Create seperate toolbars in Windows 7 (left, right, top of screen)

In Windows XP it was easy to add toolbars to the top/left/right side of your screen. Just drag a folder onto the edge of the screen and voila, your toolbar was there. You could auto-hide it, or lock it, or do just about anything you wanted with.

Not so with Windows 7. You can only add additional toolbars to your primary taskbar. Furthermore, I believe that taskbar can only be at the top or the bottom of the screen.

It doesn’t appear that Microsoft will remedy this issue with Windows 7 (perhaps the next version?) But here are some 3rd party utilities that may help you. They range from close duplicates of the missing Windows XP capabilities, to rather wild and diverse options that might work even better than the classic…

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One comment

  • Unfortunately none of these alternative ‘toolbars’ replace the original quick launch bar features of windows past — the function that is missing that is not possible in 7 is the ability to have as many separate launch bars as you want docked anywhere you want — this is an important but missing feature for people with many OR massive monitors. Think about it. Traversing a huge monitor or series of monitors takes time and having local toolbars saves time greatly. When MS cut out the old functionality they were apparently thinking everyone was using a single monitor of small size — that everyone uses computers like they use cell phones or tablets. Which is totally wrong. The more concurrent active desktop applications you run the more landscape you use which means you probably have at least 2 monitors and now days graphic cards support more than 5. The inability to put launch bars on all monitors is very very limiting and an ergonomic nightmare.

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