I've opened up the code behind EvilDesk, my Windows Shell replacement, and made it available on BitBucket under the terms of the GPLv2.

Enjoy!

http://bitbucket.org/wez/evildesk/

I've been enjoying my vacation time, spending a good bit of it hacking on EvilDesk. This is something of an eyecandy release, with some visually appealing refinements. I'm always wary of eyecandy for eyecandy's sake, so I've tried really hard to balance resource consumption with visual goodness. To that end, the eyecandy features can all be turned off, and can also be tuned to reduce (or increase, if you like) their memory consumption. So, what features are new?

• Added the ability to customize the appearance of slits and the task switcher. Each slit can have a custom background tile, as can the task switcher. You can also change the font, style and colour.

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[Update: Newer releases are available]

As a follow-on from the last release, I've uploaded the latest iteration of my EvilDesk shell replacement for Windows XP.

The changelog goes something like this:

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Well, the bug fixes I made in the last release left me feeling empowered again, so I've followed up with a couple more features and some more bug fixes:

• Added new MATCH CREATE window matching configuration option, which allows actions to be taken when windows are created. For example, you can cause all VMWare windows to start on a given workspace, or have your mp3 player automatically stick to all workspaces when it starts up.
• Fixed a slit layout calculation bug.
• Avoid blocking the flasher when the flashing app (eg: gaim 2.0 beta) hangs itself
• Balloon tips now display the body of the balloon text, instead of the tooltip from the tray area, and will rise all the way to the top of the z-order.
• Improved detection of deleted tray tooltips, so that balloon tips are not wiped out at the wrong time.
• When a window was made sticky, it would remain in the minimized state on the inactive workspaces. This has now been corrected.
• Fixed a string termination bug in the PuTTY plugin for sessions that have spaces in their names.
• Environmental variables are now expanded when processing the MergeDirs directive in the .evdm file

Having finally found some time to myself, I thought it was about time that I push out a release with the changes that I've been using for the last few months. Some of these changes are based on feedback from users; keep it coming folks! :)

Feature changes in the new release include:

• Revised plugin loading system. Slits are defined via the new SLIT directive and plugins are loaded via the new LOAD directive in the .evdm file.
• Slit windows will hide themselves when an application goes fullscreen (and come back when it leaves fullscreen mode). I've tested this with PowerPoint (when viewing the slideshow) and PuTTY (alt-enter) and it seems to work ok.
• Altered the gravity of the tray plugin so that it sinks below the flasher. Why? When double-clicking on the gaim tray icon, the first click would open the buddy list, causing it to flash. The flasher would bump the tray up, causing the second click to land on a different tray icon--usually the wifi icon, popping up the wireless network selector.
• Added more internet-facing apps to the SaferExec line in the default configuration. No idea what that means? Read more on "Browsing the Web and Reading E-mail Safely as an Administrator".

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I've pushed 0.5.1 tonight; if fixes an uninstallation buglet that could leave you without a taskbar after uninstalling EvilDesk.

The only new feature is being able to select how many workspaces the alt-tab task switcher will cycle through; you can use up to 32, with the default being 4.

Visit the ChangeLog

I've updated EvilDesk yet again this weekend. The biggest new thing is making all the hotkeys (aside from alt-tab) user configurable.

Find out more on the EvilDesk Home Page (I've added a ChangeLog section for your tracking pleasure).

[Update: Release 4 is out]

I've updated my EvilDesk and included the user-definable context menu code I mentioned in the comments of my last post.

I've also created a new home for the project, so that I can group the docs together more easily.

I will continue to publish news about updates here on my blog, so if you're already subscribed here, you needn't do anything more to keep up to date on this project.

I've updated EvilDesk again. Aside from fixing a couple of bugs here and there, it now features built-in support for "Safer" execution of internet facing applications.

Find out more on the EvilDesk Home Page (I've added a ChangeLog section for your tracking pleasure).