Solved Keyboard Shortcuts to Taskbar Button bars?

[KenK]

I'm a keyboard guy and had a couple of folders on my start bar in XP. I'd hit Ctrl+Esc to fly up the Start menu, then an S for the Stuff folder, then an F (for instance) to start my "F"ont program. I now, of course, can't do that same thing on the Windows 7 Start menu.

I've created a toolbar on my task bar but can't find a way to access it with a keystroke. Is there one?

Thanks!
Ken

 

[Sub Styler]

The easiest solution to your problem is to create a shortcut to whatever you want on the desktop and assign it a keyboard shortcut.

 

[KenK]

Yeah, I thought of that and the button bar is just a folder to which I can assign a keystroke. But then, of course, I have an Explorer Window open that I don't really need open once the APP I've launched from it is running.

That's why I was hoping to be able to access the menu with the keystroke.

I'll keep banging around and post if I find anything.

Thanks for answering!
Ken

 

[KenK]

In case this helps anyone I found a "mostly-works-for-me" solution.

The keystrokes to access things on the start bar was what I missed most, namely I had multiple Windows Explorer shortcuts on there to access various folders / drives on our servers. I started the shortcuts with numbers and would hit Ctrl + Esc to fly up the Start menu then the number for the exporer I wanted.

By right clicking the "All Programs" on the Start bar and selecting "Open All Users" you can put a folder inside that folder and include any programs you want quick access to. I put in the folder shortcuts to Explorers pointing to the various places and named them 11Explore C, 22Explore F, 33Explore G and so on.

Now when I hit the Ctrl+Esc to get my Start menu I can hit 22 in the usual search box then enter. I had to use two numbers because a single number wasn't unique enough and I was getting other things at the top of the list.

Yeah, anal-retentive, I know. But any time I can just hit a few keystrokes without looking at my keyboard I'm WAY happier than using my mouse.