Circle Dock 32bit

CNET Editors' review

by: CNET staff on October 15, 2010

After years of using Windows, most people find that Windows Explorer and its hierarchical folders is a pretty intuitive way to organize and accessing files. For those users interested in trying something different, however, there's Circle Dock 32bit. This attractive desktop enhancement lets users arrange files in circular orbits, a novel and potentially very useful way to organize things.

The program's interface is attractive, consisting of a light blue ring with a bubble-like graphic in the middle. Right-clicking on this graphic brought up a menu with a variety of options, and at that point we decided that we needed to consult the built-in Help file before we proceeded any further. Using the program is actually pretty simple, once you review some basic directions. Users can right-click on the dock to add a folder, file, special item, or folder stack. Objects can also be dragged and dropped onto the dock from the desktop or Windows Explorer. There are a huge variety of options for customizing the dock and the objects in it, from user-defined icons to adjustments for opacity, dock shape and size, animation, and much more. The only aspect of Circle Dock that we had trouble with was rearranging the objects that we placed on it into different orbits; the Help file wasn't very clear about how to do this, and we never did figure it out. Still, Circle Dock is a fun and innovative way to organize files and folders, and it's worth checking out if you like to experiment with desktop enhancements.

Circle Dock 32bit comes as a zip file. It installs and uninstalls without issues. We recommend this program to all users.

Publisher's Description

From Rainmeter:

What Circle Dock Allows You to Do: Launch your programs from a circular dock.. Drag and drop your files, folders, and shortcuts onto a circular dock that you can re-size. Rotate the dock with either your mouse wheel or the keyboard arrow keys.. Change the image shown for the icons and change the skins (compatible with icons and skins for Rocket Dock, Object Dock). The dock appears where your mouse is by pressing a hotkey (default is F1) or your middle mouse button. A new settings panel that allows you to customize many options. It updates your dock as you make changes. See it change in real time. No need to press an OK button. Multi-language capable. Just translate the English.ini file to the language of your choice. 50+ Languages currently available. Change the image used for the dock icons with the easiest method out there: Just set the program to "Icon Replacement Mode" in the right-click menu of the center icon and you can change all the icon images by just dragging and dropping new PNG images onto them! Huge time saver when you are customizing your dock. Built in support for Windows HD Icons. Vector and detailed PNG's come through with great clarity. Toggle the visibility of the dock by moving your mouse to any edge of your screen. By default, the left and right edges are used for toggling. No need to press a button. Rotate the dock with your mouse wheel or arrow keys (customizable). Reorder and Organize the dock items with new adjustment interface. Located via right click on an item. By default, clicking on the center button does not open the start menu. You can enable this in the settings panel. New easy method of upgrading from older versions. Access help files from almost every setting window. Get the help you need immediately without having to search. Standalone Stacks 2 are now integrate and access directly by left clicking and selecting a stack option. Portability creation has never been easier. Now with an improved Circle Dock Portable Maker for Back up and distribution, and excellent Individual and corporate solution.

What's new in this version: Version 1.5.6 added an option to prevent the mouse-click that toggles the Dock's visibility from being passed-on to other applications. Added options to the actions for a left-click on the top level Centre Button. Added alternative translations for Hungarian, Lithuanian, Norwegian, Romanian, Slovak, Slovenian and Turkish. New included Applet: Wallpaper Auto-Changer.