Creating A Shortcut List Near The System Tray Time saver tip for windows

[pasten 0]

Are you bored at work today? Here's a small enhancement to your desktop. Hope you like it.

 

I) When you have to open any program you have to click "Start" "All Programs" and then choose your selection from the programs folder. Now how would it be to achieve the same task in just two clicks? You can save all your favourite program shortcuts in a folder and view that through a tiny arrow near the system tray. Its very simple. You would tell, "Ya, I almost knew that". Here's how to do it.

 

a) First create your folder and add the shortcuts you want to access. The folder can be anywhere as long as you know, where it is. I prefer the "Program Files" folder to save this folder.

 

Press F2 to rename the folder. Now hold Alt key and press 255 in your Num pad (the keys at the right of your keyboard). Press Enter. The result-- the folder is renamed with no characters, its like as shown below:

 

 

c) Next, right click the task bar (the bar at the bottom of the screen). In the context menu choose Toolbars-->New Toolbar.

 

d) In the New Toolbar window choose the folder containing your shortcuts and press OK. That's it. You will see that there is a small arrow near the system to tray as shown below. When you click it a menu pops up containing your list of shortcuts. Isn't it cool?

 

 

When you click, the whole menu pops up

 

 

II) Most of you would be having "Show Desktop" icon in the quick launch menu. It is very helpful when you want to quickly come to desktop. Now how about a "My Computer" shortcut link next to it, so that you can open it at any time you wish no matter how many windows are open. Just drag your "My Computer" present on your desktop over to the quick launch. That's it. It would look like as shown below:

 

 

These small enhancements will increase the efficiency of your work a bit. Don't you think so?

Edited September 13, 2008 by pasten (see edit history)

[Lightning73 0]

I honestly don't think it increases my efficiency. It's ugly and rather annoying at times. I just prefer everything on desktop or in my quick start menu. It's easy, and I think it looks nicer too.

[pasten 0]

I honestly don't think it increases my efficiency. It's ugly and rather annoying at times. I just prefer everything on desktop or in my quick start menu. It's easy, and I think it looks nicer too.

Ugly??? Annoying??? It takes less space than your quick launch. And I don't think it annoys the user, it quietly sits beside the system tray taking about 10 px square area. Everything on desktop? Do you ever refresh while on desktop with tons of shortcuts? If you did then you know what it is. Now if you were talking all this just by seeing the images, I suggest you just try it. Now every new change takes some time to adjust and that's why you thought it to be ugly or something like that.
I have the quick launch shortcuts like "Show Desktop" and "My computer". And everything else in my shortcut list and even organizing them in folder the way I like.
Edited September 13, 2008 by pasten (see edit history)

[Lightning73 0]

But what exactly is the difference between your shortcut list and the quick start menu. Except that the quick start menu is on the left and the shortcut list is on the right. You can add shortcuts to both of them. And when you open them they also both look exactly the same.. The only reason I see why you would want to do something like this is to have two quick start menu's. And I know this because I have tried this a long time ago and in my opinion it just didn't add anything extra.Nice tutorial anyway for people who want an extra "quick start menu".

[Lyon2 0]

It is not annoying nor ugly, i tell you that, if i had tell you then i would not have been honest in any way with you Pasten, but it is not the most usefull tip i can and could use, i am sorry to say so.Though i do have a couple of simple but powerful tips myself that you all could find helpful/useful if you could at least try, and try you should, that i advice you always, th is tips are great really, which you all could use instead of this one, perhaps not, this is just a matter of taste, i know, it is not a matter of a formula equation nor a specific answer in a book, one has to discover the answer with their own experiences, with their own trial/error, with their own work, if you like a way of doing things, if you find a way of doing things that you like and that it makes your life easier, that go for it, my advice is that you must try different tactics once and a while, i tryed this one and i did not like better then the ones i already use, which is using the quick lauch and the keyboard shortcuts with a freeware program that i downloaded from a freeware cd from a magazine that i bought a longtime ago, well, not so time ago.The point is that i prefer to mainly use keyboard shortcuts together with this program and also the quick launch, because i have hundreds of programs, tools and other stuff installed and on my personal computer, ineed a very quick access to it whenever i want, so i need the quick launch and the program/keyboard shortcuts, it really works like a charm, beleave me, plus, the quick launch near the start button or near the system tray are both good ideas, like i said, it is a matter of taste, if you work better with one of this options, just select one and go for it, you must try at least, you can not select one just by reading, you MUST TRY to then select and work with the best selection you made with the only goal of the maximization or optimization (i am an expert in optimization of anything, anywhere) of efforts/time/tools at the same time plus the organization and coordenation that you must always have, anywhere, everywhere.

Edited September 13, 2008 by Lyon2 (see edit history)