Windows 7 hide 'favorites' in explorer

[carsten888]

in the explorer, top left column, is 'favorites'. I never use it and it takes up a lot of space. How to hide it. I tried in fain to delete it.

 

[carsten888]

Ahh!
I finally found a program which replaces the windows explorer and does exactly what I want:
Link Removed due to 404 Error
It has bookmarks which can be hidden and loads more.