Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Another Shortcut menu from the Toolbar

The standard Windows Start Menu has never been enough for me, even with the enhancements in Vista (haven’t tried Windows 7 yet). I’ve always wanted another sort of “Start Menu”. The closest way i could do this, without installing anything new was with the use of toolbars.

Check out the following sample of this “sort of Start Menu”

toolbar07

This “menu” is right next to the system tray.

Here’s the steps on how to do it.

1. Create a new folder where you’d want to put all your shortcuts.
TRICK: I’d named this folder using a blank, space-like character. This character can be typed in by using ALT+255. This way, we get the effect of the above toolbar icon where you just get the expansion (chevron) icon.
So, in the example below.. i created a folder at “H:\_Toolbars\ “

toolbar04a

2. The Taskbar should be unlocked first. Just right-click anywhere on a blank area of the task bar and make sure that the “Lock the Taskbar” is unchecked.

toolbar02a 

3. Right-click on a blank area on the toolbar again and select New Toolbar.
toolbar08a
4. Browse for the folder we just created (step 1) in the dialog that appears.
toolbar05a

5. Our new toolbar should now appear on our Taskbar. You can re-arrange the order of the toolbars if you wish, but once done, I recommend re-locking your Taskbar. Just re-do Step 2 to “Check” the “Lock the Taskbar” menu item.

6. You can put any file or shortcut in our new folder (it’s just a normal folder anyway), and it will immediately be reflected on your Taskbar.

HOW TO DELETE OUR SPECIAL FOLDER

Now, if you followed the trick in Step1, you’d know that the folder isn’t easily deleted as a normal folder (in Vista, but it’s easy on XP). To delete it, please follow my previous post regarding a Folder with a blank name.

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