Tips & Tricks

Desktop Toolbars

Have you ever had several windows open and needed to get to a shortcut on the desktop? I know I have. You have to minimize all three windows just to start the other program. But there is an easy way to fix this problem. Create a toolbar with your shortcuts in it!

Here’s how. First, right click on the windows toolbar on the bottom of your screen. You will get a little menu. Go up to the toolbars option. Another menu will slide out. Left click on “New Toolbar”. This gives you a window where we can create your toolbar.

Next, left click once on the word “desktop”, so it is highlighted. Then click the button “New Folder”. Give the new folder the name you want for your toolbar. Let’s say… My Shortcuts. Click OK.

The window will close and you will notice a new folder has been placed on the desktop with whatever name you gave it. Left click-and-drag this folder to the edge of your screen. When you release the mouse button, the folder will magically become a toolbar. Amazing!

You say “So what? All I have is an empty toolbar.” Well, now that we have created the toolbar, all we need to do is to put some shortcuts in it.

To do this, just drag the icons you want from your desktop into the toolbar. If you want some for the start menu, just find them in there and drag them over too.

All right, now you have full toolbar, but it won’t go away. Here’s what you do. Right click the name on the top of the toolbar. A menu will be displayed. To make the toolbar disappear when your mouse is not over it click on “Auto-Hide”, if it is not already checked. Open this menu again and click on “Always on Top”, again only if it is not already checked. This will allow the toolbar to be displayed over the windows you are using. With this menu you can also change the view, whether the title is displayed, and if you want text with the icons.

To enhance the use of this tip you may want to create more toolbars (one for each side of your monitor.) This is great for organization. At one time, I had toolbars for documents, games, and Microsoft Office. The only problem is that with multiple toolbars containing lots of icons the start-up time is slightly longer (on my slow computer anyway). In my opinion the wait is worth the ease it provides later.

~ Kyle Larson

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