Standalone Stack: launch your favorite folders as hovering “stacks”
Standalone Stack is a free software that can launch any folder in Mac-style popup icon stacks that appear when you click on a shortcut and fade out when you move or click away. Supports two styles of icons: “grid” and “fan”.
I am always looking for cool and useful ways to access my favorite folders, and when it comes to the coolness factor especially “Standalone Stack” scores full marks. Note that this program is based on “Stacks Docklet“, which is an add-on developed for Mac-Style Windows’ docking launchers such as “RocketDock“, “RK Launcher“, and Y’s Dock, but has been adapted to work from the desktop environment using simple shortcuts.
Practical applications for this software: Standalone Stack enables you to create shortcuts that point to folders, whereby clicking on the shortcut displays the contents of the folder in a hovering stack. You can use these, say, on your desktop to launch your favorite folders or as an apps launcher (if you create a shortcut that points to a folder full of program shortcuts). You could also use these “Stack shortcuts” as building blocks for use in other launchers (such as Circle Dock, for example, or even in the Windows Quick-Launch tray). I’ve been using my Stack shortcuts within a new toolbar inside the taskbar (see image to the right), which I’m finding to be a great way to access favorite folders.
More notes on this program:
How to use: unzip in the location you want, then create a shortcut to “StandaloneStack.exe”. Go to properties and in the target field type in any name in front of “StandaloneStack.exe” (with a space separating them). Next run the shortcut and under the “Folder: Filesystem Folder” entry browse to the folder you are interested in. Next choose “sort by” (optional) and lastly choose Fan or Grid style (do not use the icon field). Click “OK”. Your shortcut is now ready and you can rename it, move it, and change its icon as you would any other shortcut.
Image thumbnails: images in stacks appear as thumbnail previews, which is a quite nice (see example).- Visual effects: the stacks feature a nice animated effect as they are unfolding or fading away, which is worth mentioning.
- Command line parameters: can be used to set the orientation of the stack if need be.
The verdict: I like this insofar as you can use these shortcuts as building blocks in all sorts of places on your desktop. I am also pleased that the standalone version of this is free from some of the bugs that afflicted the original docking-launcher version (which if I remember correctly does not auto-refresh). If you put some time into it you can probably come out with some interesting uses for this that have a high wow-factor to boot!
Version Tested: 1.0
Compatibility: Windows XP/Vista/NT 2000 SP4.
Go to the program page to download the latest version (approx 413K).
great post. was looking for something like this.
I’ve tried using this product but every single time I do:
“Go to properties and in the target field type in any name in front of “StandaloneStack.exe” (with a space separating them).”
And I press ok it says the target box is invalid.
And if i try to run the shortcut it gives me this:
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii143/TheExcidium/untitled-7.jpg
(I’ve tried running it without closing the properties box as well)
Any chances of helping me out?
You can try similar free software Gizmo Toolbar, which comes as part of Gizmo suite (with more useful tools).
@ Ciel: rename the shortcut target to something like:
“D:\Downloads\StandaloneStack\StandaloneStack.exe downloads”
i.e. put the description AFTER the “exe” (with a space).
Then when you run it it will prompt you to browse for the folder to stack, with other options. I prefer the fan display myself.
Ummm…Gizmo is nothing like this.
blogward, I’ve tried doing that… many times in fact but everytime i click ok to the properties this keeps popping out.
http://i263.photobucket.com/albums/ii143/TheExcidium/untitled-8.jpg
P.S. I’m using Windows XP Home SP3
@Ciel: Your folder path has a space in it (”Documents and Settings”), you need to make sure you have quotation marks in the right place:
i.e.: “C:\Documents and Settings\Owner\Desktop\StackDocklet\StandaloneStack.exe” desktop
Notice how the description “desktop” is outside of the quotation marks.
cool that worked!
Thanks!
When I try to use it, I get a dialog box that says, “Error loading plugin”
My Target is set to “C:\Standalone Stack\StandaloneStack.exe” desktop
Nevermind. Stupid me didn’t extract it correctly. I had dragged all the files to a folder on the desktop and the app needs the dll and png files in a seperate folder.
[...] Standalone Stack: this freeware allows you to create folder shortcuts that, when clicked, open up as Mac-style [...]
[...] Standalone Stack: this freeware allows you to create folder shortcuts that, when clicked, open up as Mac-style [...]
[...] the most part all you have to do is create a shortcut to the executable, and run it (FreewareGenius has screenshots of the setup process). When you do that you’ll be prompted to choose what [...]
I found on Windows 7 and Windows Vista (doesn’t work on XP)that you can use a combination of the Windows keys while pressing numbers 1-9 to open up shortcuts in the corresponding taskbar/quicklaunch spot. So I put the stack in my number 1 spot taskbar/quicklaunch area and hit “Windows key+1″. It will open the stack at my mouse point for immediate clicking action, which makes this a really cool app even better.
Couldn’t get it to work properly in 64-bit Vista without running the main
program as “Administrator”. The shortcuts created, though, don’t require
that to function.
[...] via|freewaregenius WikioWikio [...]
Pretty nice. it’s an alternative from using the rocketdock or objectdock software. i use objectdock myself and it includes the fly out stack ability too…buuuut..
back in the old days when cpu and ram ratings weren’t that great for a lot of apps running in the back ground..i found an alternative method..a bit hardy but you wont need to install anything aside from having windows itself…it wont be as pretty but it wont eat as much ram and cpu cycles either.the answer is..Toolbars. yep..i’ll explain how i do it:
•Set up a folder anywhere in your pc name it shortcuts.
•set up different folders inside with names such as graphics, media players, games..etc..you’re type of software that you can distinguish apart.
•inside those folder you can create a shortcut to the appropriate applications like for example in the graphics folder you have a shortcut to your adobe photoshop.exe.
•after fixing up your shortcuts and everything else..right click on the taskbar itself (a blank area) and choose toolbars…choose new toolbar and point/target it to a folder inside your shortcuts folder.
•and voila you have yourself a stack-like applications launcher on the taskbar that saved you hard drive space, memory and cpu cycles..
• and the neat thign about this is…after setting it all app..you can simply make a “.zip” copy of your shortcuts for back up use just in case you need to reformat you pc with the same old app…no problems with re-isntalling or compatibility issues.
i know it’s a lot harder than simply clicking “Install” but it’s an option.