Windows 7 Will you buy Window 7 without Toolbars?

Scott Eaton

New Member
Will you buy Window 7 without Toolbars?

Please don’t remain silent about the Toolbar issue. I for one will state right now, that I WILL NOT upgrade to Windows 7 if I don’t have all my toolbars. It won’t happen!

Windows 7 combining of the Task Bar and Quick Launch barely affects me. I do use Quick Launch because it is the PERFECT spot for the “Show Desktopâ€Â￾ button and I hate how show desktop is now on the right side of my screen. However, I am much more concerned with the thought of losing the 14 toolbars that I use at all times, not to mention the 10 others that I use occasionally? I use 3-10 toolbars on each side of my monitor and depending on my mood, or what I am doing, I expand one toolbar and shrink another. With this system I am rarely more than 1 click away from every file or program that I use regularly on my system. I may have to click twice or thrice, to get to the other places that I rarely or never visit, but it is much faster than using that useless Windows Start Button. The only time I use Windows Start is to Restart, Shutdown, or the occasional Run Command.

Now why would I give all of this up for a single overly crowded Taskbar? I have attached a jpg to show what my desktop looks like.

What does everyone else think, or am I the only one who feels that toolbars are invaluable?

Did I mention that I would not give up my toolbars?
 
And, Yes again! You must have a big monitor to be able to lose all that real estate for all those toolbars. LOL
 
If you really feel you need all that access, would it not be easier just to create shortcuts on the desktop?
 
If you really feel you need all that access, would it not be easier just to create shortcuts on the desktop?

I got tired of having to reposition everything after changing resolutions or computer crashes, or any of the other strange reasons windows liked to rearrange everything on my desktop.

If 7RC is stable in that regard, I might be able to do as you say. At least changing resolutions seems to remember things correctly, I have done that test.

Does anyone know of a file that can be saved, that will return your desktop to a previous state?
 
even though I don't personally like the New Start menu and taskbar,

It is a small annoyance that I can live with.
I will definitely be buying Windows 7
 
If you really feel you need all that access, would it not be easier just to create shortcuts on the desktop?

That is exactly what I do - as well as pin some of the shortcuts to the taskbar. To make things even easier, I have also created keyboard shortcuts to my most used applications so that I can launch them even though the desktop is completely obliterated with other applications.

So, yes, I will also be definitely purchasing a copy of Win7 when it is released (although I might wait a couple of months to see if the price comes down when buying from online vendors).
 
Does anyone know of a file that can be saved, that will return your desktop to a previous state?

Yes.
You don't state whether your are 32 or 64Bit, so I have attached both. For the 64 bit, just follow through the expanation during the install. For the 32Bit, I have included a small text file.
Should anything go wrong (go wrong go wrong.....) I have also enclosed an uninstall.

You must save your desktop, of course, before trying to restore it.
 
I also will be buying Windows 7 no matter what toolbars they eliminate.. ;) I'll be camping out the night before it's release simply because the want for 7 is far greater than that of Vista.. :) I can see there being a lineup for this release... ;)
 
I also will be buying Windows 7 no matter what toolbars they eliminate.. ;) I'll be camping out the night before it's release simply because the want for 7 is far greater than that of Vista.. :) I can see there being a lineup for this release... ;)

Toolbars the big issue ! Think I can get over it

A good 2get OS forget the toolbars :D
 
Yes.
You don't state whether your are 32 or 64Bit, so I have attached both. For the 64 bit, just follow through the expanation during the install. For the 32Bit, I have included a small text file.
Should anything go wrong (go wrong go wrong.....) I have also enclosed an uninstall.

You must save your desktop, of course, before trying to restore it.

I have both a 32 and 64 bit system so I appreciate getting both files. I tried the 32 bit in XP and it worked like a charm. I'll see if it works in Win7 but hopefully Win7 will be stable enough and not need it.

Thanks for the help.:)
 
OK! I lose. Nobody uses toolbars. My own brother who has been a programmer for 30 years, and whom I’ve lived with most of that time, loves my toolbars. However, he has yet to implement them after all that time.

As for those who have mentioned that my desktop is cluttered. What is the difference between putting icons in the center of the desktop, the top, the bottom, or around the edges? Whatever we do causes clutter. It is up to us to develop our own system to deal with this madness. One man’s order is another man’s chaos. All desktops look cluttered to me, until I get used to them. Some desktops of course, I’ll never get used to.

In the example I gave, I clicked open a number of sub folders to show some of the possibilities. I realize now that was a mistake, cause it does make my desk look cluttered. Just try to imagine my desk without all the subfolders opened up. If you don’t want those subfolders then don’t put them in your toolbars. I realize that my system is overkill to many but it works for me.

Does my system use too much real estate? All Toolbars get covered up whenever I maximize a window. There is no real estate lost there. If I need to get to my Toolbars, I just press Show Desktop in the Quick Launch.

[FONT=&quot]I do lose a few lines at the bottom, since I have my taskbar set to Always On Top. I hope this community will allow me that much [/FONT];)
 
I wonder if Microsoft will offer a pre-release order option ??

Adobe did with Audition, and I had it shipped to me right away as soon as it was released.


:)
 
I've only seen 1 or 2 people in my life that use the toolbar feature in Windows, lol. I forgot all about it :)
 
Will you buy Window 7 without Toolbars?

Please don’t remain silent about the Toolbar issue. I for one will state right now, that I WILL NOT upgrade to Windows 7 if I don’t have all my toolbars. It won’t happen!

Windows 7 combining of the Task Bar and Quick Launch barely affects me. I do use Quick Launch because it is the PERFECT spot for the “Show Desktopâ€Â￾ button and I hate how show desktop is now on the right side of my screen. However, I am much more concerned with the thought of losing the 14 toolbars that I use at all times, not to mention the 10 others that I use occasionally? I use 3-10 toolbars on each side of my monitor and depending on my mood, or what I am doing, I expand one toolbar and shrink another. With this system I am rarely more than 1 click away from every file or program that I use regularly on my system. I may have to click twice or thrice, to get to the other places that I rarely or never visit, but it is much faster than using that useless Windows Start Button. The only time I use Windows Start is to Restart, Shutdown, or the occasional Run Command.

Now why would I give all of this up for a single overly crowded Taskbar? I have attached a jpg to show what my desktop looks like.

What does everyone else think, or am I the only one who feels that toolbars are invaluable?

Did I mention that I would not give up my toolbars?
Well i think toolbars are the best thing since sliced bread but when using 7 i use two object docks, one on either monitor one for files and one for programmes. It works brilliantly
 
Absolutely Yes,

I use a freeware replacement for the quick launch bar called "FreeLaunchBar"

Free Launch Bar - Free replacement for standard Quick Launch

I've been using it for years in XP and this latest version works great in Win 7 RC.

It allows you to create individual menu's in the taskbar area complete with custom icons to represent the menu content.

What I do is create menu's for shortcuts to categories like "Browsers etc", "Photo Imaging", "System Tools", "Multimedia" etc.

When you hover you cursor over the individual menu's a tool tip will pop up showing you the menu name.

Clicking a menu will expand the menu showing the shortcuts available for that menu.

The program allows great control over appearance and behavior of the menus.

Having the shortcuts arranged in categorized menus allow you to access them quickly without cluttering the desktop.
or filling up the "quick launch bar".

See the screenshot below for an idea of what I'm talking about.



The larger red circled is the actual menu for the smaller circled menu icon, in this case "System Tools".

As you can see at the top of the menu you can create sub-menus (AdminTools with the down arrow to right).

Once a menu is created you simply drag and drop your shortcuts to the appropriate menu.
Your shortcuts will retain their icons and you can change them using the right click context menu for the individual menu (appearances).

The menu's are further identified by a small down arrow and FreeLaunchBar allows you to place spacers between the individual menu icons.

The "need" for spacers between individual shortcuts in the original "QuickLaunchBar" is what led me to google for and find
FreeLaunchBar.

As you can see I have a very uncluttered and well organized desktop, with only the shortcuts I use all the time visible.

FreeLaunchBar is what QuickLaunchBar never was. And as a bonus it's free.

Creating screenshots like the above helps me when doing a fresh install.

You can do something similar with the Win 7 taskbar/quick launch bar (creating menus and such) but you get a whole bunch more control with "FreeLaunchBar".

And yes I'm willing to bet that a whole bunch of users make use of toolbars.

Win 7 and Linux rocks.

The company also offers a "paid" version called "TrueLaunchBar" but FreeLaunchBar does everything I need.

See info at the "TrueLaunchBar" site for some help with using "FreeLaunchBar".

By just playing with it I was able to figure the program out. It makes extensive use of the "right click".

To setup after installing FreeLaunchBar right click your taskbar and choose FreeLaunchBar from the toolbar menu.

Right clicking on the new toolbar shows several options, the most important being the "FLB Settings" option.
This allows you to setup choices with the program.

Creating a menu involves right clicking a blank portion of the FreeLaunchBar and choosing new>menu.

Play with it for awhile and you will get the hang of it.
 
May be buying one copy of Seven

Windows 7 is a big improvement over Vista and I have one Vista computer that I would like to be more wiling to use. I quickly get fed up with a reboot every 10 minutes, so I may buy a copy of Windows 7 to replace the Vista train wreck. Beyond replacing that one totally unsatisfactory OS, I will be in no rush to move to Windows 7 on a big scale. When XP becomes as obsolete as 2000 has become, I will probably migrate, one by one, to Windows 7 or windows 8.

As for toolbars: I cringe at the word "toolbar". I didn't know that toolbars such as Scott Eaton refers to ever were available nor that they are not available on Windows 7. I do basically the same thing that Scott does with toolbars, but I use categorized desktop shortcut folders and desktop shortcuts within those folders. I have something on the order of 150-200 internet and Windows Explorer shortcuts stored within about 15 desktop shortcut folders with customized icons.

To answer the question specifically posed in this thread: I would not let the availability or unavailability of toolbars enter into a decision to purchase or not purchase Windows 7. Availability of the full and complete Classic Interface - - Now that's another story!
 
Availability of the full and complete Classic Interface - - Now that's another story!

I think they should ditch the horrid classic theme and make a minimalistic theme/resource combo. Now we all know Windows 7 is light weight, but there should be a mode that strips Windows 7 down even further, by shutting off really, unnecessary services and giving the GUI a nice, but faster feel.
 
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