Hi!

Just wanting to show you what I am working on in my spare time.
For a few years now, I had always had this vision of what my perfect Alternative Shell for windows would be, unfortunately I never had the skill to actually do it.

But now that I am older and more experienced, I finally have the skill to pull this off. So now I am working in my spare time on this now project "Mint Shell". I am confident that I will actually even finish this project, as it would be something that I am using and want to use.

Mint Shell is an alternative shell for windows like LiteStep, only that my approach is a bit different than most other shells. I am trying to make a workable Shell that would work in a day-to-day environment, as well as double as a MediaCenter. Eventually, this is supposed to be an alternative shell that incorporates user friendliness by using a simple interface (while retaining customizabilization(sp?) via Plug-Ins), simple but pretty graphics to be geared towards Windows-Based-Tablet-PC's as well as ordinary Desktop PCs.

It's a combination of MediaCenter and a Desktop Environment (sans desktop icons, I hate them. But you could add them yourself by writing a plugin!).

To achieve this, the shell is based on "pages". Pages are different sections or modes your desktop turns into. For example your normal desktop - which in turn can be further modified by widgets - an unread mail page, a media player that integrates seamlessly into your desktop and would be hugely versatile by using VLC as an underlying base, and much more.

I have just begun to work on this, and it still needs some work. Most of the "backend" work is done however, and then it's off to start with basic plugins that would constitute the default package of MintShell. After that, it will be released, and the userbase can then start writing their own stuff.

My mantra with this project is KISS (Keep It Simple, Stupid), which minimizes bugs and also helps keep the interface simple for non-geeks to use their PC without being overloaded by all the flashy stuff everywhere. Simple and Stupid.

Here are some screenshots of what I have so far (the clock on the desktop would be an example of a widget):







Let me know what you think!

Well it's kinda interesting but I wouldn't use it - I guess I'm more of an icon liking guy...

Well what else can I say: It's green so the name fits. I'd also be confused with the lack of "windows" as for me it's hard to distinguish which floating text part belongs to what...

Looks interesting
Nice design, simple and green.
I want to see how windows looks like with your shell
On which OS does it work? windows is clear, but which one XP or 7?

What's about your other projects like Ackstudio?

muffel

awesome design, but (!) most of it can be achieved with rainmeter. except for that pages thingy, which is the reason why i have two screens.

still looking foreward to this. a LOT.

Wow, this looks really cool! I've honestly never heard of replacing the Windows shell before, so I've got some really n00bish questions to ask:
1> Where do you even begin to learn how to write something like this?
2> Can a well-written and/or simple shell improve performance/startup-times?

I recently got a new PC, so I'm keen to do some experimenting on the old one. This means I'll probably give MintShell a go when it is ready/available, but I'd also like to have a go at doing some of that kind of stuff myself

Jibb

Looks really nice imo, definately gonna try it.

@jibb:you can actually fully replace the shell but it is really a hard task.shell
does many things, and (most) programs rely on the current shell so people only go about modifying the default shell. the shell on windows is the explorer.exe and some dll files it uses.As i said explorer is not only for navigating folders/desktop/drives. It also handles stuff like the dialog screen when you go to File->Open/Save/Save as sections of a programs.
So you write a new program as shell replacement, tell windows registry that it is your shell, handle as much as stuff you can, and route the stuff you don't handle to the original explorer.exe. Most(not that there is alot of them around) shell replacements works this way.

Wow, okay... I think I'll wait until I have literally nothing else to do before I get into that kinda stuff myself Cheers.

Jibb

I guess that's just two different kinds of tastes
But in any case, through the Plug-in Interface there will surely be some "pages" and "widgets" in the future that take a different approach on this. What you see here would just be the default package that comes with the base installation.



Thanks!

I am testing on Windows 7, but nothing speaks against using it on XP if you have the .NET Framework 3.5 installed. At least that's theory. Of course I will be testing that before I release it



Merci!

Rainmeter eats up a lot of CPU power though once you have several widgets open. I have been using rainmeter for a while, until I noticed that games ran a lot faster if I end Rainmeter first. Right now, even with the animated background and everything, it barely comes up to 2% CPU.



Thank you!

1. Google, google, google, time, experience, time, frustration, anger management therapy, time and more google.
2. If it is well written, it can improve performance, but startup time really depends mostly on what applications you have running in auto-start and which services are started when your PC runs, as well as your Hard Drive (e.g. SSD > HDD, performance-wise).



Thanks!

And an new Page today, the media player. Still have to figure out where to put the seeker bar though, that's a tough one. Don't wanna overcomplicate things or overcrowd the screen with stuff.

A quick test if hosting applications IN the shell works:

Looks really nice - and really reminds me on rainmeter

How do you start programs actually? (Or is this isn't the whole screen?)