Windows only: We've already shown you how you can browse through files from the Stacks widget in the upcoming Snow Leopard release—but you can get that feature right now on your Windows PC.


We've mentioned StandaloneStack before, but the latest version adds a host of new features—a complete overhaul of the settings, video thumbnail animations, custom icons, a toggle option instead of always hiding, but the best new feature is the ability to browse down through folders right from the Stack widget itself.


Once you've downloaded and extracted the StandaloneStack utility, you can simply launch it to access the settings panel—from there, you can go to New Stack on the left-hand pane, pick a folder and choose your options, and then click the Create Stack button to actually create a new stack.





To access the stack, you'll want to use the Create Shortcut on Desktop button, and then you can drag that shortcut anywhere you'd like—if you are running Windows 7 it's a perfect time to right-click and choose "Pin to Taskbar"—though you may want to change the shortcut icon before pinning to the taskbar.


One of the very interesting features is the ability to completely customize the icons used in the Stack—there's a whole set of icons found in the Images folder, but you can customize your own icons by replacing them with a PNG icon of your choice.








Once you've created, customized, and tweaked your perfect configuration, the stacks are easy to use—just click on folders to browse down through them, or use the "Go Back" icon to go up a folder. If you choose the "Don't close stack on focus lost" option, the stack can be toggled off by simply clicking the icon again—otherwise it will disappear once you've switched to another application.








This is, quite simply, a must-have application for tweaking your dock—and an excellent companion for the new dock-like Windows 7 taskbar. For more Leopard-style eye-candy, pair it with the Nexus Dock.


StandaloneStack [Chris'n'Soft]