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With my new Windows 8 computer, after spending a few days setting it up and looking for a substitute for Google deskbar, which I used on Vista, I found the “address” window on the Windows 8 taskbar was not working well, and I tried key combinations to open up google as well.

The best alternative for me was just to use IE, which allows pinning any web page (in my case, Google search) to the taskbar. If you put it first in order on the taskbar, you can also open it with Windows key + 1. It’ll do.

Until you use it, people don’t understand the Google Deskbar and the beauty of it. One reason it wasn’t successful, was that the initial configuration wasn’t nearly as good as if you simplified it. It was like having the search window of Google on your taskbar, that you could search using a key combination (to get to the window of the Google search on the taskbar), from any application, ex. a word processor, and instantly be taken to the page you searched for in Google. Google probably axed it partly because it eliminated the need to go to their initial Google search page, and view related ads to your search. Instead, it took you right to the page you wanted. I’d even use it to check the spelling or definitions of unusual words that weren’t in spell check.

Never having to start up your browser, never having to place your cursor in a window. It was super convenient. Now I just got Windows 8 and it doesn’t work, even with applications that restore the taskbar and start button.

The Google Deskbar was even handy for searching in Google. In Windows 8, the Address bar may be pinned to the task bar, but this isn’t really the same at all. :mad:mad.