Wbar is a quick launch bar. It's fast, light and cool eye-candy. It's hacked in c++ trying to keep code as readable as possible without sacrificing speed. It works directly on top of X to avoid going through a lot of layers. Initially it was developed for Fluxbox, then tested on WindowMaker, Xfce, and Gnome 2 and it works very well with other window managers, too. Since version 1.0 Wbar can run on top of desktops such as xfdesktop or Nautilus with the -above-desk switch. CONFIGURATION: Wbar-config is the recommended tool to customize Wbar. It is completely optional but very easy to use. You can tweak the icon size and distance, adjust Wbar's position on the screen and also change effects like transparency, color filter and jump factor. See also wbar(1) and wbar-config(1). 5.2. make-conf.sh If you don't want to install a GUI application to configure Wbar, the next best solution to create an initial wbar.cfg would be the make-conf.sh script. The script searches for installed desktop files in /usr/share/applications and creates an initial config in /tmp with the corresponding icons in your pixmaps and hicolor directories in /usr/share. Just copy the config file to ~/.wbar and you're set. 5.3. Manual method Wbar will look for your configuration in $HOME/.wbar first or will use the global configuration file in /etc/wbar.d/wbar.cfg. .wbar format: --------------- Commented lines start whith #. Blank lines are ignored. Example: Each icon has the following format: i: c: t: The order of appearance doesn't matter but all 3 of these lines must appear. If you aren't gonna display text nor have a command associated for a certain icon you should do the following: i: c: t: The first icon definition has a special meaning: ------------------------------------------------ i: c: wbar --bpress --above-desk --vbar --pos right --isize 64 --idist 5 --nanim 4 --falfa 65 t: IF A FONT ISN'T SUPPLIED THEN NO TEXT RENDERING IS DONE. Notes: ------ If you're getting window decorations (you shouldn't) when you start your window manager because you're using the -above-desk switch, try to give the WM some time to start up before wbar does. Example (in your startup script): (sleep 5s && wbar) & Note that the parenthesis surrounding the command are important.