A bit of self-promotion here, but coming from Windows/Linux land I got used to having the taskbar at the bottom and never really liked the Dock. I love my Mac, and I know folks who have been using macOS for decades swear by it, but this is one UI feature from other OSes that I would have liked to see in macOS.
One major issue is that the Dock cannot filter apps between Spaces, so I built boringBar[0] for this. It frees up real estate taken up by the Dock and makes it much easier to figure out what goes where.
I do understand the need for an app switcher on the Mac, though. It has the same problem I faced: it is very app-centric rather than window-centric. Switching between windows is nigh impossible on a Mac without third-party apps, unless you like using the three-finger swipe up gesture. I have never been able to switch quickly between windows using Mission Control.
OP here - I think I need to focus more on accessibility features in the next few releases. Could you please post a screenshot of how boringBar looks to you right now?
I'll take a look into the app launcher issues that you are pointing out. The drag and drop feature will be implemented later this week in the bar window list and in the app menu as well.
I'll research a bit into the offline activation methods as well to see what best suits this app.
Clicking on the chip and not having the window come to the foreground is a fairly weird issue. Do you have anything else installed that uses Accessibility permissions?
On the other observation, it works this way because apps on macOS do not usually quit when you close all of their windows. If you start an already open app again when it has no windows open, it will bring the app into focus, and you will see it in the menu bar.
Regarding your recommendation, I think I’ll need to experiment with it a bit, since it’ll be important to differentiate between pinned apps and apps with no windows in the bar.
Hey! Thanks for checking it out. Regarding your feedback:
- This has been said by another user as well. I am on a 4K monitor - if possible could you share a screenshot of how it looks like currently?
- That's a fair ask. I will take a note of it.
- Drag and drop is something I am working on as well. It will be released in the next version of the app.
- Again, fair. I think I got used to it because I've been using it for a while. But this is being worked on as well and will be released in the next version.
- Ability to give a desktop a name is easy enough. I'll work on this.
- Ability to map a key or sequence for the app menu - you can already do this from the boringBar settings: Just right click on the empty space in the bar and select settings. You can then record a shortcut there.
Regarding the first bug: I do not have a fix for it yet, but I am trying to reproduce it as of now.
I'll try to reproduce the second one as well - this shows up if you are trying thumbnails for the first time - but only just one pop up and not this many.
My use case is fairly simple: I usually have multiple VS Code windows open at the same time and I have a habit of moving windows related to a certain task to a specific space. The default Dock mixes every window up and I just want to offload the which-window-is-where tracking to some other app - in this case boringBar.
I tried Sidebar, uBar - all of them. All of them have the same set of issues that they don't take care of windows that are being maximized (they end up behind the bar) and they have intermittent issues with waking up from sleep.
boringBar does not suffer from these issues. That's the reason why I built it. It works as expected from day 1.
Hey. OP here - which part of boringBar did you find slow? Is it the time it takes to hover on a window to show its thumbnail? Or is it something else you think needs improvement?
Wow okay - I thought the large option was already quite large. Will experiment with an extra large option in some time and push out an update if it appears stable.
It does! That's the USP here - it's present on all spaces and it only shows windows on that space.
If you have multiple displays and have the "Displays have separate spaces" option disabled in macOS settings even then you can have the bar displayed on all displays from the boringBar settings.
All in all it does not seem like a polished app to me. I tried using it and I could not bring myself to buy it. The main reasons being its issues with multi-monitor support and waking up from sleep. boringBar does not have these issues.
- I cannot seem to find Mbar on stacksocial. Do you have a link for that?
- Sidebar looks like a decent app but on a cursory look it does not seem to take care of window overlapping (atleast on Tahoe). You can expand windows behind Sidebar and they stay there. This problem does not exist on boringBar.
OP here - for boringBar you can use the same license for your new machine. It would not be an issue. Keep in mind though boringBar on your previously activated device will stop working after 30 days if it exceeds the device limit on your license.
OP here - much appreciated. Is there something that you didn't like about boringBar? Is there any missing feature you would like to see implemented or is it that it doesn't fit well with your current muscle memory with the system Dock?
One major issue is that the Dock cannot filter apps between Spaces, so I built boringBar[0] for this. It frees up real estate taken up by the Dock and makes it much easier to figure out what goes where.
I do understand the need for an app switcher on the Mac, though. It has the same problem I faced: it is very app-centric rather than window-centric. Switching between windows is nigh impossible on a Mac without third-party apps, unless you like using the three-finger swipe up gesture. I have never been able to switch quickly between windows using Mission Control.
[0] https://boringbar.app