Product Review - Free
Launch Bar
(http://www.freelaunchbar.com/)
Free Launch Bar is a program that
will not suit or please everybody, but some users who persevere with
the non-too-intuitive set up process will wonder how they coped without
it.
Free Launch Bar
is a Free replacement for the standard Quick Launch bar. Why change?
When I started
to use it for review purposes I asked myself that question. The help
facility is not for the faint hearted and some of the early attempts to
customise it to suit my intentions were not entirely successful.
Eventually, after a couple of hours, I had it working well. So well
that, after using it for the rest of the day I ditched the Windows
Quick Launch Bar (right click on the Task Bar, click Properties and
uncheck the "Show Quick Launch Bar") and have not reverted to it since
installing FLB some six weeks ago.
Free Launch Bar
is fully compatible with Quick Launch because it uses the same folder
for shortcuts. But there is one huge difference. Free Launch Bar allows
you to combine your shortcuts into groups. This feature looks like
popup menus. It vastly improves the management of shortcuts and saves
working space on the desktop. My desktop is now entirely free of
shortcuts and folders. As the Task Bar is available regardless of which
or how many programs are running, launching a new program is a
one-click action. Using FLB, launching any of a large number of
applications is simpler than ever before.
The key to the improvement over the Windows
Quick Launch is the ability to create and organise menus. Right
clicking on the Free Launch Bar opens the context menu, which includes
a "New" option where "Menu" or "Shortcut" can be selected. Selecting
"Menu" opens a dialogue box for entering the name of the menu. When
this has been created a folder icon will appear on the FLB. Selecting
another icon of your choice can change this icon
After menus have
been created, any shortcut on the desktop can be dragged onto an
appropriate menu icon. When the mouse pointer is on that icon the menu
opens showing all the programs attached to it.
An example: I
have a "Swiss army knife" icon for the menu that has all the shortcuts
I use for programs that have a maintenance function - 16 in all. Pass
the mouse pointer over that icon, the menu appears, move the pointer
to, say, Disk Defragmenter, left click and the program is
running.
I use
nine menu icons, the other themes are: games, finance, .pdf manuals,
office programs, Internet programs, regularly used Excel files, "Odds
'n ends" and Open Office programs.
The ability to
customise the appearance and functions of FLB is one of the big
attractions. For example, the size of the icons can be changed to one's
own preferences, or the icon can be replaced with a text label, or both
an icon and label can be shown
Why you need
Free Launch Bar? Well, you don't need it. You already have almost
all features of Free Launch Bar on Quick Launch. You can create menus
with Quick Launch, but you must hold down CTRL key to open menu and you
cannot rearrange items inside menu. Free Launch Bar is an excellent
replacement for Quick Launch. It uses the same technology. Free Launch
Bar claims to be the only FREE software that can be integrated into
taskbar. If your Quick Launch has a lot of shortcuts, Free Launch Bar
lets you organize them into nice menus arranged the way you want them.
Paraphrasing the lady chiropractor in the oft repeated TV ad "I've
tried other launch bars but I want my FLB!"
The main features of Free Launch Bar:
-
Creating menu on taskbar with unlimited levels
-
Compatibility with Windows XP
-
Integration into Windows Shell
- Low
resources
-
Compatibility with Quick Launch
-
Creating separators to group shortcuts inside menus
-
Different view modes
-
Hotkeys
-
Using PNG pictures as icons
-
Support of Windows Drag & Drop technology. To add shortcuts you can
simply drag them into menus
-
Improved tips. You can include some of HTML tags into button
description.
-
Fast toolbar switching
-
Absolutely FREE
In summary, for
me it was worth the initial hassle of the setting-up process.
Derek
Jordan
March 2005