The humble progress bar has certainly come a long way since the days of Windows 3.1. Here’s one I created using Fake Progress Bar (sorry you won’t be able to see the animation here)
Wikipedia defines a progress bar as
a component in a graphical user interface used to convey the progress of a task, such as a download or file transfer. Often, the graphic is accompanied by a textual representation of the progress in a percent format.
Here’s a simple progress bar in the current bright green Vista style. I personally like this little bit of eye-candy, which is much much better than the ugly one found in Avira’s AntiVir (the designers they employ must really be Windows 3.1 diehards. Even so, they’ve managed to make it even worse than 3.1’s progress bars.) If Avira could just change their progress bars to a more Vista-like appearance, I’d be sold.
I personally dislike the throbber 
created by Apple. It gives me the impression of a chicken running around with its head cut off. Fortunately, I’ve only seen it being used in fast-loading applets. This is guaranteed to give me a headache and moreover it doesn’t display the progress in percentage format.
If you believe you’ve spotted a cool looking progress bar in an app, please drop me a line or comment. Here’s to progress!
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