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Article: Custom Quick Launch XP Toolbar
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Tired of having a cluttered desktop, littered with icons? But what to do…? One solution is to “Hide Your Desktop Icons”, which hides all icons, but what if some of those icons are programs that you want to be able to easily access … The solution? Create your own Quick Launch Toolbar.

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Or if you choose, you can put your toolbar on either side, like this:

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To begin we need to create a new folder to put all of the shortcuts in. Please note that this folder can be named whatever you want and be saved anywhere, but for the purposes of this example I have chosen to name the folder “QuickLaunchShortcuts” and save that folder in ‘MyDocuments’.

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][blockquote]Click Start, My Documents, then click File and then New, then Folder

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Choose a name for your folder, I have chosen QuickLaunchShortcuts Hit Enter to finalize the name and then Double Click this folder to open it.

Then click File and then New, then Shortcut

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The Create Shortcut Wizard will pop up. Click Browse and navigate to the location of the program that you want in your Quick Launch Toolbar. (Hint: Most of the programs on your system will be found in C:/Documents and Settings/All Users/Start Menu/Programs)

[/blockquote][/td][/tr][tr][td][blockquote]Select the program you are wanting to add, for this example I have chosen Ad Aware SE . Once you have selected, click OK, then hit Next.

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Give your shortcut a name, then click Finish

You should now have an icon in your folder representing the program that you just added. To ensure you chose the correct file, it’s a good idea to double click the icon to make sure that the correct program opens. If it doesn’t then you chose the wrong file. If it does work, then you are all set.

Click File , then New then Shortcut , to choose another program to add to your Quick Launch Toolbar. Repeat this until you have all Shortcuts that you want (note: you can easily add programs later, so don’t worry about trying to remember every program).

When you are finished, you will have a something that looks like this:

Next, Close out of all windows (including the QuickLaunchToolbar Window you just created)…. You should be back to your desktop.

Now Right-Click on the Taskbar, then select Toolbars, then click New Toolbar . . .

Navigate to your QuickLaunchToolbar then click Ok.

You should now see Text in the toolbar with a little double arrow near the clock, like this:

Next Right Click on the Taskbar and uncheck Lock the Taskbar

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Now, Right Click precisely where you see QuickLaunchToolbar and uncheck Show Text

Now, once again, Right Click precisely where you see QuickLaunchToolbar and uncheck Show Title

Now you should see something like this:

Next place your cursor on the divider line (see below pic) then click and drag upwards.

Let go of the mouse somewhere on your desktop you should see this:

Now click on the blue section (see pic), to Drag the Toolbar to Either the Top of your screen or the Right or Left of your screen (depending on where you want your Quick Launch Toolbar).

For this example I chose the Top…so I click on the blue section and drag the entire window to the top of the screen and release the mouse, to get this:

Now, you can resize the taskbar

*** Important Step ***

Right Click on your new toolbar and Select Always On Top. What this does is ensure that when you open up a window that the toolbar is always visible.

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If you prefer larger buttons, you can Right Click in the same location as you just did in the previous step, then select View, then Large

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Once your QuickLaunchToolbar toolbar is the way you want it, as a last step, Right Click on the taskbar and select Lock the Taskbar

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And That’s It!

Note: If you ever want to add a program simply drag the icon up to your toolbar.

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