Power Windows
written by Gregory D. Landweber

Do you love the translucent effect that you get when dragging an icon in the Finder? Do you wish you could do the same when dragging a window instead of seeing just a dotted outline? If so, then Power Windows will fit the bill. This control panel provides the enhancement of live updating while dragging a window, drawing a replica either as solid or with a defined level of transparency. The effect is actually quite stunning. The drawing routine is surprisingly efficient despite its lack of PPC code, and this utility does not produce the dreaded "big eraser effect" that is seen with other utilities of its kind. However, the need for processing power increases substantially as you drag larger windows, especially with translucency turned on. Consequently, a window size limit slider is provided which configures Power Windows to simply draw the titlebar and border for a window larger than the specified limit. That way one can enjoy the translucent dragging of smaller windows without choking the processor with larger ones. This control panel has a small memory footprint, reserving only 32 K of memory and ties in nicely with the Finder's translucent dragging of icons. Hopefully Apple will incorporate this small but impressive interface touch in future versions of the Mac OS, mainly because real-time visual feedback when dragging a window allows a user to more precisely position windows on screen. Besides it looks so doggone cool!

Power Windows requires a Power Macintosh or Macintosh with a 68020 processor or better. Window dragging, particularly translucent dragging, is extremely processor intensive, and works best on a fast machine. Power Windows is fully compatible with all system versions from System 7 through Mac OS 9.

Report written by Jeremy Hoesly
Software Tester for ResExcellence