XP Quick Launch Toolbar (XP)

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On one of our workstations, the quick launch toolbar icons are on the right side, not the left and they begin to disappear under the bar on the far right of the taskbar (the one that has the clock) as programs are opened. I wanted to move the quick launch icons to the left, next to the Start button, but run into problems. First, when I unlock the task bar and I grab the little dividing line to make the quick launch toolbar bigger, nothing happens. There’s also a dividing line of the right that I am unable to move. Second, when I pull a Desktop icon to the quick launch toolbar, it’s not visible, since the toolbar is at it’s minimum size. Third, the machine’s user doesn’t want all the quickstart icons on the right side, but when I delete them there, they also disappear from the Desktop.

Any suggestions on how to get around these problems?

Thanks.

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I find that if you grab the dividing line to the right of your start button – dividing it from any open application buttons – and drag it all the way over to the right, the taskbar buttons suddenly swap places with your quick launch toolbar, leaving your quicklaung back on the left.

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Thanks, Leif. That worked.

I have one more related question: We only want a few icons on the Quick Launch bar, but several more (and different ones) on the Desktop. For some reason the quick launch has many icons which were not knowingly added. Deleting them from the bar also deletes them from the Desktop. When I add an icon back to the Desktop, it also gets added automatically to the Quick Launch bar. Is there a way to avoid this?

Thanks again.

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I suspect that you’re not looking at the QuickLaunch toolbar, but at the Desktop toolbar. Right-click an empty part of the Task Bar, and select Toolbars. Visible toolbars have a check mark.

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Again, right answer! That piece of advice took care of our remaining problems. Thanks again.

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Peculiarly, I am reminded of the saying:

There’s no such thing as a quick launch!

but, of course, I may have mis-heard it…

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Mebbe it should be called “Quick Find” then, since that’s what I use it for. I put items on the QLT that I use every day, but don’t want cluttering up the desktop, so I don’t have to be drilling around in the Start Menu structure. Also, for what it’s worth and the Lounge undergoing overhaul, you probably can’t find where this was discussed before, but for those of us who LIKE having the QLT at the right, one of the reasons is space. If you have 15 or 20 elements on the QLT, it takes up a lot of territory. I place it on the right and drag it to its smallest possible size. I don’t mind two clicks to get to the program I want. I’ve cropped off the top half of the attachment to save Lounge space. I never tried this technique with the QLT at the left, so I don’t know if it’s possible.

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>> I never tried this technique with the QLT at the left, so I don’t know if it’s possible.

Yes, it works the same way. With the Task Bar unlocked, drag the “grip” or whatever it’s called of the bar to the right of the Quick Launch Toolbar as far to the left as you want/can (bit not past the grip of the QLT, for then the QLT will jump to the right)

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Brian–

If you’re into quick launching, try these free programs–they won’t impact anything you do with your quick launch section on your toolbar, you can still move it around the way Leif showed you any side you want, but it will allow you to surf from the desktop, google from it’s address bar which can be positioned anywhere and slid to any size you want and summon many other search engines and dictionaries with a right click. It takes about one half inch in height but if I don’t want to see it I just drag it down–really like what it does–its a bit of a mouthfull to say fast 10 times. I’ve used the first one for a couple years–second is new and never had any bugs from it–has been a plus for me.

Dave’s Quick Search Taskbar Toolbar Deskbar and
Dave’s Quick Search Deskbar Search Wizard

SMBP

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Today, as I read this question, I found a new way to deal with Quick Launch Toolbar.

The reason for reading was that my brother had the same problem on a laptop with Windows 2000 (Quick Launch to the right), and he thought it might have something to do with an uninstall of some games etc. that went wrong. I didn’t think about his question so much until now.

After reading Leif’s answer I tried to “simulate” my brothers problem. On my machine, Win XP Home, the Quick Launch Toolbar normally shows three icons and a arrow to a menu containing the rest. If I unlocked the taskbar I could move the Quick Launch Toolbar (QLT to the right, resize etc. and then lock taskbar and thus see the described problem. But if I then unlocked the taskbar and moved QLT to the left I found that I couldn’t repeat the process (moving to the right); there was only a dividing line to the left.

It is possible that I could find a way to drag the QLT with that dividing line, but I found one way that is so much easier to re-arrange the taskbar and moving the Quick Launch Toolbar: double click on the dividing line.

You can repeatedly double click to change arrangement.

This might be common knowledge, but for me it is new.

Regards,

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