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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.

[0] https://boringbar.app

Thanks! I'll be hanging around this thread for a few more hours. Let me know if there's any feature you need or any bug you encounter.

I reckon peeking into the individual iTerm/Brave/Chrome tabs would not be possible without disabling SIP. I need to research this a bit though.

1. Support for themes will probably not happen in the near future. I want to keep this as simple as possible.

2. Sure, I'll experiment with the Messages app to reproduce this. Thanks for pointing this out.

3. It's $10 per year and not month. There is a $40 perpetual license already on the purchase link - https://boringbar.app

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?

Hey, thanks for purchasing it!

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.

I'm able to reproduce the cmd+a issue. Will fix it in the next update. Thanks for letting me know.

The hitbox part is being requested a lot. It'll be a part of the next update too.

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.

I think that's fair.

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?

Technically it should - I tried using Amethyst with it for a few weeks before launch and it seemed to work fine for me.

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.

That feature is under development. Right now the windows are arranged based on which app was launched first.

I have some existing issues with uBar that I have listed here - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47746812.

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?

Hey - thanks for testing it out. Have you found any issues as of yet that I need to look into?

Apps like these unfortunately cannot be put on the App Store as they use some Window Server shenanigans to make it work. boringBar is notarized by Apple and will work well with Gatekeeper if that makes it any better.

Regarding business licensing - I know I need to make changes to the fixed number of users limit. The change for it is there but I need some more testing before that gets pushed out.

Apart from that - why do you think the tiered pricing is bad? As you have more users the price per user goes down essentially to ~$1.5 per year at the highest tier.

I've already used these apps and they did not serve my purpose well.

- I forced myself to use uBar but it has another level of jank that doesn't sit right with me - it is not reliable on a multi-monitor setup, there's no guarantee it'll work after waking up from sleep. If you maximize windows they will sit behind uBar sometimes - all of which boringBar does better and is more reliable at.

- Taskbar by Lawand is better than uBar but it has similar problems with multi-monitor support and wake from sleep. Apart from that their "start menu" app launcher is still in beta and you have to download a beta version from the developer's twitter page to actually use it. And obviously it's a subjective thing but the boringBar UI is a lot better - it integrates nicely with macOS.

Thanks for actually using the app. Appreciate it! I concur with the uBar issue - its jank was the main reason I built this app.

I didn't want to add the logout/restart/shutdown option initially, but I'll experiment with it to see how useful it is.

I get it now that folks absolutely loathe the idea of subscriptions - that too for a taskbar. In hindsight I too find it hideous but I wanted the pricing to reflect the effort that went into this - wrestling with the Window Server and Xcode for multiple weekends over the past months.

But hey, the masses have spoken - and a perpetual license it is. Vox populi, vox dei.

Hey. I'm seeing this issue with some other users as well and I'm trying to reproduce this - do you have the reduce transparency accessibility option enabled by any chance?

Thanks. Regarding your suggestions:

- I see, I can work on adding folders to the dock, sure.

- Fair. I think the clickable area is too small, right? I think I had the same issue as well but I got used to it. Nevertheless I'll push an update to fix this in some time.

- I'll experiment with a few toned down versions of the active window chip.

Thanks for your feedback!

These are NTP servers for checking time via the app. I'll fix this in an update today - it shouldn't be required in the trial version.

Okay this is most definitely a bug. Have you enabled reduce transparency in macOS settings by any chance?

I've added a perpetual license - $40 for 2 devices and 2 years of updates.