I make plenty of use of my quick launch bar on Windows. It holds all of my most often accessed applications so that I don't have to monkey around with the start button. Granted, the new start button's functionality widely negates my need for the quick launch bar (since it keeps a recent applications list for me). But I still make use of it. It currently holds shortcuts to: FireFox, Snipping Tool, Thunderbird, DebugView, Magnifier, MSDN and TextPad.
However, there's one thing which really annoys me about the bar: it doesn't work how I want it to with regards to folders. I can drag a folder into the bar, and when I click on that entry, it opens the folder. That's not what I want at all! I want to be able to drag a folder full of utility applications into the bar and when I click on the folder, it should disclose all of the files within it.
By doing something like that, I could organize the quick launch bar the way I want it. I could have all of my utilities (DebugView, Magnifier, Depends, FileMon, PortMon and ProcMon) in one folder, and important documents I'm constantly access (the framework VS solution, IDE.rb, etc) in another folder. This would make the bar a heckuva lot more useful in my case.
Unfortunately, I think Microsoft had the average computer user in mind when they designed that feature. Not the power user like myself. However, there are APIs for adding a desk band to the taskbar... so I may just have to make my own little quick launch bar that behaves the way I want it to behave. :-P Unfortunately, that involves writing something in C++ because REALbasic doesn't support building shared libraries or implementing COM interfaces. So I may just whine on my blog instead. ;-)
Oh, you know, I had a long message typed up wondering if the new Quick Launch Br reported on your porn usage to other users, but I decided to take pity on you. So I am back to packaging up *another* new RBLibrary.com article.
No rest for the wicked.
I right clicked on my toolbar, selected Toolbars~New Toolbar, then chose a folder. Although not part of Quick Launch, I do have a folders contents expandable on my task bar.
Nah, just build COM support and open the markets. :D
BTW, do you use TaskBar Shuffle? The recent update is great.
http://www.freewebs.com/nerdcave/taskbarshuffle.htm
Hum, I wonder how folders behave in OSX's Dock when you right click them vs a single click? :-)
That wasn't exactly as described. My folder toolbar contents were larger than the toolbar thus the expansion worked only from the expansion arrows '>>'. Show Text required.
Do you mean something like the old Apple menu of System 7? ;-)
@Rob -- sort of. The Start menu already provides me with that functionality. What I want is sort of like what Dean is talking about, almost. Instead of some icons and the chevrons for more options, I just want a folder that I click on which shows my options. So it takes up one icon's space on the quick launch bar, but contains multiple icon's worth of information. The reason why I want this is because it saves on clicks. With the start menu, I'd have extra navigational time (this would be the same problem with the Apple menu).
I'd always wanted some of the same capabilities you mentioned as well, and found a neat little app called True Launch Bar would do just the trick. It's been well worth the small licensing fee!
@Jayson -- it looks really interesting, so I gave it a spin. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to work on Vista (at least, I wasn't able to get it to work). I'll keep an eye on it though. If they get good Vista support, that looks like a pretty good deal. Thanks!
It works how you want in a certain other OS, Aaron :)
I don't have Vista, but I use the same exact functionality in XP, etc.... The folders will just open unless their accesses like a menu item. I lock my taskbar so that the >> is the access point to the folders. Then they automatically display the contents when accessing.
Again, I don't know how it works on Vista but your scenario seems very similar. So I just recommend you check into dragging the separator past the folders and locking the toolbar.