The Hickensian

Pat said 1583 days ago:

Left-to-Right
1.) Deskshade. I often change the hue/saturation of my desktops to match my current theme, so I keep DeskShade active all the time.
2.) JetClock. The MenuExtra stays to the right, and so does wClock.
3.) Konfabulator. Cleverly disguised as a Spotlight button…I have most of my widgets on Konsposé only mode.

I used to use Synergy, but found ByteController, which has down states. I don’t use it because it ruins my neat menubar :P

I also used to use xScope, but it also makes my menubar ugly and crowded…I only launch it when I need it.

Something neat though…iPulse has a menubar thing that can show you mem pages, network activity, and CPU usage. If it showed mem usage, I’d use it and throw away the little widget on the desktop.

Scott Johnson said 1583 days ago:

Synergy is the app I have been searching for! Finally!

BTW, the numbers in the post are a bit off from those in the image.

Gavin Montague said 1583 days ago:

1. Quicksilver, if you don’t have it then there must be something wrong with you
2. Synergy (closed).
3. Desktop manager – virtual desktop, yay!
4. BlueFoneElite A stupidly useful app for integrating your phone and powerbook.

Izzy said 1583 days ago:

From left to right:
1. Synergy
2. Adium (the icon is only there when I’m running the app)
3. Imagewell (I can’t believe I don’t hear more people talking about this handy little app. I use it almost every day.)
4. Airport status
5. Battery status
6. Calendar clock

I seem to go through phases when it comes to add-ons like this. I’ll go from throwing in every single interesting app I can find to going completely minimalist and taking everything out. Quicksilver and FruitMenu were two big reasons why my menubar is now usually pretty short.

dave.defmech said 1583 days ago:

He he, I did this a wile ago with my Anatomy Of A System Tray post.



I’ve since converted, mainly, to the Mac. All I have of interest in my menu bar is Gee .

Adrian T said 1583 days ago:

I’ve only been in love with Macs for a couple of months so my menu is quite empty. I hide Quicksilver and besides the already mentioned Synergy I have.

Sailling Clicker for Bluetooth remote control of iTunes, DVD etc with my phone.

BluePhone Elite for call and SMS management.

Both highly recommended!

Jeremy Pinnix said 1583 days ago:

1. AudioScrobbler
2. iSeek
3. WeatherPop
4. iAddressX
5. Airport
6. Battery
7. wClock

Jon Hicks said 1583 days ago:

Francois – no thats on-topic, you’re OK!

Great, already getting some great apps surfacing…

Matt Carey said 1583 days ago:

From left to right…
iscrobber
sailing clicker
bluetooth
ichat
monitor (i desk hop an plug my PB into external monitors)
airport
battery (%)
isync
character menu
standard analogue clock

brian w said 1583 days ago:

I guess I’m the only person out there who hates the gigantic font in Apple’s default menu bar clock?

1. CalendarClock
2. Synergy
3. iScrobbler
4. Meteorologist (it’s very cold here in New Hampshire, as you can tell)
5. Recent Tunes (gotta edit that icon… or find something that will combine iScrobbler, Recent Tunes, Synergy & iChatStatus into one appliction!)
6. Timbuktu
7. AirPort
8. PCMCIA status thingie
9. iChat status thingie
10. AppleScript’s system-wide menu
11. OS 9 status thingie
12. Displays thingie
13. Volume thingie.

I also use PopCharPro but that’s over on the left side ;)

Andrew Ho said 1583 days ago:

Having a 12-inch PowerBook means that space on my menu bar is at a premium. Thus, I try to have as few icons as possible. The ones I’ve got can be seen here:



I have the standard clock, battery monitor without text, Airport Signal and Bluetooth.

The clock is obvious. The battery monitor doesn’t contain any text because I use GeekTool to output more battery information to my desktop, amongst other things. Basic output:

Battery: battery installed, above warning level
Charger: charger connected, not charging
UPS: UPS not installed
System:
Voltage: 12.500V
Current: 0.000A
Charge: 4.230Ah of 4.241Ah (99.7%)
Capacity: 4.241Ah of 4.400Ah (96.4%)
Cycles: 193

I also don’t have something such as Synergy because I have the Quicksilver iTunes plug-in that enables me to do things like stop, start, pause, next track etc from Quicksilver (I’m entirely a keyboard guy).

Sascha said 1583 days ago:

I like it nice and tidy, so there’s not much up there:

1. Desktop Manager
2. DeskShade
3. Butler
4. WinSwitch
5. Calendarclock

I changed the icons of Desktop Manager and Butler to match the style of DeskShade’s icon. Looks a lot less obstrusive, me thinks.

I’m also using the great Synergy like many of you, but I prefer to control it via key combos.

Sid said 1583 days ago:

Well at the moment im doing my Algebra Homework on the PC… so heres the taskbar….



1. iTunes
2. AIM
3. Anti-Virus
4. Nero Burnign Rom
5. MSN (Currently ofline)
6. ZA, ofcourse
7. An ip-dodad to help my hoem server have a domainname
...Skip a few…
8. “The yellow thingy” Defrags my RAM every few seconds.
9. “The E” my home server
...Skip a few…
10. The last one, my remote desktop program.

ozean said 1583 days ago:

on my PowerMac’s screen I also have NetMonitor displaying a graph of my network traffic – if I would have more space on my PowerBooks screen I would love to have it sit there too…

ozean said 1583 days ago:

finally, here’s a picture of my PowerMacs menubar

Brian said 1583 days ago:

# XScope
# SlimBatteryMonitor
# MenuMeters
# Bluetooth
# Airport
# Volume
# WinSwitch
# Displays
# CalendarClock (I really like being able to see the date without any clicking. That’s the only reason I use this one. Well, it looks neat too.)

P.S. I use quicksilver. I love it. I just dont see the point in having it in my menu bar.

quis said 1583 days ago:

All I use that hasn’t been mentionned so far:
MailCountX – pretty useful for just glancing at the laptop and seeing if that really was the mail notification noise.
OS X Bluetooth icon
OS X display preferences icon (essential for when my second screen decides to revert to 800×600)

I will also soon be buying Salling Clicker I think, the integration with iTunes has to be seen to be believed.

kellegous said 1583 days ago:

1 – AdiumX
2 – Quicksilver
3 – Virtue Desktops
4 – Bluetooth
5 – GeekTool 2
6 – Volume
7 – Lest I forget when to leave for the train
8 – Lest I forget to respond when my name is called.

Brian Fox said 1583 days ago:

I prefer keeping my menu bar nice and tidy, however I do have lots of goddies I like to use. Unlike the other posters, I DO use Quicksilver, but chose to use it without a menu item or dock item (so I can only access it using the shortcut).

This is a company networking app – similar to a VPN clientSlim battery monitor – The best battery monitor – takes less space and disappears when no longer used.FuzzyClock – The BEST clock app for the Mac.Airport MenuBluetooth MenuThis is actually my Keychain Lock, pretending to be spotlight

Brady J. Frey said 1583 days ago:

you control:tunes
Weather Menu
World Clock Deluxe
Menu Calendar
Then the special characters menu (for my print design), the volume setting, and my Unix fast user switching so the girlfriend can get to her iTunes/iPod controls.
I used to have much more—but I’m starting to clog my menu just as much as I clog my multiple docks!

Silus Grok said 1583 days ago:

Konfabulator, Airport, Volume. That’s it.

I hate having stuff up there.

A question, though, for everyone: What on earth is Quicksilver?! I’ve tried their site, but I must be missing something. What’s the use case for Quicksilver?

Chris McElligott said 1583 days ago:

#41 Silus Grok: What on earth is Quicksilver?

Its the best launcher out there, and its insanely customizable with a heap of plugins avaliable. I use it but forgot to mention it (I have the icon hidden)

mns said 1583 days ago:

Romeo, Meteorologist, Konfabulator, Pod2Go, Quicksilver, SSHKeychain, Timbuktu, Scripts menu, iChat status, Bluetooth, VPN, Airport, SoundSource, Displays, Volume, iSync, Battery, Clock, username.

I really need to do some cleaning up around here.

Feaverish said 1583 days ago:

Nothing too exciting. Quicksilver – gCount – Synergy (with milk theme) – iScrobbler) plugin for Audioscrobbler – MenuMeters

Ryan C said 1583 days ago:

Here’s the rundown:

# Virtue – I love me some freeware!
# Quicksilver
# GrowlTunes – Part of the Growl bundle
# DockFun – Fun for more than just your dock!
# AudioScrobbler Menu
# BlogAssist
# MenuCalendarClock

neil said 1583 days ago:

oooooh, I love this rampant Mac nerdness:



1. Path Finder : er, because it’s great?
2. IC-Switch : because I am also completely 0wned by a web browser fetish
3. iScrobber : because I am a sucker for stats, and music, and stats involving music.
4. Hardware Monitor : got a fairly new iMac G5 that I’m keeping an eye on…
5. WeatherMenu : because nerds need to be reminded that there is a beautiful world out there.
6. Spell Catcher : God, I love this program. Spell checking, thesaurus, online lookup, auto-complete and text expansions… it’s crazy good.
7. Script Menu : I like to pretend that I have an understanding of Applescript. It’s a confidence thing.
8. AirPort Strength : I hate wires.
9. MenuMeters : More grist for the nerd mill. The memory usage on the left is because I’m tracking down a memory leak in some beta software I’m running. The CPU meter is essential stuff for knowing when something has gone amiss instead of waiting for your fans to kick in.
10. CalendarClock : Unfortunately, a mere month after Peter Maurer released this sweet thing, it was bought out by another developer. Having not only control over how the clock and calendar are displayed, but also being able to see a full calendar plus my iCal events and to-do’s at a click of a mouse makes me feel more productive. “Feel” being a state of mind, not of reality, sadly. Jon, let me know if you’d like to try this… it’s killer.

Here’s a screenshot of the CalendarClock dropdown menu:



I also use Synergy and Quicksilver, but I’m a keyboard man – I set up quick keys to start, stop, jump forward and backwards in Synergy and hide the menu bar. Quicksilver is the same thing.

Man, I am such a nerd. Sad, isn’t it.

neil said 1583 days ago:

Whoops – didn’t read closely enough to notice that you’re already using the sequel to CalenderClock, Jon.

Alex Cabrera said 1583 days ago:

1 • Adium
2 • Airport Meter
3 • Volume
4 • Battery
5 • Clock

I also run Quicksilver (best application ever); but I removed both the Dock icon and menubar icon because they’re really no purpose to either. Plus, I hate clutter.

.s said 1583 days ago:

PTHPasteboard, Quicksilver, FuzzyClock (Esperanto), xScope, Pod2Go, HeathRow, cacophony

Kevan said 1583 days ago:

Synergy (only visible if iTunes is open)
DeliBar (which is making me want to trim my tags)
Meteorologist (brrr. cold here in DC)
SlimBatteryMonitor (only shows percent when on battery)
MenuMeters (disk and cpu)
ScreenRes (allows my 12” PB to drive my Samsung HLP-6163 at 1280×720)
AirPort
MenuCalendarClock

I dig those Synergy buttons…

Mat said 1583 days ago:

My menubar tends to change regularly, but here’s what it is at the moment:

1) IC-switch
2) Flashnote for StickyBrain – my default notes manager (mainly because of Palm support)
3) Sticky Windows – a new favorite, which allows you to shrink your open windows to tabs on the edge of your desktop, thereby reducing window clutter (though, to be honest, I don’t see why it needs to be a menu item)
4) Salling Clicker – a seriously cool Bluetooth remote control app
5) Konfabulator
6) gCount
7) Quicksilver
8) iChat
9) Menumeters – first, bandwidth up/down
10) Menumeters – second, free memory
11) Volume
12) TypeIt4me – it’s really a character palette item; but it does auto-typing.
13) Calendarclock – the old free, version

What I really want is some kind of app that would allow you to nest menubar items. So you would click on the icon and that would open a drop down menu with the other menubar items. I run at 1280 width and I’m always running out of space. I guess I need a 30” ACD.

Sven said 1583 days ago:

AdiumX
MenuMeters
PPPoE Connect
Monitor Prefs
Airport
Volume
Battery
Date / Time

oh, and i do use quicksilver but i don’t know why i should use the menubar item…

Marco said 1583 days ago:

From left to right: Quicksilver, Virtue*, Art Directors Toolkit*, Meteorologist*, BwanaDik, iChat, Airport, Battery, Date & Time, Displays.

Items with * are not always there.
Yes, it’s cold in Amsterdam!

Karen said 1583 days ago:

A great idea, Jon!



I use LaunchBar – I tried QuickSilver, but although I like the graphical effects I found LaunchBar more usable. It seems to learn better which application matches what I want.

Hidden out on the left is PopChar X
you control just for the iTunes part – I like the extra control it gives compared to Synergy
URL Manager Pro – because I also like switching browsers (though I’m sticking with OmniWeb more and more)
Default Folder X – I really like the features it adds to dialogs, though I don’t tend to use the Menu Extra functionality that often
A secret icon (I’m doing some beta testing…)
iAddressX for handy access to the Address Book
The AppleScript menu (I’m trying to learn it)
Menu Calendar for Entourage – because I prefer Entourage to Apple’s Mail.

Like a few others I end up having regular clear-outs as the list grows (or apps where I switch off their menu bar extra). I’m off to read up on some of the interesting items that others have written about!

sam said 1583 days ago:

No dock, no buttons, no icons here. Only terminals, launching apps …
It’s way cleaner, faster and much more light.
– Sam

AkaXakA said 1583 days ago:

As I don’t have a Mac and my taskbar fails to be usefull for anything but showing windows, I thought I’d post my firefox top & statusbar.

My Menu bar:
To take you through the menu: – A simple ‘Menu’ curtosy of Compact Menu so I have room enough to fit all the other stuff on one bar. – xml feed folder. It holds all my livebookmarks. Still debating if it isn’t easier to just use Sage all the time. – Location bar. Crunched only because I had to get the screenshot small. – back – Stop/Reload Great little extention to combine stop and reload. – Text Zoom . For Increasing, normalising and decreasing text – Search bar – Full Screen button – Sage (see xml entry, as this is the folder that sage uses) – Bookmarks – Tab Bin Remembers your last 5 tabs and presents them in a pop-down menu.

My Statusbar:
No tooo much to see here but still: – Gmail Notifier – Statusbar Clock And yes, I took it off the windows taskbar. – Google Pagerank Cos I don’t need the rest of the google bar

Richard Rutter said 1583 days ago:

# DropCopy. Great little app for dragging files between Rendezvous machines.
# Adium X. Cross-network IM client. Supports MSN, iChat, ICQ and others.
# BluePhoneElite. Complete phone control from the desktop via Bluetooth.
# AudioScrobbler. Builds a profile of your musical taste and provides recommendations using a plug-in for iTunes.
# Synergy. Say no more.
# iChat. Offline cos I was on the train.
# Airport Extreme. Likewise.
# Battery level. Nicely charged up.
# CalendarClock. Bloody brilliant integration of iCal into the menu bar.

So why no Quicksilver? Well it’s running but not in the menu bar (I didn’t see the point of having it there). And no gCount anymore cos I use Mail.app now Gmail can be accessed with POP.

Brad Knowles said 1583 days ago:

1. WeatherMenu (3 locations defined).
2. WeatherPop
I like what WeatherMenu gives me over WeatherPop when it works (multiple named locations in the menu bar, weather alerts, radar images, ability to launch WeatherManX, etc…), but the problem is that WeatherMenu doesn’t seem to be able to correctly handle international locations very well right now. While WeatherPop is simpler, it does seem to be more robust at handling international locations. I’m testing them both out, and I’ll stick with the one that works for me.
3. SlimBatteryMonitor
I have an old PowerBook G3 “Pismo”, and I’m currently running on two batteries. The standard Apple battery monitor takes up way too much room, even for one battery. Here, I get info on two batteries in less space than Apple takes for one.
4. MenuMeters (memory and CPU)
I had also been monitoring disk and network activity, but as a result of this page, I decided that I’d trim those out. They’re nice, but not as important as memory and CPU.
5. Airport
6. Volume
7. Application menu provided by iClock. Shows me what’s running, lets me quickly switch applications (as an alternative to Command-Tab or DragThing, both of which I also use), plus it lets me quickly get directly to System Preferences panes or recently used applications (going back much further than ten items).
8. iClock
I like having the day of the week, date, and 12-hour time with timezone information in the menubar. I used to use a much larger format, but after reading the other entries here and seeing the other menubars, I decided that I didn’t need to see the year, or the seconds. I had been using the seconds as a sneaky way to keep an eye on the system, to see if it had locked up on me. But now I’ve got MenuMeters CPU to do that for me, and the year is just superfluous. The other information is there because sometimes I forget what month it is, or what timezone I’m in. ;)

Mathew Hoy said 1583 days ago:

My menu bar:

Running Quicksilver, Memory Cell, Internet Connection, iSync, Date/Time, and WinSwitch. Simple and small. I really don’t use Memory Cell much and think I might pooch it from the bar.

Kevin Gerich said 1583 days ago:

What, no GNOME? :)
From right to left: Volume, time, power status, weather in Worcester, MA USA, Rhythmbox, GAIM, Synaptic Package Manager, gEdit, Thunderbird, Firefox, menus

Ed Mullin said 1582 days ago:

From Left to Right
Local Instiki
WeatherPop
LaunchBar
Airport
iChat
Bluetooth
VPN/Internet Connect
Stuffit
iSync
Bluetooth Modem
Date
Battery

Michel Salim said 1582 days ago:

Left to right:
Quicksilver
Salling Clicker
GPGKeys (caches SSH public keys)
iBeatTime (quick access to different time zones)
AppleScript, iChat, VPN, Bluetooth, Airport
Volume, Keyboard layout, Battery monitor

adam said 1582 days ago:

Left to right:
Adium :: Best IM client ever.
Sofa :: Used for album art collection. The site seems to be down right now.
iScrobbler :: Tracks iTunes listening habits and uploads to Audioscrobbler
GCount :: GMail notifier
WeatherMenu :: The weather
Displays
Bluetooth
Airport
Clock

Josh said 1582 days ago:

1. ByteController
2. BwanaDik
3. Ejector
4. SlimBatteryMonitor
5. Adium
6. iSync
7. Volume
8. Fast User Switching
9. MenuCalendarClock (iCal version)

Michel Christensen said 1582 days ago:

Just BurnoutMenu, Adium X and normal clock.

(take two)

Mike Piontek said 1582 days ago:

Great topic!

iBiz a great time-billing app. The menubar icon lets you start/stop timers for jobs.
iScrobbler an iTunes plugin that tells AudioScrobbler what I’m listening to. It’s a great way to look at your listening habits, see what your friends are listening to, and most importantly, discover new music.
Synergy for controlling iTunes.
AppleScript
SoundSource for switching output between my SoundSticks and headphones.
Volume
AirPort with internet sharing turned on
Date and Time

Foofy said 1582 days ago:

Those Mac menubars are so elegant looking! Oh well, I’ll have to make do with my unsexy (but useful!) taskbar. :(



1. MSN Desktop Search (I like it best ‘cause the fold-out results window!)
2. Opera 8 Beta 2 (fastest browser for dial-up!)
3. Trillian Basic 3
4. Dial-up connection (yes, sad huh?)
5. Faxtalk Net-On-Hold (let’s me answer the phone while connected)
6. Volume!
7. Background program for MSN Desktop Search

Luckily all of that collapses so I only see the connection and Trillian. :)

David House said 1582 days ago:

And as I screwed up the image last time, here it is again.

gb said 1582 days ago:

Having posted my menubar, I got thinking about how easy it is to go overboard with cool little Menu gidjits and such… however, if any of you use Maya on a regular basis (with its ginormous menus), you soon discover you need to either 1) cut the fat, or 2) Get a bigger monitor…

mbstuart said 1582 days ago:

ByteController from BrainByte is similar to synergy but free.
Why do you have two “To Do List” apps?
I’m looking for a good one.

Douglas McInnes said 1582 days ago:

1. Quicksilver because it rules.
2. Gee a Gmail Notifier because I wrote it.
3. Airport status
4. GeekTool because I’m a geek that way.

Think you know the rest :)

Dan Rubin said 1582 days ago:

From left to right
1. Proteus (haven’t been hooked by AdiumX yet)
2. xScope (not always running)
3. Synergy (with a fixed version of the Milk theme so the buttons are centered vertically…)
4. Timbuktu (still around because of a few OS 9 systems I need to admin—Apple Remote Desktop kicks TB2’s arse now)
5. Default Folder X (I can’t live without this—DFX and DragThing are the two utilities that allowed me to switch to OS X full-time)
6. DeskShade 2 (so at least my virtual desktop doesn’t look cluttered :)
7. MenuMeters (because it’s nice to know just what the hell that 2nd processor is doing)
8. GeekTool
9. Loud Airport Signal (or Sound, however you want to interpret that ;)
10. TypeIt4Me, which really needs a better icon
11. Eject! Eject!
12. MenuCalendarClock iCal (for date and time, smaller font, quick access to iCal, etc.)

And of course now, after all these terrific examples, I’m going to be trying out lots of others… I guess I’ll be needing that second monitor after all ;)

Aaron Boswell said 1582 days ago:

!http://www.aaronboswell.com/aaron_menu.jpg(aarons image)

Mine is pretty basic. I don’t use Synergy anymore because I use Quicksilvers hotkey functions. I don’t have my QS menu in the bar because I can access it from the interface. Most of the other stuff I used to have up there I have taken down in favor of QS hotkeys.

So, here is my bar:

TimeLog – The best shareware time tracking software (imo). If only I did invoices.
Airport
Volume
CalendarClock – Still using the freeware version because it just works.

Like I said, everything else is used with QuickSilver.

Herr Theoretiker said 1582 days ago:

1. QuickTunes – Displays currently-playing song and artist; I use SizzlingKeys for hotkey iTunes operation
2. Quicksilver – of course
3. BloglinesMenu – Bloglines notifier
4. GmailStatus
5. AirPort status
6. Battery status
7. Input Mode Palette (used for Character Palette and Keyboard Viewer)
8. FuzzyClock – Can display times like “quarter to ten” and “ten after six” instead of the specific time. I have it set to German, because I like to pretend that I learned something from General Ed courses in college. I got the developer to write me a custom version that can display all the way to the right (that’s not an option in the public release).

Manlio Napoli said 1581 days ago:

I never tried Synergy but think that Quicksilver can replace it if you enable the Control Scripts (Preferences > Catalog > Modules > iTunes) and Display Track Notifications (Preferences > iTunes).
You could even set Triggers for Next Song, Previous Song, etc.

Veerle Pieters said 1581 days ago:

From left to right: iSnip , Norton, iChat, Internet Connect, Bluetooth, Airport, Character palette and Keyboard Viewer (under the Belgian flag), sound, iSync.

Just added iSnip today, looks promising.

Vincent Rozenberg said 1581 days ago:

~TigerLaunch
~LexiconLine
~SlimBateryMonitor
~MenuCalendarClock
~WinSwitch
~QuickSilver

Wifi and Clock are OSX’s.

ChrisJ said 1581 days ago:

Don’t have a mac (yet), so here’s my boring XP bar: network status, vokume, Kerio Personal Firewall, time (and it’s late).

Josh Bryant said 1581 days ago:

Pretty basic stuff for me:
1. OS X Battery Monitor
2. OS X Airport Monitor
3. MenuCalendarClock iCal

Josh Bryant said 1580 days ago:

Guido –
I have long been a fan of fuzzy clock. I can’t wait to get ahold of this version. Not being positioned on the right has been the single detraction from me using it. I can’t wait!

Also, have you fixed the text, I still noticed it looks slightly strange in your screenshot. Without the shadow, it looks jagged, and with the shadow, its too fuzzy. Is there a way to get it rendering the same as the other text in the menu bar. I know apps like MenuCalendarClock have that rendering.

Anyway, I am excited for when this shows public. Awesome work!

John Ko said 1580 days ago:

(I've removed the image as it was hosted on Tripod, and it doesn't allow hotlinking - Jon )
1. Ymail – Yahoo! Mail Notifier
2. SlimBatteryMonitor
3. iSnip – Auto saving all text clippings quite useful
4. BluePhoneElite – SMS & Call Manager with a bluetooth cellphone
5. Synergy
6. Bluetooth
7. Airport
8 Character Palette
9 Default Date & Time – Although I think it is too long

Wolfgang Prasmo said 1580 days ago:

Not completely offtopic, but for those who can not get enough Menubar items: http://menu.jeweledplatypus.org/ This site collect an overview of “super OS X menu bar items”.

Rob Waring said 1579 days ago:

L to R
Google desktop search
OpenOffice 1.1.3
Network icon
MSN 7.0 beta
ActiveSync
Clock

And I’ll quite happily lose the Active Sync and Google desktop search ones but I can’t.

The quick launch bar is also minimalist, show desktop, Firefox, Outlook.

W. Andrew Loe III said 1579 days ago:

1. Synergy – iTunes Manager
2. iScrobbler – AudioScrobbler Plugin
3. WeatherPop – Weather
4. Butler – Launcher/File Manager
5. PowerController – iTunes Alarm Clock (Wakes computer from sleep!)
6. AppleScript Menu
7. Airport
8. Volume
9. Battery
10. Time
11. International Menu – Up because I like the flag :-P

Thanks for all the ideas on new programs, I’ll definatly be checking out QuikSilver, Burnout Menus, MenuMeters and more.

mini-d said 1579 days ago:

Mine is quite simple:

1. Adium
2. Soundflower
3. iChat
4. Airport
5. Volume :)
6. Bluetooth
7. Language Selection
8. Batery and Time.

I like to keep it simplier. I run QuickSilver hidden mode, no icons just part of the system :)

jared said 1579 days ago:

you can see everything clearly labeled. bytecontroller has always been perfect for what i’ve needed to do, so i never tried Synergy, or any of the other more popular itunes controllers.

everything is pretty much self explanatory… i hate icons that come with programs for the most part, hence me designing new icons for quicksilver and isync (i did that one last night, and i’m pretty happy with it i think. i used the new isync logo in the tiger previews as inspiration). i’ll be making a new icon for Burnout as well.

as far as menumeters is concerned… i can’t afford much memory, im a starving college student, and when you don’t have much ram you need to know when it’s being used.

Max said 1578 days ago:

Ah, I see Wolfgang already mentioned the menubar-filler-site, eweledplatypus.org.

As for my bar, it’s pretty standard. Zoe, screen size, Key chain, volume, keyboard/language thingy, clock, username.
I used to have menumeters in there, but it ate precious CPU cycles. I have QuickSilver installed, but iconless. Oh, and I forgot to re-launch Adium, that’s normally there. That’s it, sorry.

I’ll be trying some of the nifty-sounding tools I’ve seem flying by, though =]

Peter Parkes said 1578 days ago:

To echo Albert’s comment above – I’m intrigued as to why people use the Quicksilver menu; I’ve never once needed to! Does anyone actually use it, or is it just there to look pretty?

Leland Scott said 1577 days ago:

Together with the Super OS X Menubar Items page mentioned by a couple of other posters, this blog has been a godsend for those of us who love the menubar! I’ve pretty much abandoned the dock, using Dragthing and Fruitmenu-and some cool menubar items-instead. I’m in the minority here, having failed to see the appeal of Quicksilver (outside of its undeniably cool interface) over some other launcher options. With my 20-inch monitor, I’ve got room to spare in the menubar, and have indulged myself in an obscenely large number of widgets. (I may be adding one or two more after today!) I’m posting it primarily because there are a few great ones not previously mentioned (in bold below):
1. ByteController (free)
2. WeatherMenu
3. iKey (the next 2 icons… this is incredibly deep and powerful automater/launcher)
4. RSSMenu (free… I think it will replace NetNewsWireLite for me)
5. Process Wizard (free… great for setting the “niceness” of apps)
6. IPMenu (free)
7. MailTicker (free notification for any popmail account)
8. MacMinder (Anybody but me have kids…?)
9. MenuStrip (the next 8 icons… it can be run as a traditional control strip, a la OS 9, or as a menubar set. Incredibly powerful and flexible, and pretty cheap as well! Includes a lot more than you see here.)
10. Default Folder X (I’m finding this to be a great time-saver)
11. SoundSource (free)
12. Keychain
13. Applescript
14. Bluetooth
15. Displays
16. iSync
17. Character sets
18. WinSwitch (Thanks to this blog!)
And there you have it! I warned you it was an obscenely long list. :-)

John Athayde said 1577 days ago:

After reading through this article (and posting and reading some more) I went and tried out some of the things. I’ve absolutely fallen for “Burnout Menu” and have reinstalled MenuMeters after a long hiatus. I’m also enjoying the MenuCalendar thingy

And wow, how do some of you have room for your regular menus with all those menu bar things?

ron said 1577 days ago:

i enabled the eject menubar item and now i can’t make it go away. anyone know how to?

Henning Bobzin said 1577 days ago:

If you use the input menu just to have access to the character palette and the keyboard viewer then you can save space by putting the CharViewer and the KeyViewer Script provided by Mac Parc into your AppleScript Folder.

I got to use Quicksilver by the often repeated recommendation on this page. Before, I never understood what it was. I still think their site is a bit strange and not easily to be understood.

So, it really is a helpful listing here!

Ian Lloyd said 1577 days ago:

Another benefit of keeping Quicksilver in the menu bar is to verify if it’s crashed (hover over the menubar icon, see the annoying spinning pinwheel, mutter to yourself “Must restart Quicksilver, grrr”)

Shane said 1576 days ago:

Someone needs to make a menu bar item for us 1024×768 users that will hold all these menu items. We can only hold so many.

Joop Vos said 1576 days ago:

Was this one mentioned Drop Copy ?
... and Himmelbar ?

Stephane said 1573 days ago:

After reading this post. I went a little crazy and downloaded most of the menubar item I could find. Although I did know some of them, I didn’t use anything apart what came with OS X, I think I’ll keep what I installed this week.



From left to right: – Virtue , Totally awesome – HimmelBar , I won’t remove my folder of app in the dock but it’s a nice + – Check Off , Really simple to-do list – Calq , not really a menubar item but nice – iSync, Keychain (new from this week), Bluetooth, Airport, AppleScript, Keyboard thing, Regular clock

Some other that look cool and I might try to use: – BackLight 2 – ByteController – Instiki

Gabriel Radic said 1573 days ago:

First of all, let me tell you how cool is Butler : Best. Launcher. Ever. And more.

1. OSXplanet—this thing rocks, but it slows my system down.
2. Butler – quick access to some shell scripts, user switching, Butler options, etc.
3. Butler – Last x clipboard elements history.
4. MenuMeters – network activity.
5. Keyboard menu
6. MenuMeters – memory.
7. AirPort status.
8. MenuMeters – processor activity.
9. MenuCaledarClock – with iCal integration.

Sean Tevis said 1570 days ago:

1) You Control: Menus
2) MenuCalendarClock iCal
3) You Control: iTunes
4) Norton Utilities
5) MacOS 9 toggle
6) Bluetooth toggle
7) iChat
8) Apple Remote Access
9) Stuffit Deluxe
10) Monitors
11) Keychain Access
12) iSync
13) Airport
14) Sound Volume
It’s Fort Lauderdale, but I wanted to crop it tightly. Then date on the right, yadda, yadda. I love the You Control stuff from You Software. The iTunes menu thing is free, too.

Lewis Moten said 1569 days ago:

I think I need to upgrade my Mac. I only have Mac OS X 10.2 and a lot of this stuff needs 10.3