Replacing your boring Quick Launch Bar
If you’re like me, you’d like to keep your most used programs a click away like Photoshop, MS Word, Firefox etc. That’s simple if you have just a handful or programs but what if you have 20? I was able to do this with Desktop Sidebar by having several “Menus” that carry my shortcuts. It was good until I needed the screen space that it was taking up so I decided to look for a better way of keeping shortcuts to programs handy. One way to do it was with a Launcher program like Launchy. I’ve used Launchy for quite awhile but to make it work you need deep customization of the path where it’ll find the shortcuts (your Start Menu) to rid it of all the redundant or unnecessary links. I didn’t to go to the trouble of creating a new Start Menu profile so I decided to look for a more efficient way of doing things.
I found the answer by accident, customize the Quick Launch bar.
The image above is how my quick launch bar looks on my laptop. The image below is how my quick launch bar looks on my Desktop.
Interested yet? You can do the same with True Launch Bar (or Free Launch Bar if you’re looking for something free).
Features list
Compatibility with standard Quick Launch
True Launch Bar can replace or integrate with the standard Windows (TM) Quick Launch toolbar. It uses the same folder for shortcuts. If some program installs an icon into Quick Launch, then the program also installs the icon for True Launch Bar as well. True Launch Bar can be docked into the taskbar like just like Quick Launch.
Grouping links into popup menus
Instead of having just one program on an icon on your Quick Launch, you can create menus and place your shortcuts there (as shown on pic). It’s a great space saver and organizes your desktop too.
Windows Vista compatible
If you’re running Vista, you don’t have to worry about not being able to run True Launch Bar
Click to see full pic
Virtual Folders
At first I was wondering what this feature does but here’s a brief explanation.
When you create a virtual folder, you select the folder’s content you want to see which can be any folder on your disk or on a local network (Favorites, Programs, Recent, etc.); or you can add file system folders such as Printers, Control Panel, My Computer, Dialup Network or other similar folders. If you right-click on an item in the virtual folder, you can see a full context menu like in the Explorer window.
Drag & Drop
What’s a shortcut program without Drag&Drop.
Hot keys
Aside from clicking the icons, you can also assign hotkeys on programs on your True Launch Bar.
Run your shortcuts without click
True Launch Bar also has a feature of running a program on mouse hover. It’s not really advisable to use but it’s pretty cool.
Support for Multiple Toolbars
You can create as many toolbars as you like and switch between them as you like. Define one toolbar for working, another for gaming, and one for surfing. For me though, an All-in-One toolbar will do.
Shortcut Protection
You can prevent other people from running programs or deleting them from the Quick Launch bar by adding a password to it. You can also use a password to protect True Launch Bar’s set up.
Extension by Plugins
Just like Desktop Sidebar, you can add more functions to True Launch Bar by installing plugins. Currently, the only one I find useful is the RSS reader but there’s many more applications like Mail Monitor, System Monitor, Winamp Control, Volume Control that may suit your need.
Improved tips
Instead of just the usual name of the application on your Quick Launch, you can change description or even add a few notes of your own. To create tips with formatting you must right-click button Select Appearance submenu and click Change Description menu item. Text and some HTML tags are supported.
Tear Off Menu
This feature is utterly indispensible. If you have a set of shortcuts in a popup menu and you need them all (not at once, say one after the other) you can “tear off” that menu and drag it to any position on the desktop. You can also set it to “Always On Top“.
Comparison between True Launch Bar and Free Launch Bar:
|
Feature |
Free Launch Bar |
|
| Creating menus |
|
|
| Separators/Titles (Title is the separator with text) |
|
|
| Advanced Separators (Separators with collapse/expand and run all features) |
|
|
| Change Icons |
|
|
| Use PNG Icons |
|
|
| Custom Tips text |
|
|
| Hotkeys |
|
|
| Fast toolbar switching |
|
|
| Plugins (Mail Monitor, Wireless Monitor, Weather Forecast etc.) |
|
|
| Virtual Folders (This is menus that show the content of any folder from My Computer (Control Panel, Printers any file system folder etc.) |
|
|
| Skins and Custom colors |
|
|
| Overlay images for menus |
|
|
| Profiles ( allow to save settings and use them in the future for other toolbars) |
|
|
| Auto-Close menus when mouse is off from menus |
|
|
| Auto-run shortcuts on mouse hover |
|
|
| Context menu templates |
|
|
| Auto-sensing (changing toolbar content depend of running/active applications) |
|
|
| Live Update (Update software over Internet) |
|
|
| Backup/Restore (Backup toolbar including all shortcuts and settings into single file) |
|
|
| Price |
Free |
$19.90 |
This is the first post of my series in Windows Customization. Expect the next post to be up next week
If you're new to Pinoy Tech Guy, you may want to subscribe to the site RSS feed for your RSS reader or for regular updates straight to your inbox, you can subscribe via email.
1 Trackback(s)