WinBoss Classic

Since the computer can be used for an abundance of activities, you probably end up with various active windows that tend to create frustration. When not in focus, programs pile up in your taskbar, with some cleverly integrating in your system tray. This is where WinBoss Classic wants to offer a helping hand by letting you minimize all windows to the system tray.

With simplicity in mind, the overall design and methods to trigger the core process are easily understood even by novices. The application spends most of its time in the system tray, unless you brings up the configurations menu. It's the only one, fitted with a few controls you can view and manage.

There are two ways in which to take advantage of its features, either applying them to one program at a time or bringing all of them to the system tray at once. Behind the well-functioning of the process stand hotkeys you can configure. This adds a little to practicality, but don't get too excited.

A cleverly named “Panic!” button can be accessed from the tray icon, minimizing absolutely everything. The reverse is either done by selecting items you want back on your desktop or all at once. A neat advantage is that original position is kept and not just simply throwing them back on your screen.

However, you can only set hotkeys for the minimize function and you completely rely on the tray icon to restore a window. It's a little odd that such a feature is missing, since it would have only required an existing function to be wired to a shortcut.

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that WinBoss Classic is lost somewhere between average and practical. It's easy enough to use and hotkey support considerably adds to practicality, but you are left with the impression of an unfinished product since you rely on the tray icon for a simple reverse process. Sadly, no updates have been made for some time now, making this app's future rather uncertain and dark.