ObjectDock Plus – Create A System Tray Dock 101
This mini tutorial is designed for beginners who want to understand the basic steps involved in creating a system tray dock using ObjectDock Plus.
An assumption has been made that users have already installed ObjectDock Plus, so please do so before using the procedures in this tutorial (note – make sure that any free version of ObjectDock has been uninstalled previous to installing ObjectDock Plus). If you have any content files that you have downloaded for use with the free version, it is recommended that you copy these files to a temporary folder on your computer before uninstalling the free version of ObjectDock.
This mini tutorial has been created using the default Windows XP installation and settings, and illustrates procedures using the main ObjectDock Plus dialog boxes.
ADDING "SDMCP.EXE" TO THE STARTUP FOLDER
1 – Click Start > My Computer > open (double-click) the "C:" drive > open the "Documents and Settings" folder > open your account folder (the folder with your user name on it) > open the Start Menu folder > open the Programs folder > open the Startup folder > right-click inside this folder, and mouse-over the "New" option, and then select "Shortcut" – as shown in the image below:
2 - Use the browse button to navigate to the "C:\Program Files\Common Files\Stardock" folder, and then select the "sdmcp" file. When completed, your dialog box should look like the image shown below:
3 – Click "Next", and then "Finish", which should leave you with a new shortcut to the "sdmcp.exe" file as shown in the image below:
Note – if you have Stardock Central installed, you can alternatively start that program > go to Tools menu > Settings > select "Enable MCP notification area support" > click "OK". This will provide the same support required to load the notification area (AKA the System Tray) icons onto a dock.
4 – Restart your computer to load the "sdmcp" executable.
CREATE A SYSTEM TRAY DOCK
1 – Right-click the ObjectDock icon in the notification area, and select "My Docks" as shown in the image below:
2 - The "My Docks" dialog that pops up will show any current docks that are loaded. For this exercise, I will use a "blank canvas", and therefore will remove any other docks by selecting them and clicking the "Remove this dock" button as shown below:
3 – With all docks removed, click the "Create new dock" button as shown below:
This will place a new default dock on the desktop as shown in the image below:
Note – I have deselect the "Magnification" option (found in the Appearance category) to make working with the dock entries easier.
4 – Click the "Dock Contents" category in the left-hand list of the ObjectDock Properties to display the Dock Contents options, and then select the "Show system tray icons on the dock" option as shown in the image below:
As you can see in the image above, this will load the System Tray icons onto the dock.
5 – If you wish to hide the Windows taskbar, you can select this option in the General category as shown in the image below:
6 – Let’s remove the other "non-system" tray entries, by right-clicking the entries and selecting the "Remove Entry" option in the context menu as shown in the image below:
Repeat this until you only have the system tray icons displayed on the dock. I am setting this dock up as a separate dock, which tends to prevent any possible conflicts in a theme. The image below shows the result:
7 – Now click the "Positioning" category in the left-hand list of the ObjectDock Properties to display the Positioning options as shown in the image below:
Note – I have selected the "Align Right" in the Alignment drop-down list, and "Always-On-Bottom" in the Z-Ordering drop-down list.
8 – To change the image for a system tray icon, press the "Ctrl" key while left-clicking on the system tray icon to invoke the "Dock Entry Properties" as shown in the image below:
Click the "Change Image for this Tray Icon" button as shown in the image below:
Use the "Choose Image" dialog to navigate to, and select the icon or ".png" file you want for your image, and then click OK as shown in the image below:
Repeat as needed to change your system tray icons.
The image below shows the completed system tray dock:
I hope you found this mini tutorial useful. Until next time, have fun and "Keep On Customizing".