Proposal: Command Palette Dock

[niels9001]

Description of the new feature / enhancement

The Command Palette Dock is a new optional UI surface that provides persistent, quick access to selected Command Palette extensions, and work in tandem with the Command Palette launcher.
The dock can be enabled from Command Palette settings and pinned to any edge of the screen. You’d be able to pin your favorite extensions to the dock for instant access, without opening Command Palette or interrupting your workflow. The goal is have a your favorite powertoys/tools one click away and can help with things like monitoring your system resources without opening task manager.

All existing extensions would just work without any code changes. When an extension is activated from the dock, its UI is rendered in a flyout, using the exact same extension UI already provided today in the launcher.
If the dock isn’t useful for you, it can simply be disabled and Command Palette continues to function exactly as it does now.

Customization

The dock is designed to be highly configurable. It can be positioned on the top, left, right, or bottom edge of the screen, and extensions can be pinned to three distinct regions of the dock: start, center, and end. Users can also customize the visual appearance, including background, styling, and theme behavior, similar to the main Command Palette shell. An edit mode allows extensions to be dragged, reordered, and moved freely between dock regions.

For extension developers

Extensions can also create their own dedicated dock experiences using the new ICommandProvider3::GetDockBands() function. This allows for extensions to create a set of buttons for users to pin.

Feedback

We’d love to hear your thoughts on this proposal:
• Is this something you’d find useful?
• Which extensions would you pin?
• What scenarios would benefit most from a docked experience?

If you’d like to experiment with it, you can check out the dev/migrie/f/powerdock branch and run the Microsoft.CmdPal.UI project in Visual Studio.

Pull requests and feedback are very welcome 😊

[TeddyAlbina]

It's super cool, but much more cooler would be if we can use it in replacement of the standard taskbar.

[tforster]

I paid a lot for my pixels, and I want to use every last one of them for my apps. Adding a second bar takes away valuable pixels. Let's augment the current taskbar and not add another one.

[gooberific]

I like the concept! I currently use Winstep Extreme to get something similar.

[niels9001]

I paid a lot for my pixels, and I want to use every last one of them for my apps. Adding a second bar takes away valuable pixels. Let's augment the current taskbar and not add another one.

Great feedback! Would you want to pin extensions to the taskbar? Deskbands comes to mind!

[NVins]

Will there be a tray function for background apps, the ability to pin to the taskbar, and the ability to resize the taskbar?

[Video-Nomad]

I paid a lot for my pixels, and I want to use every last one of them for my apps. Adding a second bar takes away valuable pixels. Let's augment the current taskbar and not add another one.

Great feedback! Would you want to pin extensions to the taskbar? Deskbands comes to mind!

Pinning widgets to the actual taskbar would be a great option. Having taskbar on the bottom and another bar on the top can be a bit too much when it comes to reserved screen space. Unless the proposed UI can replace most of the actual taskbar functionality (systray, opened windows, pinned icons) of course.

[ironhussar]

This is great, something I've been looking for. I'd definitely pin system resources and repo status. If I could write extensions to monitor my custom apps and support tickets, that would be incredible.

[ReginaldTang]

Is there any chance there could be an auto-hide option and it only shows when the cursor is moving near the dock and a specific key is pressed (eg when you dont want it taking up space on screen all the time), and it overlays on top of windows instead of resizing the windows when auto hide is on?

[ReginaldTang]

is it possible to add items that trigger PowerToys Run directly to the plugin?