Add quick launch to the Windows 7 taskbar

When I’m using Windows I like to use the Quick Launch. You know, the section next to the Start button where you can stack commonly used short cuts to launch your programs. Here is what it looks like on my Windows 7…

Windows 7, by default doesn’t have it. Thankfully it can be added fairly easily with a little jiggery pockery. Here’s how:

1. Unlock the Taskbar by right clicking on it and untick the ‘Lock the taskbar’ option.

2. Right click and empty area of the toolbar and choose Toolbars > New Toolbar

3.  In the address bar at the top of the resultant window copy and paste this text in: %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch You will need to highlight everything already in the box and then press enter. Now click the ‘Select Folder’ button at the bottom of the Window. The ‘Quick Launch’ text will now appear over on the right of the Taskbar

4. To get the Taskbar to the left (as it is in XP etc) drag the dotted line to the left of it e.g.

until it is right over  on the left.

5. Now we just need it to show the icons, so right click in the Quick Launch area and unselect ‘Show Text’ and ‘Show Title’

6. If you want larger icons, right-click the Quick Launch and choose View > Large Icons.