Cairo-Dock

Free
Open Source
Linux
Online

Cairo-Dock Alternatives

16
Options
Considered
2022-01-05
Last
Updated

#1 RocketDock

Free
Proprietary
Windows
Online

RocketDock is one of the most popular program docking and application launchers available for Windows that makes it easy to organize shortcuts, folders, and running programs on your desktop. The program allows you to create multiple icons on the desktop for one application or to organize your shortcuts in groups.

It has an array of features, including the ability to add docks to each side of the screen, the ability to change the height of each dock, the ability to change icon size, the ability to add a background image behind each dock, and the ability to create skins that will change the look of your dock. It can be used to launch any application, document, or URL with a single click. The layout can be customized to suit the user. The dock can be placed on any edge of the screen and can even be hidden until activated and became very popular as a third-party replacement for the Windows taskbar.

#2 Taskbar Tweaker

Free
Proprietary
Windows
Online

Taskbar Tweaker is a handy application that allows you to configure various aspects of the Windows taskbar. The main function of this platform includes you can change the text shown when the taskbar is locked, show the clock on your taskbar, disable the auto-hide functionality of the taskbar, hide icons on your taskbar and restore them with a simple mouse gesture, which allows you to drag and drop application windows, select an automatic icon layout for your taskbar.

Other functions are you can add a separator between groups of icons in your taskbar, add an icon to every group on your taskbar, and many others. Taskbar Tweaker allows you to change the position of the taskbar on the screen, such as left, middle, or right, and lets you set a custom size for the taskbar buttons and many others.

#3 Docky

Free
Open Source
Linux
Online
Github

Docky is a full-fledged dock application that makes common opening applications and managing windows easier and quicker. It displays icons when there is something in the queue for you to see or can be set up to display a variety of other application launchers or even your favorite websites. The main aim is to allow the user to have a number of commonly used applications and/or websites available from one place, making it easier and quicker to use them.

Docky is the dock for your Linux desktop that sits in the corner of your screen. It gives you quick access to whatever you want to do, be it browsing the web, chatting with your friends, or editing a document. It consists of an interface that is both beautiful and simple, giving you the feeling of actually going about your work instead of just working. It sits in the corner of your screen, just waiting for you to throw windows in its direction. You can also use it to launch applications by simply clicking or dragging them to the dock.

#4 Avant Window Navigator

Free
Open Source
Linux
Github
Online

Avant Window Navigator is a dock-like navigation bar for the Linux desktop that is designed to be lightweight and fast while providing useful features. The taskbar provides functionality similar to that of a taskbar found in Microsoft Windows. It can be used to pin applications and provide a launch bar for applications, as well as show all open windows of the currently focused application. The notification Area provides notifications of events such as messages and updates in an area similar to the notification tray found in some versions of Microsoft Windows. The clipboard collects and synchronizes the system clipboard between multiple computers running a program implementing the Awn Clipboard Server using RDP or SSH.

It aims to be very fast, very lightweight, and visually appealing. It has been designed with efficiency, usability, and flexibility in mind. It allows you to launch your favorite applications, show system information, and control your music playing. Avant Window Navigator has been designed with today’s screen resolution in mind. It has a taskbar-like layout and places great emphasis on usability and easy configuration.

#5 Winstep Nexus

Freemium
Proprietary
Windows
Online

Winstep Nexus is the best way to get to your favorite applications, documents, and files. Its elegant, fully customizable user interface adds a new dimension to your Windows experience and allows you to create the New Windows Experience: You can start with a convenient default layout or rearrange its elements to suit your needs with just a few mouse clicks. Use the Explorer Favorites plug-in to display your favorite folders and files context menu.

Use the Search Bar to quickly find your favorite program, document, or folder. Use the Hotkeys plug-in to assign application hotkeys to your favorite or most used programs as well as common tasks. Use the Task Manager plug-in to view, rearrange and disable your running programs. It is one of the most customizable and flexible docks available and is one of the best replacements for the standard Quick Launch Bar or Taskbar on Windows Vista.

#6 Plank

Free
Open Source
Linux
Online

Plank was designed from the ground up with the goal of making it the simplest dock on the planet. It consists of just two files like an executable and a config file that do all the magic. To get started, download the latest tarball, put it on your dock, and double-click it. When you start this software for the first time, you’ll be presented with a dark screen with a single button, saying “Press me,” and once Plank is open, press it again to hide it.

The magic of Plank lies in its simplicity. It floats in your dock and doesn’t get in your way. This allows you to place as many app icons on your dock as you’d like, up to 10. It can be configured to display all notification icons as small images and can display user-defined non-standard icons like battery, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and many others.

#7 ObjectDock

Free
Proprietary
Windows
Online

ObjectDock is an animated dock for Windows that enables you to quickly access and launch your favorite applications. It offers a better method of launching your favorite applications than the standard Windows Start menu, giving you a fast and easy way to launch your favorite programs. It is much more than a replacement taskbar; it is a way to make your computer conform to how you work, instead of forcing you to use the Windows Start menu or desktop icons.

The dock can be configured to automatically hide or float and can be restored by either double-clicking on an icon or simply hovering over the ObjectDock bar with your cursor. The icons and hotkeys can be configured in any way desired. The icons can even be larger than normal desktop icons and configured to live preview the content. The program is fully configurable: you can customize the number of icons on each tab, change the maximum number of icon rows, and specify the way each icon should be displayed. You can also specify the position of new windows when they are opened and create hotkeys.

#8 Tint2

Free
Open Source
Linux
Online

Tint2 is one of the efficient platforms that allows you to organize your desktop via the panel, taskbar, start menu, system tray, clock, launchers and apply any desired look & feel. It is a completely standalone program and is perfectly suited for use as a library or as an engine for other artwork. You can easily add applets to your panel to see notifications or provide information at a glance.

Tint2 is a panel that sits in your system tray and holds application launchers. You can add as many items as you want, for example, to start applications, run scripts, or launch URLs. Other function of this platform includes you can quickly access and launch your favorite applications, can customize to suit your needs, the dock displays all of your favorite applications with your choice of icons, pictures, or text, easy to use with many features like configurable themes, background pictures, auto-hide and timed hiding options.

#9 Latte Dock

Free
Open Source
FreeBSD
Linux
Ubuntu
Github
Online

Latte Dock is a beautiful and simple dock that follows the form of your monitor and adapts its form to the current wallpaper. It contains a task list that is made of actual tasks instead of simple application icons; they represent your tasks in their most natural shape. The task list will try to adapt to every size of your screen, so you can have Latte no matter what size your screen is.

Latte Dock is a dock based on plasma frameworks that provides an elegant and intuitive experience for your tasks and plasmoids. It uses action buttons to provide quick access to tasks; the taskbar itself can be hidden by a single mouse click. Another function of this platform includes it also enables users to gain quick access to all their favorite apps. Besides this, it also provides a quick launch for apps like Edge and File Explorer.

#10 TaskbarDock

Free
Open Source
Github
Windows
Online

TaskbarDock is an application that enables users of Windows operating systems to customize Windows desktops with some additional features. Users can add a wide range of tools and shortcut solutions to their systems desktop with the purpose of making their computing and working experience more efficient and easier. The application’s main features include dragging, reordering, and docking windows into custom positions on the desktop. It also enables users to create virtual desktops and launch applications from there as well as setting shortcuts for fast access.

In the system tray, you can use the application to access a configuration menu where you can modify the settings for the application and for the program as well. Nowadays, with the appearance of Windows 10 s, users have encountered some particular issues. The famous desktop application taskbar has now been moved to the bottom part of the screen. Because of this situation, many users tend to change their habits regarding apps usage. They are not able to see many useful things in the system tray that used to appear on the top left corner.

#11 DockView

Paid
Proprietary
Mac
Online

DockView is a utility that adds a preview of the windows of the selected application in the macOS Dock. The preview is rendered with the same appearance as the application’s window, and it is resized accordingly with the application window; this preserves the correct aspect ratio and allows a better view of the contents of the window. It adds icons to visually group windows and to differentiate pinned/minimized windows from active ones.

The preview is displayed as an icon with the window title, such as “Microsoft Outlook Draft Message.” The application is also able to show a preview of the full-screen windows with the help of a hotkey. The DockView window can be docked at any side of the screen, and its position can be saved as well and can be moved or resized. The dock preview appears when the cursor hovers over the Dock icon of the corresponding application.

#12 Dash to dock

Free
Open Source
FreeBSD
Linux
Online

Dash to dock is an extension for the GNOME 3 environment that allows adjusting various settings related to the dock: The extension has been developed by David King, allows hiding the dock when it’s not needed, and shows it again when the user clicks on a small popup in the upper part of the screen.

It provides the user with an interface to customize the position and size of the dock, the number of its icons, its label text, and many other settings. The main idea behind this is to display only those parts of applications that are actually relevant to the user and that are needed to accomplish certain tasks.

#13 7Stacks

Free
Proprietary
Windows
Online

7Stacks is one of the leading applications that lets you customize your home screen icons, making them easier to manage. Its aim is to help users with the organization of their icons and make it easier to navigate through their home screen. It allows you to use the size of the icon you want for each one and pick the most convenient layout, according to your habits.

For example, if you have apps that you often use but not necessarily all of them at the same time, you can choose to have seven small icons instead of four big ones, or vice versa. By picking a layout, the user automatically picks all the sizes for the small and large icons. With this new functionality, you can use up to eight different layouts, put large icons on small ones, or put small ones on a large one. The user interface of 7Stacks is very easy to navigate.

#14 Stacky

Free
Open Source
Windows
Github
Online

Stacky is a small program for Windows that displays the contents of a given directory as a list of clickable, labeled icons. When the mouse cursor is over an icon, the label is displayed. A right-click on an icon displays a menu with some options applicable to that type of icon. It supports two modes: In the first mode, it displays contents of a directory and allows to navigate between subfolders, launch executable files, or open files in the associated application via the context menu.

In order to make this mode easier for users, it implements its own file system with support for drag-and-drop operations between the internal file manager and Windows Explorer. It allows to quickly flip through files and folders without the need to open Windows Explorer, Alt-Tab between windows, or memorize file paths in order to navigate to them. Stacky has been designed to be very easy to use. It is fully pluggable and written in C# for Windows, but there are also several plugins available. Permissions, column order, and other aspects of the display can be configured from a simple configuration file.

#15 TaskbarX

Free
Proprietary
Windows
Online
Github

TaskbarX is one of the reliable software that gives you a similar experience to the Apple Dock. It allows you to quickly launch applications, folders, and documents for Windows. It is very useful for those users who are using Windows 7 because of its full-screen mode that allows them to use multi-desktop in Windows. For example, for a user who likes working on multiple desktops, the software allows it to launch applications more quickly, keep an eye on my notifications, and open files quickly without having to go through the Windows File Explorer.

TaskbarX is also very lightweight software and will not slow down your computer’s performance. The settings allow you to change the position of the TaskbarX Menu, resize it and turn it off when you don’t need it. The Quick Launch bar is the Taskbar’s most used feature when compared to other Taskbar functions. If you are like most Windows users, you probably use the Taskbar mostly to launch programs and display the time, date, and other system indicators.

#16 DragThing

Freemium
Proprietary
Mac
Online

DragThing was an open-source application for Mac OS X that used a different approach to visualizing running applications. Instead of the dock’s complex relationship between an application icon, an application window, and the application process, it displayed only the application icon in the dock. A user could easily start or stop an application by clicking on its icon in the dock and could launch a new instance of an application. When multiple instances of an application were running, they all had separate icons in the dock.

It allowed users to launch apps from the dock and perform actions on selected files in the dock. It allowed the creation of “albums,” each containing multiple “screens.” Each screen could have one of three modes: a normal application window, a full-screen “cover flow” view, or a clock. In cover flow mode, the album’s screens were presented as if wrapped around a cylinder. DragThing comes with its own built-in screensaver, which uses its album feature, but it can be configured to load any screensaver instead.