You know how when watching Hulu, you can “turn out the lights” and darken everything but the video on the page? Is there something similar for Windows 7, where non-active windows are darkened, leaving only the active one entirely visible?
Good thinking captain, you do the thinking and I’ll do the searching…
I’ve found two programs
I chose Ghoster because it just works and I haven’t tried Jedi Concentrate but it might have other features.
ETA: In the comments section of Jedi Concentrate you will find a modified version with more features. I didn’t read all the comments, there may be more
I have noticed for “Ghoster” that when prompts pop up that they don’t look active. For example, go to your browsers options. It’s not a real big deal for me but I thought I’d let you know.
You may also like the program “Dim Screen” found on the same page as Ghoster. I’ve just tested it in Windows 7 and it works good. It just dims the full screen ranging from 0% to 100% in 10% increments, after you open it will be in the hidden icons by the clock. You can create hot keys in the settings, I chose Ctrl then numpad + and numpad - for increasing and decreasing.
ETA: Oh boy, I’ve found another neat program on the same page again. This one is called “Gone in 60 seconds” It gives you 60 seconds to reopen a program that was closed. It basically keeps the program open for another 60 seconds, comes in handy if you accidentally close a program.
Check out “MoveInactiveWin” too, you can move a window without activating it.
“Transother” makes the inactive windows transparent… Or does Windows 7 already do that?
I’ll quit now… Geez, you wouldn’t think freeware were where the best programs are
You rock Hennessy, Ghoster works great! I almost can’t imagine going back to having every part of the screen blinding me in the face now. Those other programs sound pretty interesting too actually…