SharpEnviro

SharpEnviro, previously known as SharpE and also shortened as #E, was an open-source shell replacement for Microsoft Windows XP and later versions, released under the GNU General Public License (GPL). The goal of the project was to create a user friendly desktop environment that provides advanced and modern desktop features but remains easily configurable. As for any windows shell replacement it is still possible to run any native Windows application when SharpEnviro is used.

SharpEnviro has been in active development since 1997 and has been undergoing several rewrites and development team changes. It was originally developed by members of Low Dimension International, many of whom are no longer involved in LDI but are still involved in the project. SharpEnviro split from LDI in summer 2005 and since then has been under continued development by the current development team.

As of November 29th, 2011, SharpEnviro has been discontinued.

User Interface

A key improvement the SharpEnviro shell has over Microsoft Windows Explorer shell is that it does not limit the desktop to a single or a fixed setup of the taskbar. Therefore, any number of toolbars (called a SharpBar) may be created and customized with any module the user desires. The range of modules available span from standard system functionality like a taskbar or start menu button to advanced features like cpu monitor, notes or media controller. By April 2010, more than 20 modules for the SharpBar had been available. The choice of modules to be put onto a bar and the alignment of modules and bars on screen is entirely decided by user's configuration.

The visual appearance of all graphical elements is powered by a complex skin system which utilizes alpha blending and a layer-based rendering engine. An important characteristic of the SharpEnviro skin system is the feature to change the colors of certain parts of the skin independently. For example, skins allow the user to change the color of background elements independently of other elements (such as button or highlight colors).

Configuring SharpE can be fully done using an easy-to-use graphical user interface. With SharpCenter, all settings of the shell can be managed and customized without the need to edit any settings file by hand. Even more complex parts of the shell such as the color scheme and toolbar management can be fully configured from within SharpCenter.

Technology

SharpEnviro was developed with Borland Delphi 2007, and targets Windows 2000 or higher. It makes heavy use of the JCL, JVCL and Graphics32 libraries for Delphi.

The shell is based on a modular design where the majority of functionality is loaded dynamically from external modules (Dynamic Link Libraries). There are three core components (SharpBar, SharpCore, SharpCenter) which uses and manages those modules, to expose the functionality of the modules to the end user. Such a modular system has the advantage where every interaction between modules and the hosting components is standardized through deployment of multiple Interfaces. Thus the interface data exchange and communication between the host components and modules is nearly unlimited, making it possible to share even complex functionality such as the skinning system.

The distinguishing feature from other shell replacement systems is that the modules are linked together by the core functionality provided by SharpCore. This means that certain functions such as Taskbar, System Notification Area, Virtual Desktops, Application launching, among others, are always routed through and managed by SharpCore - thus making all modules use, share and access the same core functionality of the shell environment.

Due to the absence of 64-bit compiler for Delphi, a small number of parts and components of the shell are written in C#, requiring SharpEnviro to be run with the presence of .NET Framework 3.5.

New Functionality

Some of the features which are distinctly new when compared to features in the Windows shell are:

• Multiple and independently configurable toolbars (which are similar to the taskbar).
• Application Bars (pinning applications to the taskbar, similar to what was introduced with Windows 7).
• Up to 12 Virtual Desktops.
• Multi Monitor support (toolbars/taskbars on each monitor, different wallpapers on each monitor, etc).
• Allows most common media players to be controlled directly from the toolbars or with special keys on multimedia keyboards (without the need of installing additional software).
• Allows taking and organizing notes anywhere on screen.

Critique

• Due to the modular design and the shell being written in Delphi, the memory and disc space usage is higher compared to other Windows shell replacements. With an overall memory usage of 40 MB to 60 MB and disc space requirements of about 120 MB, SharpEnviro cannot be counted as among the lightweight minimalistic shells.

• The absence of any free/personal version of Delphi 2007 (or later) available is a discouragement for third party developers to create new modules or contribute source code patches to the shell.

• Unicode support was planned for future releases, but will remain unavailable due to the project’s discontinuation.

See also

• Shell (computing)
• Windows shell
• Windows shell replacement

External links

• Main SharpEnviro site
• SharpEnviro Project Page on SourceForge.net
• Discontinuation topic on the SharpEnviro Forums