All is right with the world again. Or at least with Mac OS X 10.6 (Snow Leopard). Ever since I upgraded to Snow Leopard, something has been missing. Nearly every day, I would grumble: “When is Unsanity going to upgrade WindowShade X to run in 10.6?” The wait is over.
WindowShade X is a System Preferences utility that (among its several useful features) “rolls up” a Finder window to its titlebar with a double-click. This functions as an alternative to minimizing a window to the Dock (which you can still do if you want). For quickly and temporarily getting an open window out of your way, there is nothing better. Prior to Snow Leopard, I would use WindowShade X continually. I have already used it several times while working on this article.
Whenever I upgrade to a new OS version, WindowShade X is the first third-party utility I check to see whether it still works. When I upgraded to Snow Leopard last August, it never occurred to me that I might have to endure eight months without WindowShade X. But I did.
Happily, WindowShade X 5.0.x is now out and is Snow Leopard compatible.
I installed version 5.0.1 earlier this week. The installer “strongly” advises you to log out or restart before trying to use WindowShade X. Typically, for System Preferences panes, a log out is all you need. However, at least with my Mac Pro, a log out was not sufficient. I had to restart before I could get WindowShade X to work at all.
Within minutes of WindowShade X’s return on my Mac, Snapz Pro X (another of my all-time favorite and most often used utilities) crashed. I was not actively using Snapz Pro at the time; it crashed as a background process. I restarted Snapz Pro and it crashed again within a few minutes. As Snapz Pro had never crashed in this way before, I assumed that WindowShade X was the cause.
I contacted Unsanity and received a reply within minutes. After sending them the Console log for the crash, they confirmed the bug.
WindowShade X 5.0.2 was released Thursday. It fixes the Snapz Pro bug as well as a separate conflict with Adobe AIR applications.
WindowShade X. A great utility with great technical support. What more could I ask for?