Update: As of today or sometime slightly before, you can now be exclusive guests to Cairo’s alpha software. If you go to their homepage, you will see a sign up sheet for potential testers who preferably have previous testing experience.
Cairo is a new type of Windows Shell alternative that will be released as a free standing application. There is no word yet on when it will be released but we can all hope it will be sooner than later. Many, including me at first, don’t have a clue what a Windows Shell Alternative is; but let me dumb it down for you. When you install a WSA, it replaces explorer.exe. Explorer.exe displays the icons, folders, start menu, and taskbar but Windows has made it possible to change it in numerous ways only if you are good at computers or if you’ve downloaded something like Cairo.
I was told about this revolutionary piece of “software” by a friend and I decided to do some of my own research. So far though, Cairo’s official website is the only place with reliable information.
Even with an official website it isn’t sufficient enough to write a full article so this is just an article in development. There are 9 features on Cairo that are either new or improvements on Windows’ version. Some of them are:
- A start bar with easy access to all your files and applications.
- Slick and Stable, you never hear those words together
- Multi-Desktop lets you easily organize your workload by desktop
- Dynamic Desktop enables you to browse files and folders right there
- Make virtual file stacks to easily locate files with File & Application Grouping
- Launch applications that are more frequently used and hide the ones you don’t with LaunchCairo
- Preview files and folders such as documents, music, and images with File Explorer
- Configure Cairo just the way you like it by adding and removing features with Cairo’s unique plugin system
Popularity: 13% [?]
Sounds cool,
you can also find an alternative project to WMP at :
http://www.codeplex.com/viewontv