Stick

Description: Stick is a free program that introduces tabs attached to the sides of your screen (called "Screen Tabs") that can display notes, folder contents, web pages, RSS feeds, as well as mini apps such as a calendar or calculator.

If you have folders that you always work with, or a web page that you like to always be easily accessible, notes that you frequently refer to or, say, an RSS feed that you like to check frequently you might want to give this program a try. "Stick" enables you to use "Screen tabs" attached to any of the four sides of your screen that you can easily expand and retract, and that can display the following: rich text notes, RSS feeds, folders, web pages, a (non-interactive) calendar, and a calculator app.

What I like about this program:

• It can look elegant: meaning that (a) you can use this to good effect in your quest to reduce clutter on your desktop, and that (b) of the handful of "skins" available is possible to use a configuration that looks good and adds to the desktop experience. (Conversely, you can end up with some pretty ugly tabs on your desktop, but you can only blame yourself if that happens).
• Favorite folders as Screen Tabs: having a handful of your favorite or frequently used folders easily accessible through retractable tabs on the side of the screen is a very good idea; esp as these support drag and drop, context menu commands, different views, and navigating the directory structure. There’s even a little arrow button that opens the actual folder for you in explorer.
• Web pages as Screen Tabs: I didn’t think much of this at first, until I thought to put my main Gmail account in one of the tabs, which was certainly an interesting setuip.
• Customizable tab behavior: you can control the color, skin, transparency level, the speed by which the tab opens, always on top, whether it opens by hover or click, and whether it closes by hover away or click.
• RSS feeds as Screen Tabs: for those must-view RSS feeds that you want to be able to access quickly and easily - e.g. Freewaregenius - the RSS Screen Tab will be very handy. The RSS function has some quirks (e.g. newer items are shown on bottom, no Atom support) but is overall a good option if you want RSS on your desktop.
• Keyboard shorcuts: for each tab you create you can define keyboard shortcuts that make it visible.
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