VIDEO Docking toolbars in Windows 7

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FooSchnickens

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There was a work-around to make this , but that same trick didn't work in 7. Is there something similar in 7 to make this possible?

I hate having icons on my desktop and I'd prefer to not use the quick launch trick to clutter up the taskbar.

Any thoughts?
 
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Hi,

I have been frustrated by the removal of this feature as well. Here is the best solution I have been able to find so far using Windows 7 built in functionality, providing you are willing to get used to having your taskbar docked to the side of your screen.

Make a new toolbar on the taskbar then side-dock the taskbar. You can then arrange the toolbar side by side with the docked programs. I'm finding it an ok compromise. Would be nice if you could set the Start button/orb to sit at the bottom though.

I tried all the 3rd party dock programs but none of them seem to allow you to set the names of folders to be displayed constantly, so it's a bit useless if you have 20+ folders that all look the same until you mouse-over to find out...
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Doesn't work too well under W7. Performance tab doesn't do anything; I get access errors with other stuff (which is weird, because I have admin privs). But I'll keep trying for a while.
 
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alan sh said:
Doesn't work too well under W7. Performance tab doesn't do anything; I get access errors with other stuff (which is weird, because I have admin privs). But I'll keep trying for a while.
Click to expand...

Yes it does have minor niggles with the plugins, but for a basic toolbar replacement it's been working well for me so far
 
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Just got here from sevenforum. Was banned for arguing that toolbars were important. Very odd M$ groupies over there.

I have been running toolbars since 98 and am still on XP. Got my little bro to be guinea pig on his machine and to my shock/awe/despair Toolbars were a no-go. I did a bit of research and quizzed my friends running the beta and still nothing. Then the very rude high ranking people on sevenforums basically said "M$ is the best and you suck for wanting to do something that our new God OS cant do and your a dodo head.. all hail M$ and Win7 4 Life bitch... your banned"

Now I'm hear to put a checkbox in the "I use toolbars" column.

My current.


 
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Well I tried that Desktop Sidebar program posted by FASTY. Not bad. The skin editor is total $&*% and I cant figure out how to give each panel a 1 pixel separation line but finally got the color and text correct to match my theme.



BUT the "main" uses are perfect. Launching programs works as it does on the normal XP/Vista toolbars but with the Drive listings on top you cannot set "my computer" as a root. So I have a folder labeled "my computer" that is filled with shortcuts to all of my hard-drives. That means it will not add a usb-key or external HD I turn on automatically. However it does automatically update the contents of folders to the bar.

Note I am doing this testing on my XP machine and will throw it on my brothers Win7 soon to check for issues.
 
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Thanks for that link... It's a good start but still needs a lot more features to match Desktop Sidebar or the original xp/vista toolbar function
 
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Hi,
effectivley the software is an alpha version if You have a small amount of time write into discussion board, or open a new ticket, list of missing function in order to make this software better
Best regards
 
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Since this thread was bumped I will update. I have basically given in to M$'s absurdity and have only my task bar but docked and hidden on the right side. I think it works out well! The bottom of the screen is a bad place for it anyways. A list view of running programs instead of a long bar filled with them just seems correct.

 
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Still there is nothing like the toolbars in XP. I had a "My Computer" bar on the left side of my left monitor and had the ability to add two more to top or bottom since my task bar has always been on the right side of my right monitor. And I have seen just about every alternative out there and none of them stack up. Maybe in Windows 8.
 
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I'm confident this program called Coolbarz will satisfy some of you. It was created because of the missing dockable toolbars in Win7.
Link Removed due to 404 Error
 
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I too was extremely... unhappy... to find out that Microsoft removed this functionality. It's really a show stopper for me, but I have to use Win7 at work now, so I went ahead and wrote my own docking toolbar. It's a left-side, auto-hiding docked toolbar. It allows you to drag and drop files or shortcuts on the toolbar, very similar to the old toolbars. I tried to keep the look and feel as close as I could get it to the original.

It's not customizable very much (because I just wrote it for what I need), but anyone is free to use it if they happen to also prefer a left-side, auto-hiding, single column-width docked toolbar. Maybe if I get a lot of interest I'll add features (like choosing where it can dock and resizing it and what not).

It's called the SIMS Toolbar, which either refers to the fact that it "SIMulateS" the old XP toolbar, or it stands for "Suck It, MicroSoft!".... You can decide for yourself. :^D

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WATYF
 
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WATYF

Thank you for the utility, would also like to say it works fine in the windows 8 Developer preview. I'll post it over there if you don't mind
 
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I believe that this loss of usability is Microsoft trying to 'simplify' things for 'average' users. I am a power user, always have been.

There is no longer a choice to be a power user in Microsoft, that is being taken away. If Windows leaves us behind like this, I see no alternative but to switch operating systems.

Think about it... how many critical features have you seen removed or altered to the point of uselessness because of this drive for simplicity. Where will we be in twenty years and how many thousands of hours will we have collectively spent trying to restore functionality? Windows isn't worth the hassle anymore and I don't see a bright future anymore. Not one with me as a user.
 
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