extreme active desktop

from WinCustomize Forums
One thing that I have dreamed of making (or actually, having someone else make for me ) is an active desktop (as in, an html page) that has a big, silver cube that rotates with the click of a button or two (or maybe mouse click and drag, but not just moving mouse), that has icons on each side of the cube.

Is there anyone here who thinks that they can step up to that challenge and make something so complicated? If you think you CAN do it, please post here and I'll explain in more detail about how I think this ought to be made to look well (as in, vague visual details). If someone can actually do this, or help me out... a lot... then I'd reall really really appreciate it! Thanks, guys!
2,140 views 12 replies
Reply #2 from WinCustomize Forums Top
or flash
DeskScapes - Bring your desktop background to life.
Reply #3 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Well, flash would be a total waste of resources, but DesktopX or something like xhtml should be fine. However, I have 0 skinning or html experience, so can someone please help me out?
Reply #5 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Haven't a clue, sorry




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Reply #6 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Actually, that would be pretty easy to do with some DHTML on an active desktop. I think the bigger questions would be:

a - what's the point?
b - why use active desktop?

:e.m::.
Reply #7 from WinCustomize Forums Top
a- I'd have different categories of icons on each side of the cube... and it should look original
b- why not?
Reply #8 from WinCustomize Forums Top
It's just that way-yonder back I played with ActiveDesktop quite a lot Experimenting with it as a way of customizing the desktop.

It's my experience that ActiveDesktop, while potentially flexible, causes more headaches for people than satisfaction. I personally don't know anybody who's actually used ActiveDesktop more than once or twice before deciding it isn't worth it and moving on to something more resource friendly. Personally, I don't understand why Microsoft keeps this feature alive at all.

That's just my opinion. At any rate, what you want is very doable with a web page based ActiveDesktop, an animated gif or a Flash animation and a few lines of JavaScript. I just wouldn't personally go this route when things 50x better such as DesktopX or Aston are readily available.

:e.m::.
Reply #9 from WinCustomize Forums Top
LiteSTEP's rainmation could be coerced into doing something like that...
Reply #10 from WinCustomize Forums Top
LiteSTEP's rainmation could be coerced into doing something like that


and with considerably less resources i believe. this concept is interesting but not quite original, there are Gui's that are designed more like your idea. 3Dna is a gui that creates a virtual world that you can wander through and customize. the kiosk in it is simular to the cubes u have described but in 3dna its used for the program settings...theres another prog i have seen that is really close to your description it uses cubes for icon panels.. but for the life of me i cant remember its name ...
Reply #11 from WinCustomize Forums Top
I found a small cube with an icon/link on each side, made with Javascript. However, for the life of me, I dunno how to make it big and have many customizable icons.
Reply #12 from WinCustomize Forums Top
Oh, and it's also controlled just by moving the mouse on it (not clicking + dragging or pressing buttons to make it rotate).