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Puts a new look and feel on your interface's toolbar

Puts a new look and feel on your interface's toolbar

Vote: (276 votes)

Program license: Free

Developer: Peter Rollar

Works under: Windows

Vote:

Program license

(276 votes)

Free

Developer

Peter Rollar

Works under:

Windows

Pros

  • Free
  • Easy way to update older desktops
  • Comes with two Charms Bar styles
  • Very convincing look and feel

Cons

  • Somewhat complicated to install
  • Doesn't add desktop functionality

The Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin is a plugin for RocketDock that displays a Windows 8 Charms Bar in earlier versions of Windows.

To install the Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin, you first need to install RocketDock on your computer. The Charms Bar plugin comes in the form of a RAR file containing a set of directories and configuration files.

Adding the Charms Bar to RocketDock is simply a matter of dragging and dropping the directories contained in the RAR file to their respective locations in the RocketDock folder. After copying the Charmbar Transparent directory to RocketDock/Skins, replace the RocketDock Icons and Settings folders with the files extracted from the Charms Bar RAR archive. The last step is to drag the StartMenu.exe file to the main RocketDock directory.

The next time you start RocketDock, you will see a Windows 8 style Charms Bar on the right side of the screen when you point the mouse cursor there. The plugin is very useful for Windows 7 and Windows XP users who want to add the look and feel of the Windows 8 desktop to their older operating systems without resinstalling or upgrading Windows. However, the Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin doesn't give you the Windows 8 Start Screen or Metro-style apps.

You will have the option to click "Search," "Share" or "Start," just like in Windows 8. These buttons have a different function when clicked within the Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin, however. Clicking "Search" brings up the default search window in your version of Windows rather than the Windows 8 Search screen. Clicking "Share" also executes the default sharing option defined in your settings menu. If you click the "Start" button, your Start menu opens up from the left side of your screen.

The Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin is reasonably functional, but mostly it's a cosmetic add-on for people who use RocketDock to theme their Windows desktops. The plugin provides appealing eye-candy to break up the monotony of using an older operating system. It does a good job of emulating the Windows 8 desktop in Windows 7, but of course Windows XP and Windows Vista users will still know they're using the older desktops because the user interface remains unchanged.

One nice feature of the Windows 8 Charms Bar Skin is that it includes two styles for the Charms Bar interface. The default style is the black Charms Bar familiar to Windows 8 users, while the alternative style is a transparent skin that you can enable by copying Settingstranparent.ini to the RocketDock folder. This skin provides a transparent background to the Charms Bar UI, which gives you the sense that the buttons are floating when you trigger the Charms Bar.

Pros

  • Free
  • Easy way to update older desktops
  • Comes with two Charms Bar styles
  • Very convincing look and feel

Cons

  • Somewhat complicated to install
  • Doesn't add desktop functionality