[original story appeared at: PC World Online]

Expand Your Desktop With MySpace

Get your files and favorite Web sites without going through Windows menus.

by James A. Martin, special to PC World
December 2, 1998, 7:47 a.m. PT

While Microsoft has been busily protecting its turf from the Justice Department, a little-known company has taken a tiny but important piece of desktop PC real estate away from the software giant.

The Pixel Company announced Tuesday that MySpace version 2.0 is now available for free downloading from the company's Web site. MySpace is a Windows 95/98 software application that places a customizable bar at the bottom of your screen.

Icons on the bar provide direct links to Web sites, applications, files on your hard drive, and even Java applets and other operating systems--allowing you to access these items without having to use Windows menus or controls. The MySpace bar is always accessible, regardless of what you're doing on the computer.

MySpace uses the black space around the edge of a computer screen known as the overscan area. The MySpace bar adds about 30 pixels to the bottom of the display. Your display is automatically, though only slightly, squeezed to make room for the bar; nothing is cropped or overridden. Along with the horizontal MySpace bar at the bottom of the display, users may see vertical black bands on the left and right sides of their screen.

The MySpace bar looks like a rotating cylinder, and includes programmable buttons. By default, MySpace contains buttons that can take you directly to a number of Web sites, including Merriam-Webster OnLine, CNN Interactive, Amazon.com, Nasdaq-Amex.com, Disney, and ESPN. You can add URLs by dragging and dropping them onto the MySpace bar; you can also program the bar to access files on your PC.

Packard Bell and other vendors are expected to ship PCs with MySpace preinstalled, though a Pixel Company spokesperson couldn't say when those systems will be available.

MySpace is not compatible with the Canopus Screamin' 3D and Diamond Stealth 64 graphic boards. Another caveat: If your PC uses an ATI Rage II or S3 Trio V64 PCI video adapter, MySpace will run in share mode, meaning it must share the existing screen area with Windows rather than always being available at the bottom of the screen

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