X-Assist0.8.1

Name: X-Assist
Rating: 4.85 (1 reviews)

03 February 2008

Add OS 9 window and menu behaviors to OS X.

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Overview

X-Assist is useful utility that adds:

Mac OS 9 behaviors to Mac OS X like the Application Switcher Menu
OS9 window behavior - when you switch applications by clicking in a window, all windows for that application are shown. This behavior has changed in OS X and can be a bit annoying.
Ability to toggle between OS9 and OSX window behavior with a hot key shortcut.
Recent Applications Menu with no limit
Ability to add personal hierarchies of items in an OS 9-like \"apple\" menu
An extensible \"Control Strip\" like plugin architecture to support 3rd party plugins (MP3 player and Volume control plugins included)

What's new in X-Assist

Version 0.8.1:

fixed the Control Panel submenu items not showing up when run on certain systems. Thanks Thomas Fischer.
updated German localization to be more consistant between menu and pref window prefs. Thanks Thomas Fischer.
updated localization for Japanese. Thanks Chris Li.

23 Reviews of X-Assist

I have been using this fantastic application for years now-since Jaguar-and now it's working flawlessly on my iMac 27" using Snow Leopard 10.6.4. I would say to ' WARMFUZZYGECKO ' you must have a separate problem - it certainly can't be this application. If your problem seemed to disappear after stopping X-Assist, I would say that problem may still be there lying dormant....I would check it further if I were you. To conclude, this is a fantastic application and one of the first of its type and is highly recommended for all Mac OS X. My thanks to the developer.

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I use this great utility on Mojave 10.14.1 because I prefer to have an app switcher in the Menu bar, and it still works well - although Mac OS does warn that the application will not work in future releases. I'd love to see a 64-bit update!

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Not Leopard compatible. Just went thru a long troubleshooting session and have concluded that X-Assist version 0.8.1 is NOT Leopard compatible (at least on my machine). That is if you ever have your Mac sleep. With X-Assist installed waking Mac will freeze and soon after fans will run at full speed. Booting from my Tiger firewire drive X-Assist 0.8.1 does still work and is quite useful as an alternative to Apple's discontinued Application Menu from the "Classic" days.

I use Butler, its free and you can add as many custom drop menus and shortcuts as you want.. And you can reorganize the placing in the menubar. Even got a finder menu switcher like old days.

For those of us who like pull-down text menus rather than icons (or who like aspects of the OS 9 interface), X-Assist provides an easy way to switch and hide applications, go directly to items within System Preferences rather than loading the main window, etc. It's a bit slow, and it doesn't provide a list of windows open under each app as OS 9's application menu could be made to do. However, it does provide convenience, plus a visual cue as to which application is frontmost, something which can be confusing in X. Also recommended: AppleMenu, TypeIt4Me.

I've had a longstanding problem that I finally tracked back to this program... I call it "iTunes sinking," where sometimes, when you hide the iTunes window when switching to another application - and then you can never get the window to show again no matter what you do, even though iTunes has not crashed and can be sent AppleScript commands. If you are having this issue, turn off OS9 Window Behavior in X-Assist. I'm glad I didn't have to get rid of the program altogether - I still really like it. I'm just posting this in case others are having this problem.

I know it's free and beggars can't be choosers, but I do hope this is updated soon for OS X 10.4 (Tiger). It really is a bit hard to get used to not having it over where it should be on the Menu Bar.

When you have to switch back and forth between OS 9 at work and OS X at home, it is indispensable. I love it and can't do without it. Hope this is continued to be updated

work great for me as exactly what i wanted. I'm not a 9 classic user. Combination with hidden dock to be highly efficiency switching apps without eyes getting tired.

X-Assist is working fine for me. My one suggestion: Sometimes I want to see other app's windows, and there oughta be a way to facillitate that. Personally, I'd like to see the other apps disappear when using command-tab, but not when they're switched to in other ways (Dock, X-W's app menu, clicking on desktop, etc.). Might make a good option checkbox. It'd be great to have X-W's menu included in Apple's Finder Contextual Menu as well.

x-assist is good, but what I don't like is the fact that when you have the menu with just the icon (without the name of the application on the menu) whenever you switch to an app, the menu item quickly flashes the name of the app.......and that's the downer for me for this program - i will not use this program until this is fixed great job for a free app though :)

I've been using X-Assist for years now, and, especially considering it's not even a 1.0 release yet, it's extremely solid, reliable, and has been a great help in easing me into OS X. I get on OS X machines without X-Assist now, and I find myself in the top right corner of the display when i want to switch apps, which, of course is impossible; have to go to the Dock instead. (I also use the key combi Cmd-Tab.) Highly recommended, especially for OS 9 users new to OS X!!!

This utility is a gem among many. I switch over from ASM due to some glitches. I am glad that there are alternatives such as X-Assist. Thanks-a-bunch for the application.

That's what I call service, I only mentioned being bushwacked by Conrol-ESC a week ago, and it's already been turned into an option!

Great application does alot for free. Side note: ASM will crash Panther...beware.

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Been using this haxie since I found it almost a year and a half ago. Never any problems. A great haxie for switching apps without having to reach down to the (often confusing too-many-icons) dock when all you want to do is bring a certain app to the forefront!

I am unable to download, members page cannot be found. Download Link Target...... Cancels with "Interruption".

I was shocked and frightened when I installed Panther and found X-assist wasn't working. I immediately assumed the worst, but decided to check for an update. WOW! It's already updated! Thank-you-thank-you-thank-you!

Rock on! Finally after a bit of pressure from his user base this excelent app has been updated. It really should be 1.0 now. Memory leak fixed, compatibility in 10.3 fixed. Its everything you really need from a menu bar at an excelent price.

X-Assist is an excellent application which brings many of the great Finder-based features present in MacOS to OSX. I find that it has a comfortable GUI for using the Finder in the way it was originally intended by Apple, including: menu hierarchies and familiar placement of the Finder's functions in the Desktop's Menu Bar. On a busy desktop, you can quickly ascertain which task is active by simply looking at X-Assist's icon cue on the Menu Bar. This is a real productivity enhancement to OSX; you can't beat its price.

better than all the others for OS 9 finder menu replication in X, its free, it works, 'does what it says on the can' GRRRRReat

X-Assist0.8.1

Overview

What's new in X-Assist

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