If you want to get Mac-like Dock on Window 7 which lets you access and switch between applications quickly you can use Winstep Nexus freeware provides one-click access to frequently used apps, folder and documents without need to sacrifice your taskbar.
Using Winstep Nexus
After installing the app dock appears on top of screen with files, folders and virtual objects includes Nexus Control Icon, Start Menu, clock, Recycler, CPU Meter ,Weather gadget, RAM meter and capture desktop screenshot talking tool. You can right-click on Nexus control icon and get all options from the context menu like to insert a new dock icon, preferences, screen position, you can the lock icons. Click on “capture desktop” icon to save the current desktop screenshot to the desktop.
You can hide the dock by double clicking on Control Icon, right-click on it to get the context menu. You can open Nexus Preferences with Ctrl +F11 shortcut or from the context menu of Control icon by selecting preferences. You can add new item to the dock by dragging and dropping shortcuts from explorer onto the Dock, similarly you can remove any item on dock by right-clicking on it and selecting “Remove from dock ” on context menu or just drag-n- drop to the Recycler module will also do the job.
By default all running apps won’t be shown on dock which you can enable under “Running applications“ for Content tab. If you’re running too many apps the dock expands it self horizontally to give the space for the icons. If you hover your mouse pointer over these icons explanation shown via tooltips which you can enable/disable on General tab under Preferences.
By default dock will be displayed on top of screen which you can change from Position tab in preferences to any one of bottom/left/right. You can prevent maximized windows from overlapping on position tab. You can auto-hide the dock after short delay (option can be found in Behavior tab) which you can activate with your mouse pointer by hovering over the edge of the screen.
You can control the spacing between the icons, size of icons, dock transparency in Appearance section. You can select and apply different themes to dock from Themes tab, preview of the dock shown on right-pane on selection of theme.
This app doesn’t consume too many resources though you can make this app to consume less resources by disabling any one/all three of window thumbnails, module icon cache, magnification, in performance settings Under Advanced tab in preferences . Beautification the way dock function might not experienced by disabling these features, hence it is better leave them as it is.
If you changed dock settings and want to revert back to default you can do that in Troubleshooting options in Advanced tab.
Winstep Nexus works on Windows XP/Vista/7.