Destructive Incorporated

Are you bored of Windows, and think there could be a better way to launch applications from within it? Do you wish your computer felt more like OSX, only without the Apple attached to it? If you answered yes to these questions, then RocketDock may be just what you've been looking for.

Nobody can describe RocketDock better than the creators themselves:

A dock is simply a bar that can be set to the edge of your screen with a background and a row of icons. The function of a dock is to bring applications and other various shortcuts to you in an organized fashion relieving your desktop of clutter.

RocketDock looks and feels just like the application launcher on an Apple computer. When you move your mouse over the icons, they get bigger just as you need them too. The dynamic icons really let you appreciate a well-made icon, like that of Firefox, Google Earth, or Day of Defeat: Source (although on the flip-side, icons from SoulSeek, Battlefield 2, and Oblivion leave much to be desired). Applications launch just as fast as if you were to click on a regular Windows shortcut. You may add new icons or remove old ones as you need, and, if necessary, you can edit any of their regular command-line options. Also, there are tons of skins for download, and you can tell the program to auto-hide or not.

Simply put, I wouldn't use this program if there were any hits on my overall system performance. Well, if there were any performance hits that I couldn't avoid. Although the program does run smoothly for the most part, I must admit that it does have a couple bugs. First of all, after playing a full screen game, the program might "lag" when you get back into windows. That is to say, it won't scroll or drop down from its auto-hide quite as smoothly as it usually would. Fortunately, if this bug happens, it goes away after restarting the program. Secondly, if you don't tell the program to auto-hide, when a maximized application window is minimized RocketDock will just EAT your system resources for a couple seconds. This can easily be avoided by telling the app to auto-hide though. Last of all, I'd like to be able to configure some sort of delay time for the auto pop-up feature - sometimes I'll go to move one of my open windows and end up accidentally launching a RocketDock app...!

Overall RocketDock will keep you happy. Well, it'll keep you happy until they either A) smooth some kinks out of it, or b)something better comes along. It can hold a decent amount of applications, and it can be pretty handy to get your software organized and ready to go. I don't have any excuses for you though if your Apple friends make fun of you for using it. :D