Mastering your Windows XP Quick Launch Toolbar
Do you get tired of a desktop cluttered with icons? Do you hate digging through your Start, Programs menu to find what you want? Does your most recently used programs list in the Start menu leave a lot to be desired? Are freeware and shareware application launchers a pain to configure? If so, in this article I will show you how to master your Quick Launch toolbar!
Introducing Quick Launch
The Quick Launch toolbar sits on your Windows taskbar, ready to provide you with a handy categorized list of your favourite programs:
Why not just use the Start, Programs menu you may ask? Even if you reorganize the Programs menu, over time it tends to get cluttered when new programs are added and removed. Other, often useless or rarely used icons are put into the Programs menu. Quick Launch always looks the same for each user until edited, and it only includes the icons you need to run the programs.
Features
Quick Launch features:
Setting up Quick Launch
The first thing you need to do when you are setting up or editing the Quick Launch toolbar is to unlock the Windows taskbar. To do this, move your mouse pointer to an empty area of the taskbar and right-click, then de-select Lock the Taskbar:
If you do not see the Quick Launch toolbar on your taskbar, it may be hidden. To make it visible, move your mouse pointer to an empty area of the taskbar and right-click. Go to Toolbars, and click Quick Launch so that it has a checkmark next to it:
To position it, you can drag it around by selecting the dotted vertical line, clicking then dragging it into position. Be careful not to drag it off, onto the desktop. If this happens you can always close the one on the desktop, then re-enable it on the taskbar to get it back. Remember, you can only position it when the taskbar is unlocked.
Add & Remove Items
In working with Quick Launch, there are two things you should remember. The first is that you want to add only shortcuts to your Quick Launch bar, not the actual programs themselves. If you move a program's icon from its folder onto the Quick Launch toolbar, the application will likely not work. If this happens you should move it back to where it came from.
The second thing you should remember is that the Quick Launch toolbar is actually a folder on your computer. As such, it becomes much easier to visualize how it works, and how you can use it.
The default Quick Launch toolbar usually includes a few standard icons such as Internet Explorer and Show Desktop. If you let your mouse pointer sit on the icon for a few seconds, the description will appear above it:
The most straightforward way to get a program into Quick Launch is to create a shortcut to it on the desktop, then drag the shortcut onto the Quick Launch toolbar. Removing a shortcut is equally simple, just right-click on the shortcut and choose Delete.
Using Categories
Remembering that Quick Launch is a folder, this allows us to get fancy and create sub-folders which act as categories, so you could have something that looks like this:
If fact, if you prefer, you can work with Quick Launch as a regular folder view. To do this, right-click on an empty area of the Quick Launch toolbar and choose Open Folder:
What you should see is the folder view:
The location shown in the address line tells you that it is located in that particular user's Documents area. Also note the two circled items that show the typical contents, shortcuts and folders. You can simply create new folders for any types of categories you want, then drag shortcuts into those category folders.
Expert Tips
Open a Web Site - You can make a shortcut to a web site easily. Just right-click anywhere on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Type in the address, such as www.techforthetimid.com, click next, give it a title and choose Finish. Now drag it to your Quick Launch and it will start your web browser with that web site.
Restore the Show Desktop icon - If you ever accidentally delete the Show Desktop icon, you can re-create it easily by the following. Open Notepad and entter the following into it:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Save it to your desktop as Show Desktop.scf then drag it from the desktop onto your Quick Launch toolbar.
Create a New Email - You can make a shortcut to start up your email client and begin a new email easily. Just right-click anywhere on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Type in mailto: and click Next, then enter "New Email" and choose Finish. Drag it onto your Quick Launch and test it out. Your email program doesn't even have to be running to use this quick shortcut!
Quick Launch Documents - In addition to programs, you can also put shortcuts to frequently-used documents in your Quick Launch toolbar. When you select the shortcut, it will open the file in the application it was created in.
The Windows XP Quick Launch toolbar is not difficult to use, but I still see people struggling with dozens of icons on their desktops and hunting for programs among sometimes hundreds of Start programs. Mastering the Quick Launch toolbar can save a lot of time and keep you organized!
Introducing Quick Launch
The Quick Launch toolbar sits on your Windows taskbar, ready to provide you with a handy categorized list of your favourite programs:
Why not just use the Start, Programs menu you may ask? Even if you reorganize the Programs menu, over time it tends to get cluttered when new programs are added and removed. Other, often useless or rarely used icons are put into the Programs menu. Quick Launch always looks the same for each user until edited, and it only includes the icons you need to run the programs.
Features
Quick Launch features:
- an almost unlimited number of categories and links to programs, files or folders
- low system resources that allow it to work on any computer running Windows XP
- very simple method to add or remove links
- built into Windows XP, so there is nothing to buy
- each computer user has his or her own personalized Quick Launch toolbar
Setting up Quick Launch
The first thing you need to do when you are setting up or editing the Quick Launch toolbar is to unlock the Windows taskbar. To do this, move your mouse pointer to an empty area of the taskbar and right-click, then de-select Lock the Taskbar:
If you do not see the Quick Launch toolbar on your taskbar, it may be hidden. To make it visible, move your mouse pointer to an empty area of the taskbar and right-click. Go to Toolbars, and click Quick Launch so that it has a checkmark next to it:
To position it, you can drag it around by selecting the dotted vertical line, clicking then dragging it into position. Be careful not to drag it off, onto the desktop. If this happens you can always close the one on the desktop, then re-enable it on the taskbar to get it back. Remember, you can only position it when the taskbar is unlocked.
Add & Remove Items
In working with Quick Launch, there are two things you should remember. The first is that you want to add only shortcuts to your Quick Launch bar, not the actual programs themselves. If you move a program's icon from its folder onto the Quick Launch toolbar, the application will likely not work. If this happens you should move it back to where it came from.
The second thing you should remember is that the Quick Launch toolbar is actually a folder on your computer. As such, it becomes much easier to visualize how it works, and how you can use it.
The default Quick Launch toolbar usually includes a few standard icons such as Internet Explorer and Show Desktop. If you let your mouse pointer sit on the icon for a few seconds, the description will appear above it:
The most straightforward way to get a program into Quick Launch is to create a shortcut to it on the desktop, then drag the shortcut onto the Quick Launch toolbar. Removing a shortcut is equally simple, just right-click on the shortcut and choose Delete.
Using Categories
Remembering that Quick Launch is a folder, this allows us to get fancy and create sub-folders which act as categories, so you could have something that looks like this:
If fact, if you prefer, you can work with Quick Launch as a regular folder view. To do this, right-click on an empty area of the Quick Launch toolbar and choose Open Folder:
What you should see is the folder view:
The location shown in the address line tells you that it is located in that particular user's Documents area. Also note the two circled items that show the typical contents, shortcuts and folders. You can simply create new folders for any types of categories you want, then drag shortcuts into those category folders.
Expert Tips
Open a Web Site - You can make a shortcut to a web site easily. Just right-click anywhere on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Type in the address, such as www.techforthetimid.com, click next, give it a title and choose Finish. Now drag it to your Quick Launch and it will start your web browser with that web site.
Restore the Show Desktop icon - If you ever accidentally delete the Show Desktop icon, you can re-create it easily by the following. Open Notepad and entter the following into it:
[Shell]
Command=2
IconFile=explorer.exe,3
[Taskbar]
Command=ToggleDesktop
Save it to your desktop as Show Desktop.scf then drag it from the desktop onto your Quick Launch toolbar.
Create a New Email - You can make a shortcut to start up your email client and begin a new email easily. Just right-click anywhere on your desktop and choose New, Shortcut. Type in mailto: and click Next, then enter "New Email" and choose Finish. Drag it onto your Quick Launch and test it out. Your email program doesn't even have to be running to use this quick shortcut!
Quick Launch Documents - In addition to programs, you can also put shortcuts to frequently-used documents in your Quick Launch toolbar. When you select the shortcut, it will open the file in the application it was created in.
The Windows XP Quick Launch toolbar is not difficult to use, but I still see people struggling with dozens of icons on their desktops and hunting for programs among sometimes hundreds of Start programs. Mastering the Quick Launch toolbar can save a lot of time and keep you organized!
posted by Peter at
12:46 PM
3 Comments:
helped me heaps! Thanx, good work
By
Anonymous, at 2:32 AM
Now i can edit my Quick Launch, but still cant activate it... kind a useless like this, maybe put a troubleshooting part at it too? :)
Nice and easy explanations tho :)
By
Anonymous, at 4:24 AM
When you put a link in the Quick Launch folder, it should automatically show up. This assumes that (1) your Taskbar is visible, and (2) your Quick Launch toolbar is turned on (right-click on Taskbar, Toolbars, make sure checkmark is beside Quick Launch).
By
Peter, at 8:21 AM
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