SmartBarXP is a bar that runs down the side of your screen, and can be configured to display interactive panels known as 'panes'. These panes include media players, slideshow and image viewing panes, a virtual desktop manager, and live news, weather and stock feeds to mention but a few. The panes can be repositioned on the bar, and scrolled if the bar becomes too full. The bar can also be host to extra sections, which include a recycle bin, explorer shortcuts, and taskbar replacement sections (start button, taskbar buttons and system tray sections).

To add to the incredible flexibility of functionality, SmartBarXP can be fully customisable in almost every aspect you can think of. Every pane has extensive options where needed, and can be customised to look and work just the way you want it to. The bar itself can be customised too, with options for positioning, auto hiding, pane scrolling, fading and translucency effects, changing the language and regional setting, and more. You can also select the theme the bar takes on; it can match your current Windows XP theme, the Classic Windows theme, or even use a third party SmartBarXP theme.

With a wide range panes to choose from, and seemingly endless ways to customise it, SmartBarXP can be configured to the needs of almost any computer user – be it for home or business use.