True Launch Bar

No matter what the people at Microsoft do, we'll never be satisfied with how Windows looks and feels. Developed by Tordex, True Launch Bar provides all the functionality you’ve come to expect from the Quick Launch Bar. This program lets you create and customize your own menus on the task bar.

If you want to try it out, you can download the roughly 13 Mb package free of charge. The trial period lasts 30 days and, during this time, you'll see a demo reminder next to the Start button. Installing the software is straight forward with no system restart required and no bugging you to register.

Once the program is installed, you need to right click the task bar, go to Toolbars and click True Launch Bar. The only interface to this program is its settings panel. You can find an impressive number of changes to be made here for the skin, menus, toolbar, buttons, colors and a lot more. You won't have any trouble finding what you're looking for. Everything is organized by categories, accessible via buttons on the left side of the window.

The number of options True Launch Bar can offer will make your task bar more flexible than ever. Just right click the task bar, go to New and click what you need. Under the "New" menu you'll find a long list of predefined shortcuts and menus. From a simple Shut Down button to menus with their own sub-menus where you can place whatever you need by clicking and dragging, True Launch Bar has it all. You can even create a new menu, shortcut or a separator so that you won't mix up the icons. When you create a new menu, a wizard will show up and take you through two or three steps so that you can choose if the icons should be large or small, should they be accompanied by text and so on. This makes it possible to customize your task bar however you want, in ways you can't do with the standard Windows features. If you can't be bothered with navigating your folders, you can just create menus and sub-menus where you can group anything.