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I was wondering how to make like one of those silent programs that run on your desktop but at the same time doesn't show a picture in your taskbar in the bottom?

This is kind of hard to explain since my experience is limited to making GUIs that show up in the taskbar and has the top bar with the minimize, maximize, and close buttons.

I want to make a program running that is something like this:

enter image description here

See those boxes? How would I create something like that with Java?

r1nzler
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  • For what OS and windowing system? That'll make a huge difference in the answer (if it's possible at all). – Andrew White Feb 17 '13 at 03:01
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    those are desktop widgets/gadgets if i'm wrong. i suppose each OS desktop (Windows , Gnome , Mac os x) has a mechanism for desktop widgets/gadgets development. search the web for the term `desktop windows 7 widgets /gadgets` .see for example http://stackoverflow.com/questions/902818/how-to-get-started-with-windows-7-gadgets – othman Feb 17 '13 at 03:25

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You can use translucent windows in Java: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/uiswing/misc/trans_shaped_windows.html

It will depend on the capabilities of the platform (that you can query for). You will probably need at least per-pixel transparency, if not translucency. No idea if they are supported on both Windows 7 and Mac, you have to try.

Cyrille Ka
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