Program: GimpPortable Plugin: Windows Gimp Deweirdifyer 2.1
License: Open Source/GPL
Description: A little plugin for Windows Gimp that gets rid of some of the weirdnesses and annoyances in the Windows version of Gimp.
Adds a background window that sits under gimp. It removes the other ten million gimp windows from the task bar and the alt-tab menu and takes control of them itself. You can just alt tab off gimp and then alt tab back and all your windows appear as they were before. When you're alt-tabbing, there aren't a million different gimp icons to go through before getting to a different application. Only one icon on the taskbar, no more taskbar clutter and clicking that icon brings up *all* the gimp windows.
Oh and there's a windows menu on the background window to select windows if you lose any under other gimp windows.
Basically it makes GIMP work more like a single windows application than a bunch of windows.
Website: http://registry.gimp.org/plugin?id=3892
Other: Writes some settings to HKLM\SOFTWARE\GIMPBackground
I have administrator privileges but I'm sure it would write to HKU and not HKLM if administrator access could not be gained by the program. Source is provided so it can be rewritten to write to a config file.
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I use this on my desktop version of gimp (2.4) and I love it. It can be for people who are used to Photoshop and are switching to GIMP.
I've provided a screenshot:
http://i272.photobucket.com/albums/jj172/samrocketman/gimp-screenshot.pn...
Screenshot taken on Windows Vista 32-bit
Even if you don't want to rewrite the source. You can rewrite the launcher of GimpPortable to backup the registry entry and then write it after application has been closed.
SAM
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Unfortunately, the deweirdifier plugin has been long-since abandoned and doesn't correctly work with any GIMP version after 2.1. You can configure it to work with 2.4, but several bugs will be present:
1. The GIMP windows will get larger with each launch by the number of pixels difference between a standard title bar and a toolbox title bar in the current Windows theme.
2. The File - Exit will not work. Neither will the X in the top right.
3. The windows will occasionally lose sync.
4. It can not write to the HKLM registry hive when you are logged in as a guest or limited user (which is usually what you'll be on PCs that aren't owned by you or a friend), so even if the launcher can handle reading and writing the registry key... it won't have permission to.
I have a hacked verion of deweirdifier that automatically works with GIMP 2.4 with no configuration necessary. While I was messing with it, I also called the window GIMP Portable and added the new GIMP icon to it. But because of some of the other bugs, I didn't think it would make sense to include it. I spose I could make it an optional download.
Updating the source would be difficult as it needs to be compiled against GIMP itself (which is difficult to start with) and it's expecting libraries from GIMP 2.1.
Sometimes, the impossible can become possible, if you're awesome!