Solved Adding a toolbar to the top of the screen????

[whs]

Get a life and adopt to changes. Poke around and you'll find even better features for what you want to do.

I'm not the OP, but I'm yet another user (with a life, thank you) who would
love to hear what these "better features" are. Please elaborate.

BTW, I'm a software consultant, and I keep about 80 quick-launch icons for
utilities at the sides of the screen in XP and Vista. Last thing that I need in
the middle of trying to drill into low-level for debugging apps is the distraction
of navigating popup menus. How else would you do that?

I have just as many shortcuts spread all over. I use AppLauncher in the sidebar (put the Vista Sidebar into my Win7). Then I have 4 different Toolbars off the taskbar (i don't like to have everything in the same place - I group it by category) and then i also use the Rocket Dock (on 32bit though). With that spread I can launch anything instantly.

 

[Stringtheory]

It appears that Rocket Dock won't work with 64-bit OS's yet.

That is correct - that's what it says on their download page.

Yep, I wasn't implying that they misrepresented anything. Only that those running 64-bit may want to check Nexus.

 

[valtonray]

may i add that the reason many features are dropped from the 7 or in the case of the windows live applications changed over to download only is because so many users didn't want or need these applications. we asked for a leaner smaller os and microsoft gave us that.

 

[whs]

may i add that the reason many features are dropped from the 7 or in the case of the windows live applications changed over to download only is because so many users didn't want or need these applications. we asked for a leaner smaller os and microsoft gave us that.

In principle you are right - we asked for it. And making whole components like WMM, etc. optional is a good thing. BUT, small, useful functions like the Toolbar on top of the screen that make the operation of the system easier, should not have been axed. I am sure they did that to accomodate their desktop background stuff - who needs it? That is really some useless junk that adds nothing to the ease of operation and bloats the system.

 

[valtonray]

In principle you are right - we asked for it. And making whole components like WMM, etc. optional is a good thing. BUT, small, useful functions like the Toolbar on top of the screen that make the operation of the system easier, should not have been axed. I am sure they did that to accomodate their desktop background stuff - who needs it? That is really some useless junk that adds nothing to the ease of operation and bloats the system.

idk i really like some of the new desktop features especially aero snap, on large screens it really saves time when you want to see multiple windows at once, now aero shake, i don't really see the point in that one, i think it's more just eye candy and because they could

 

[ArinA]

may i add that the reason many features are dropped from the 7 or in the case of the windows live applications changed over to download only is because so many users didn't want or need these applications. we asked for a leaner smaller os and microsoft gave us that.

Leaner?

I understand leaner. Remove the junk software. Remove the windows live crap. Shit... Remove MS paint. That's leaner. Removing the ability to right click and add a toolbar is not.

Everyone can argue with me on this and I don't care. I'm right and you're wrong. Windows 7 removed on of it's greatest assets and now it's just shitty.

If anyone knows how to bring it back please do tell.

If anyone knows an alternative thats 100% identical (none of this 'jerk me off *I now look like a mac*' rocket dock BS), please chime in.

-Arin

 

[whs]

may i add that the reason many features are dropped from the 7 or in the case of the windows live applications changed over to download only is because so many users didn't want or need these applications. we asked for a leaner smaller os and microsoft gave us that.

Leaner?

I understand leaner. Remove the junk software. Remove the windows live crap. Shit... Remove MS paint. That's leaner. Removing the ability to right click and add a toolbar is not.

Everyone can argue with me on this and I don't care. I'm right and you're wrong. Windows 7 removed on of it's greatest assets and now it's just shitty.

If anyone knows how to bring it back please do tell.

If anyone knows an alternative thats 100% identical (none of this 'jerk me off *I now look like a mac*' rocket dock BS), please chime in.

-Arin

I think you are just an unhappy camper. Your remarks are way off course. We were trying to make suggestions within the confines of Win7.

 

[Stringtheory]

may i add that the reason many features are dropped from the 7 or in the case of the windows live applications changed over to download only is because so many users didn't want or need these applications. we asked for a leaner smaller os and microsoft gave us that.

Leaner?

I understand leaner. Remove the junk software. Remove the windows live crap. Shit... Remove MS paint. That's leaner. Removing the ability to right click and add a toolbar is not.

Everyone can argue with me on this and I don't care. I'm right and you're wrong. Windows 7 removed on of it's greatest assets and now it's just shitty.

If anyone knows how to bring it back please do tell.

If anyone knows an alternative thats 100% identical (none of this 'jerk me off *I now look like a mac*' rocket dock BS), please chime in.

-Arin

That feature was a very simple one...being able to drag a toolbar to the desktop. In Win7, creation of toolbars within the taskbar is still possible, so we're just talking about the drag/drop to desktop. That wouldn't be one of those 'streamline' points--at least not a major one. A lot of the emphasis in Win7 and Vista is on eye candy and glitz -- Aero and fancy visual features. In this respect, a lot of MS's decisions are probably market-driven (competition with Mac) rather than trying to provide features that don't jump off the screen.

MS has also screwed up some development tools for about the same reason. They're determined to use WPF everywhere, and now their own development system (Visual Studio) has slowed down drastically. (Who cares about shaded buttons and nice transparencies when you're trying to write code?). Also omissions of functional features that were in VS2005 and VS2008, but evidently didn't pass the new 'visual impact' test. Pulled the rug out from under lots of programmers.

Back to subject at hand: If we're talking about the same thing, Arin, I believe that this would be easy to duplicate. I don't use the docking feature--I just keep programs categorized by function in one of about 10 desktop toolbars. It allows me to expand a toolbar's window when I'm working within that category. And visibility, sorting, and one-click launch are nice.

Anyway, I was thinking about writing something like that, cause my Win7 desktop is now (ironically) ugly and cluttered with icons. But that is probably something that I won't get to for a while.

I haven't seen any of the other toolbars that do what I want, but this is easy enough (not sure about docking) that someone may have done it already.

 

[jth]

Useful Alternative

I know this is not exactly what you were looking for but I just stumbled onto it and I think it is pretty neat. I always wanted my Desktop clean of shortcuts and found a way to obtain it and yet still have it a single mouse click anyway.

1) Right click the Desktop, select View and uncheck "Show desktop icons"
This will result in a clean Desktop - Yeah! and you can always undo this if it makes you nervous.

2) Right click the Taskbar, select Toolbars, Desktop
This will once again give you access to your Desktop with a single click to the double arrows.

You don't say why you use a Desktop toolbar but if you used it to control application shortcuts or any sort of shortcuts you could accomplish almost the same thing as a Desktop Toolbar by creating a Folder (anywhere on your hard drives), which contain these shortcuts and instead of viewing the Desktop in the preceding instruction #2 you could perform the following:
Right click the Taskbar, select Toolbars, New toolbar - navigate to your newly created Folder, choose it and finally click the Select Folder button
This will produce a new toolbar which uses your Folder name located on the Taskbar with a double arrow. You can click the double arrows to see and/or launch any of the Folder's shortcuts.

 

[Thorsen]

It appears that Rocket Dock won't work with 64-bit OS's yet.

That is correct - that's what it says on their download page.

I have it running in 64x and have seen only minor issues.

 

[Deathwalker]

2) Right click the Taskbar, select Toolbars, Desktop
This will once again give you access to your Desktop with a single click to the double arrows.

Thanks for this - I tried it and I think I can live with this option as a work around. I'll have to get used to it I guess and after a while I may even like it. Unfortunately I have a habit of saving all files to the desktop (and moving them or deleting them immediately after) so I'll have to remember to save the files elsewhere from now on.

 

[ZoNtO]

Just use Display Fusion. $20 seems like it might be worth it for you since it's such a big deal.

I use the free version to put different TMNT wallpapers on each monitor!

 

[sree reddy]

hey guys.
Do any one know how to install cool toolbar for windows 7

 

[subyroo]

It appears that Rocket Dock won't work with 64-bit OS's yet.

That is correct - that's what it says on their download page.

I have it running in 64x and have seen only minor issues.

Same here, no problems ......... yet.

 

[desolator4u]

Leaner?

I understand leaner. Remove the junk software. Remove the windows live crap. Shit... Remove MS paint. That's leaner. Removing the ability to right click and add a toolbar is not.

Everyone can argue with me on this and I don't care. I'm right and you're wrong. Windows 7 removed on of it's greatest assets and now it's just shitty.

If anyone knows how to bring it back please do tell.

If anyone knows an alternative thats 100% identical (none of this 'jerk me off *I now look like a mac*' rocket dock BS), please chime in.

-Arin

Same here. I ave always used that extra Toolbar at the top of the screen, and since i've installed Win 7 in January, it has been my biggest disappointment to see that it is no longer possible to do.
I am dying for a suitable replacement for this feature. All those apps like that Rocket Dock BS can't substitute.

~Des

 

[flirno]

Yes, XP had better toolbar options.

I have to agree with the original poster. The change that happened basically is this.

The old tool bars (the sample of which was named the quick bar) were nothing more than links to folders in the file system with a special interface. This was awesome. It isn't much different form the way urls are currently stored in Windows.

So anyway the old tool bars were just file links in folders. (There was no real limit to this that I am aware of. You could make hundreds of toolbars if you were nutty enough to do it.)

This changed in Vista or 7 (I am not sure which because I never used Vista, ever). The 'quickbar tool' in 7 is a system application instead of just a folder.

In XP you'd just create a new folder (or had the GUI do it for you via built in shortcuts because a lot of people never realized that is all the toolbars were) and boom you had a new toolbar that you could put pretty much anywhere you wanted.

In 7 there is just one lame bar.

This is like playing a MMO like World of Warcraft, getting used to being able to have hotbars everywhere and then suddenly being restricted to just one.

It is a step back and extremely frustrating if you have multiple monitors. I used to keep 3 up all the time -- one for each monitor. I still do this at work.

Anyway the only real answer is to revert to an older windows, write or have someone write an application to mimic the XP style bars (which were just simple aggregations of folders and files) or see if someone has already done this.

In the mean time I have just been placing icons around the perimeter of my multiple monitor desktops until either I have time to put a tool together myself or someone else does it first.

 

[ZaphodBeeblbrox]

Get a life and adopt to changes. Poke around and you'll find even better features for what you want to do.

Have you found anything yet that replaces this feature? Have you poked around and found something "even better"? It's been 3 1/2 years since this feature was removed and there is nothing that comes close to it. So, if you've got something useful to recommend, please do.

 

[flirno]

I haven't. I just have icons spread around the periphery of the 3 monitors I use at home or the 2 at work. It is annoying but not annoying enough for me to bother to make my own toolbar application to resurrect the missing wheel.

Get a life and adopt to changes. Poke around and you'll find even better features for what you want to do.

Have you found anything yet that replaces this feature? Have you poked around and found something "even better"? It's been 3 1/2 years since this feature was removed and there is nothing that comes close to it. So, if you've got something useful to recommend, please do.