I definitely miss multiple toolbars
I suppose I'm one of few toolbar supporters, and this thread really suprises me with how so many responders don't seem to find toolbars particularly handy. I see comments such as "add icons to the desktop" or "use keyboard shortcuts" and have to say that neither appeal to me. For a while, there was a plug-in product for Adobe Photoshop that provided a toolbar functionality that allowed one to forego drilling through menus or remembering a myriad of keyboard shortcuts, and when that plug-in was no longer supported by the manufacturer, I was able to breathe life into to it through 3 subsequent versions of Photoshop. No more however, due to changes in the GUI archictecture of Photoshop, and so I feel I've been relegated to doing things the old-fashioned way, but have become somewhat reaccustomed to that.
Well, here comes Windows 7 now doing the same thing, and this is one of the first shortcomings I see that, while it will not stop me from upgrading from Vista 64 Ultimate, may very well prolong my rush. Vista works fine and not only can I have an auto-hiding toolbar docked at the top of my desktop, but I can also revert the good ol' classic menu structure....I've never cared for the new Start Menu, but maybe Windows 7 will force me into accepting it and, with time, maybe I'll find it actually is an improvement. But, missing toolbars? Not an improvement at all in my opinion. Previously, I had my most frequently accessed applications in the Quick Launch toolbar and then, along the top - with plenty of real estate on a 24-inch monitor - I had multiple folders of icons all docked as one long, autohiding, always-on-top toolbar. One folder gave me one-click access to any of my many drive partitions or removable drives, another had all my Adobe and image management apps, another had various utilities, another was various audio apps, etc. Yes, quite a wealth of applications and yet all were a simple bump and click away...bump the top edge to reveal the toolbar, then click whichever application I desired. This freed me to a large extent from ever needing my Start Menu and also allowed me to totally ignore my desktop which perhaps I'd have multiple applications windows open upon. Why toggle to the desktop view and back to application view, when I can simply grab something from a top-docked toolbar that autohides and thus is very non-obtrusive?
So yes, I loathe this change in Windows 7. Unless something comes up that truly encourages me to upgrade, I may well stick to Vista 64 for the near future. I'll probably explore alternative 3rd-party options as long as I'm evaluating the Windows 7 release candidate, and then decide later whether or not to upgrade.
I'm with ya' on this one, Scott.
Daryl