CNET Editors' note: Beta or prerelease software is not intended for inexperienced users, as the software may contain bugs or may potentially damage your system. We strongly recommend that users exercise caution and save all mission-critical data before installing or using this software.
CNET Editors' review
7Stacks ports the Mac OS X stacking feature to Windows 7, Vista, and XP in a reasonable but not quite perfect manner. If you're not familiar, the "stack" jargon here refers to creating a container of folders or files and making it accessible with one click on your taskbar.
The program does an effective job once you've created your stack, but it lacks some of the smoothness that hallmarks its Mac progenitor. A clean design makes creating a stack easy, but what's not clear about the process is that the "Create shortcut on Desktop" button is a necessary step. Once you've created the shortcut, you can drag it onto your unlocked taskbar. Left-click on a stack to access its contents.
When creating a stack, you can customize the folder you choose to stack including Libraries, use the default folder icon or select your own, and toggle options for exploring the folder, browsing subfolders, hiding file extensions, or displaying image thumbnails. There are three stack view options: vertical, which presents the stack in a column; grid, which arranges the stack into rows and columns; and menu, which makes the stack look like a Windows Explorer right-click context menu. Text for each item can be turned on or off in grid and vertical modes, and both icon size and text size can be adjusted via slider.
You can't drag and drop items directly into or off of a stack, which means that you can only change what's in a stack from Windows Explorer. The utility could use a hot-key hook to create a new stack, although you can right-click on an already-existing stack to see stack options such as create new stack, edit current stack, and browse as menu. More than that, the process for creating and editing stacks should be smoother, and even on computers with top-shelf hardware, stacks don't open or close as fast as they should. Still, 7stacks brings an entirely new feature to Windows, and there's no harm in that.
Publisher's Description
From Alastria Software:
7stacks is an easy to use, free app that lets Windows 7 (Vista and XP) users have "stacks" of icons in their Taskbar (in 7) or QuickLaunch Toolbar (in Vista and XP). By using stacks, users can reduce icon clutter, and combine a group of related icons into a single icon. For instance, if you use application suites such as Microsoft Office, OpenOffice, or Adobe CS4, you can have all the suite's icons combined into one icon. You can also use it to browse and access documents within a folder very quickly. Usually, when you want to edit a series of frequently used documents, you'd have to either launch the app, and go to File|Open, or open the (My) Computer icon and go into your (My) Documents folder and pick the file you want. With 7stacks, just create a stack to that document's folder, and open that document in a couple of clicks.
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All versions:
3.7 starsout of 7 votes
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Current version:
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Results 1-7 of 7
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"Great concept, needs work"
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
The "Stack" feature is great, and much needed. This program is a pretty good implementation, with some nice options.
Cons
Can't modify if you delete your "desktop icon" (save it somewhere after attaching to taskbar). Clicking a Stack does nothing about 15% of the time. Don't know why. Also slow. On my power system it should take a second at most.
Summary
I'd love to see this one developed more. It's very useful. Wish the stacks could go over on the right side of the taskbar, though that's probably not possible.
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"Worked excellent for me as a cascading program menu."
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
Creating a folder and then a menu is pretty easy after some experimentation. The menu type presents a cascading menu that was just what I was looking for.
Cons
The settings and preferences are confusing, and really don't work well yet. But with some experimentation I did what I needed.
Summary
The best feature is to point to a folder with shortcuts and create a cascading menu from that folder. I selected my windows "Start Menu" directory in "Create a new 7Stack" - (be sure to "Create Shortcut on Desktop") and got a beautiful horizontally cascading memu system that I pinned as the first item in the taskbar. It looks like XP, but better. I'll never use the Start, Programs again. If you then delete the desktop shortcut, you'll lose what you did and have to start over again if you want to modify it later. Move it to the target directory instead, and you can make all the subsequent changes you need.
After getting in to it and trying out all the options, I decided that the "Menu" configuration is perfect, and the others "Vertical Stack" and "Grid" - with and without text, were pretty ugly. Especially the fixed background and text. The text is terrible. The Black text is surrounded by a white border and the White text is surrounded by black. Why not just do a standard Windows text configuration? The Grid background is just ugly and can't be changed as far as I could tell. -
"A bit slow and there are better similar launchers"
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
Performs well, clear icons and fonts which are decided by the user.
Cons
Not easy for a novice to set up. Sluggish performance (appearance of icons/shortcuts). I use FSL Launcher (downloaded from CNet)-easier to set up, configurable,very quick and only requires one click to launch a program (automatic show mouse over).
Summary
Should improve with time but in the meantime there are other more efficient launchers/shortcut managers available free of charge.
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"Does the job"
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
Easy to install, works as advertised.
Cons
Graphics are not very elegant.
Summary
While it lacks the elegance of the Mac dock, it is functional and easy to install and configure. It is certainly the best of the dock emulators that I've tried.
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"It's ok, just have to work on some graphics things."
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
That allow me to customize each stack.
Cons
Slow graphics, graphics.
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"Easy two click access to all your favorite applications"
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
Provides visually pleasing Quick-Launch shortcuts to any number of applications, Web Links, etc... Runs in Safe Mode.
Cons
Some applications don't load when launched by clicking on the shortcut icon in the 7stacks window, but the very same shortcuts load properly if you navigate to the shortcut and launch from there.
Summary
7stacks is, in my opinion, far superior to the other stacks and launchers that I have tried.
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"You might want to try it"
Version: 7stacks 1.5 beta 1
Pros
removes desktop clutter - nice appearance
Cons
a little slow - but what's a millisecond or two
Summary
This is a pretty good launcher if you like having a task-bar showing. My problem is I have so many stacks I want to build it sort of fills the task-bar up. I have tried about every launcher you can think o. They are all good but I like 8Start the best.
If you are looking for a launcher, by all means, give 7Stacks a try - it might be your thing.
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