True Launch Bar
35 likes
True Launch Bar is a Superior replacement for the standard Quick Launch bar. All functions presented in Quick Launch are also in True Launch Bar. However, the True Launch Bar is fully compatible with Quick Launch because it uses the same folder for shortcuts.
Features
True Launch Bar News & Activities
Highlights • All activities
Recent activities
- K0RR added True Launch Bar as alternative to nwg-dock
Comments and Reviews
This is by far the most customizable toolbar system. You can create layers of toolbars and menus within them and control exactly how they look and where they appear on your screen. You control fonts, icons, colors, spacing, sizes, every aspect you can think of. The program's author, Yuri, responds to comments and for 20 years has created new features at the request of users.
"Freemium" is not applicable, TLB is a commercial program TLB purchase page
There is no free version however the developer words it.
$20 usd is reasonable for multiple pcs in one household
This is a toolbar on the old style "toolbars" as in XP
If taskbar is full (mine is always full) how do you click in an empty area of the taskbar ?
The only advantages are to drag-n-drop and create menus (on the fly) on TLB
Requires 5 mouse clicks to activate a target unless you opt to show TLB permanently on the taskbar
I don't have taskbar real estate to spare for an antiquated concept
Website documentation does not mention global shortcuts ?
TLB is set as Freemium because there were a free version, called Free Launch Bar, that is now abandoned: last version was released in 2009.
I'll set it to Commercial now ;)
Reply written Apr 7, 2018
A reviewer here called it antiquated, but for me, it's better than anything else out there. The Mac OS style of docks seems to be in. In those docks, are the program shortcuts individual files? Can you store those shortcuts, along with your portable software, to easily restore your launcher on another system?
I have like 800 programs, all portable, and the launcher shortcuts are categorized into menus. Reinstalling Windows and having access to these programs is just copying my programs, and the menu tree of shortcuts, and installing true launch bar. Usefulness will always be modern to me!
I have been using this since 2008 and it is definitely one of my core tools. The master plugin is the screenshot plugin. It automatically stores all screenshots in my temp folder so that I can much later on track back what the I did and e.g. document it or just look up the info in my screenshot archive.