sl23 wrote: ↑April 1st, 2023, 6:42 am
I use Firefox, and found it overlapped the tab bar. Maybe there's a trick to force apps not to encroach on that space?
Ah, I see, but for me, Firefox (107.0.1 x64) actually leaves more space than Chrome (111.0.5563.147 x64) at the top, by default (100% scaling):
Browsers Top Space.jpg
I don't know why or how for you it's different (FYI, right clicking on a side of the address bar allows you to customize the bars, panels and look of the Firefox window, so maybe that helps). There are some tricks for apps to not extend beyond a certain limit, even in Rainmeter, via
DesktopWorkArea, but unfortunately they are reset at resolution change, moving the taskbar and so on. Plus, such methods don't cover the full screen desktop apps (nor should they).
The only minor drawback to my layout is that when in some older school apps that have a title bar of a lesser height (i.e. not "metro style"), the skins cover the top half of that, but then, like you can see in the screenshot from my earlier reply, I made a small "button skin" placed at the top right corner of the screen (i.e. the one with a H on it) that hides, loads or unloads the entire suite except itself when clicking on it, so I can easily clear the area / fill it back when desired.
sl23 wrote: ↑April 1st, 2023, 6:42 am
I know what you're saying, re task bar, but I've always used Rainmeter that way.
Yeah, it crossed my mind too when designing my skins and their layout, but gave up on the task bar almost immediately for two reasons: one, the taskbar is hidden for full screen desktop apps, and two, some apps like video players and others have controls at the bottom and they would interfere with the skins if I placed them there (since the skins would be always on top). Of course, one can place the task bar at the top of the screen (or even make it "taller"), but it's a bit awkward like that...
sl23 wrote: ↑April 1st, 2023, 6:42 am
It's not really pretty, but I prefer function and minimalism over aesthetics.
I prefer that too. In my case, it would be pretty if all apps would have a sufficient title bar height - after all, I only need 12 pixels of height for any of them. The Firefox screenshot above is quite close to the ideal, but not all apps are like that. Sure, having images, bars, histograms and such in the skins would have made them more appealing visually; the problem is that text guarantees that the size is the minimum, any other form of displaying things needs more space to offer the same effect as the text. Plus, I have images (and, in theory, I could place literally anything) in my custom tooltips anyway, since they don't occupy space unless triggered to show, for more details on the matter.
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This assumes one sets only "one row" of skins in the suite to be always topmost - currently, 11 of my main 17 skins fit in that space at minimum reasonable size on my 1920 wide laptop screen. They don't interfere while watching movies either. Of course, scaling skins to be bigger cancels that advantage, unless the top bar gets bigger too - but then, one can freely select and place the skins wherever desired anyway, say, vertically in one or more "columns" instead of horizontally in "rows".
