be behind the window you were currently typing in. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, you feel as if you've added an extra dimension to your desktop, because you can literally see behind what you are working on.
Add points for not writing anything to the registry (provided you don't change the default configuration), which means this is a portable app and can be loaded up from a keychain (USB) drive.
I am going to keep this loaded for awhile - kudos to the author for a truly innovative tool!
Note that windows that write directly to video memory, such as Windows Media Player, cannot be ghosted. This is interesting too - I tried to make a screen capture of my desktop as I write this, showing the ghosted windows, and guess what happened? PrintKey, my screen capture utility, doesn't show the Ghosted windows! So I unloaded PrintKey and just used the regular PrintScreen capture and loaded it in Paint. Here's what a ghosted window looks like:
Download Link is here.
Mike
Ghost-It! is a Windows 2000/XP tray application that does some very strange things to desktop windows. This is one of those applications that makes one wonder why someone didn't think of this before.
From the application's web site:
Ghost windows are very special windows. First of all, a ghost window is translucent, meaning you can see through it to whatever is underneath. Secondly, a ghost window will always appear on top of other windows. Thirdly, when a ghost window loses the input focus, it remains translucent and always on top, but all clicks will pass right through it like it wasn't even there—until it becomes the active window again.
We always talk about this window being "in front of" another, or "in the background."
Ghost-It! makes those observations relative. Simply by changing your mental focus, you can pick out information from the ghosted screen. But if you really want them out of your way, ghosted windows can be minimized just like any other window.
I absolutely cannot abide when applications steal the focus from what I am trying to accomplish on my desktop, so I really like the part about keeping the input focus where you are working. Double-clicking the ghost icon in the system tray causes the cursor itself to become a ghost, with which you can quickly change windows to ghost mode, or un-ghost them.
Who would use this? Individuals who find themselves with many windows open at once, Alt-TABbing their way between them to gather information. Bloggers and other writers, for example, often write with their material from a host of information resources embedded in sites that would normally be behind the window you were currently typing in. It takes a bit of getting used to, but once you do, you feel as if you've added an extra dimension to your desktop, because you can literally see behind what you are working on.
Add points for not writing anything to the registry (provided you don't change the default configuration), which means this is a portable app and can be loaded up from a keychain (USB) drive.
I am going to keep this loaded for awhile - kudos to the author for a truly innovative tool!
Note that windows that write directly to video memory, such as Windows Media Player, cannot be ghosted. This is interesting too - I tried to make a screen capture of my desktop as I write this, showing the ghosted windows, and guess what happened? PrintKey, my screen capture utility, doesn't show the Ghosted windows! So I unloaded PrintKey and just used the regular PrintScreen capture and loaded it in Paint. Here's what a ghosted window looks like:
Download Link is here.
Mike
posted by Michael Moore @ 3:53 AM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home