Well, the house is a shambles, the front steps and sidewalk have yet to be shoveled after an overnight snowstorm, holiday stuff is scattered everwhere and there are about a half dozen messages on the answering machine that haven't been played back. My wife is at work, and I should be busy myself, editing technical manuscripts that are due quite soon and picking up around the house, but I can't bring myself to bother with any of it. I've put my entire life on hold for no other reason than that I've found a new toy I simply can't stop playing with. It's a Windows executable called Show Desktop developed by DeviantART's own *Cellular [link] . It's an amazing little standalone app that consists of a small button positioned to the right of the Windows taskbar. When clicked , the button minimizes all windows currently opened on the desktop. If the small rectanglular button is right-clicked, a compact menu appears that offers some very big options which are quite useful. Not only is it possible to personalize the application's settings (splash screen on/off, button width, etc.) but the user is also offered the option to log off Windows, switch users, go on standby, enter hibernation, or even shutdown or restart their system.
These features alone would make this tiny app a treasure, but it's not why I'm sitting in front of this console, downing my third Red Bull and watching my life go out the window. The reason I can't stop playing with Show Desktop< is because of the Aero Peek function, a Windows 7 feature I never
thought I'd witness on a lowly XP machine. And the amazingthing is, it works! I did have to fish around a bit, mousing over the button once or twice the first time I looked for it till I found the 'sweet spot', but once discovered, the function is very easy to relocate.
Now, if one adds to these features the fact that the Aero Peek function is fully customizable, the attractive and unobtrusive splash screen can be disabled, all functions can be managed from the button itself (as opposed to working from a systray icon) you have, in my opinion, one of the three handiest apps (the other two being InTime's Aero 7 Xtreme for XP Windowblinds [link] and CAD 2009 Edition v1.6 for XP by Flawless02
[link] ) ever devised to transform Windows XP's interface into a Win 7-like
environment. I very highly recommend this amazing app with the tiny footprint, but, if you will accept a word of warning, do not install it until after the sidewalk is shoveled and your household chores are attended to, because once you begin playing with Show Desktop, it's incredibly easy to lose awareness of your surrondings or even space/ time itself..