After 4 months of hesitancy, I've finally managed to switch to Windows 7. The process was not smooth at all, due to all the useful stuff my old xp has accumulated in all this year, but finally I've succesfully transfered my personal toolset to the new notebook. But what a surprise: the toolbars are no more detachable from the taskbar! This feature, that I was using since they were introduced in the shell enhancements delivered with ie 4.1 (we are talking of Windows 95, here...), was one of the most useful for whoever want fast access to apps and data without all the switchs to desktop or start menu. Still, it seems that Microsoft has removed this functionality.
But that's the progress, no need to complain: there are plenty of third part toolbars available and all are shiny, cool and eye-candy...but no one gives me the same feeling of simpleness that the old toolbar gave. Maybe it's just a matter of time, and in some days the new toolbars may even be capable of erasing even the memory of the old. But, I'm a very lazy person, and I don't like the feel of getting forcibly accustomed to something that I don't even need (does this last phrase make any sense?): so I've decided to write a small app, trying to catch the simpleness of the old bar and mimics for the most part its behaviour (or at least the small part of its behaviour that I strictly need).
If someone else is feeling orphan of the old good toolbar and want to give a try to my app, here's the link:
http://www.ondanera.net/download/setup_oldbar_1.0.0.exe
The app is a one-day work, so it has a straight-to-the-point interface. During the first run, the application will ask you to be restared (it's just a workaround for a bug I don't have the time investigate further). After that, you can click on the toolbar with right mouse button to access the toolbar menu:
Most of the items are self-explanatory, let me just say that in the 'Toolbar folder' you can change the folder where the links used by the toolbar are stored.
By clicking on 'Settings', you will (guess what) access the options panel, where you can change toolbar layout (autohide, always on top,...) and buttons appearance (flat, with captions, small icons,...).
I hope someone other than me could find it useful. Feedbacks (and bug reports) are welcome.
Sottoscrivi