True Launch Bar

schneidernet said:

The only minor issue is that Win-X menu is gone.

Click to expand...

Oh, man, that's not a minor issue to ME. I'm in my (customized) WinX menu about ten times a day.

I guess every form of refuge has its price.

schneidernet said:

Used Winaero Tweaker to restore Classic Taskbar. Then added TLB back by right-clicking on Taskbar. Followed the instructions at:

How to Restore Classic Start Menu in Windows 11 with Classic Taskbar

You can restore the classic Start menu in Windows 11, which will be similar to the good old Windows 10's Start with the app list. Windows 11 introduced an

winaero.com

to add back Clock and some other things. Replaced Start button with Start11. All pretty much back the way it was before. The only minor issue is that Win-X menu is gone.

Click to expand...

Clipboard History is gone too, and, the search bar in File Explorer also doesn't work. Even so, I agree that the classic taskbar is still 100 times better than the modern version.

hdmi said:

Clipboard History is gone too, and, the search bar in File Explorer also doesn't work. Even so, I agree that the classic taskbar is still 100 times better than the modern version.

Click to expand...

Hold on. So it kills the WinX menu, the clipboard history app, and Search in File Explorer?

I'm afraid that for me, the price is too high. To each his own, though.

Wisewiz said:

Hold on. So it kills the WinX menu, the clipboard history app, and Search in File Explorer?

I'm afraid that for me, the price is too high. To each his own, though.

Click to expand...

StartAllBack fixes all that!

@Edwin

You mean it doesn't BREAK those things, or it breaks them, but gives you a way to fix them?

Wisewiz said:

@Edwin

You mean it doesn't BREAK those things, or it breaks them, but gives you a way to fix them?

Click to expand...

Not sure..., I applied UndockingDisabled and it broke those things, then I installed SAB and they were fixed!

K, I un-applied UndockingDisabled, rebooted, kept StartAllBack...
(Search works, don't know about Clipboard History!)

Wisewiz said:

Oh, man, that's not a minor issue to ME. I'm in my WinX menu about ten times a day.

I guess every form of refuge has its price.

Click to expand...

Installed StartAllBack. Only complaint is that it moved the bar back to the bottom.

schneidernet said:

Installed StartAllBack. Only complaint is that it moved the bar back to the bottom.

Click to expand...

Unlock it 'n drag it back to the top, or side..., whatever...

Guess I'm blind. Saw no Unlock or anything else to move it. I already had moved it with Winaero and am using Start11. Maybe they are conflicting

I wouldn't think you could get away with StartAllBack, Start11, and WinAero taskbar tweaks on the same machine. Conflicts up the gazoo.

Wisewiz said:

Hold on. So it kills the WinX menu, the clipboard history app, and Search in File Explorer?

I'm afraid that for me, the price is too high. To each his own, though.

Click to expand...

Well I never really needed the WinX menu. I much prefer to use the "Toolbars" feature of the Windows Taskbar, as it lets me conveniently organize and access all my most frequently needed shortcuts directly on the Taskbar. Toolbars are nicely separated from the pinned apps area so that area doesn't get convoluted in any way. My Clipboard History is disabled in Windows Settings, as I don't use it, and, whenever I need to search for a file, I always use Everything.

I understand where you’re coming from.

Wisewiz said:

I wouldn't think you could get away with StartAllBack, Start11, and WinAero taskbar tweaks on the same machine. Conflicts up the gazoo.

Click to expand...

Can't blame me for trying? How am I going to break it if I don't fool around with it?

Well thought, we’ll said. If it ain’t broke but it don’t work like you want it to, break it!

With the arrival of Win11, I've been searching for a replacement for True Launchbar/Free Launchbar. Win11's removal of support for tool bars on the task bar is a real mess. I'm sure I'm not the only one who questioned "Why did I install this support OS???".

Like many of you, I wandered the web looking for alternatives. I've been a user of Start10 for years and now Start11, from Stardock. I found and installed Stardock's Fences tool and thought I had found a good solution by my TLB loss. After a few days of playing with it (very cool tool), I gave up. It's inability to open in front of any other window on the screen was a mess - it was beautiful, but created more work than I wanted. And you had to create a hot-key to see the windows.

After playing with 5-6 other tools, I tripped on Quick Access Popup Quick Access Popup – “Here’s another program I cannot live without.” – NoOscarForLeoD on Reddit.com and I think I found my TLB replacement (for the things I used TLB for). It isn't a Taskbar Toolbar, but it's a real System Tray Toolbar - i.e. located on the left side of the screen with the other System Tray tools. Honestly, it's like TLB, just a few inches to the right of the side of the display.

What am I missing from TLB? I'm not done investigating QAP, but it appears that it only has a single popup, with submenus off of that screen. I had multiple separate menus before, but I can live with this.

One trick is to find where Win11 moved the system tray selection panel. Here it is:


Go to personalization / taskbar and then go down and open "Taskbar Carner Overflow" and just turn on the Quick Access Popup.

So far I'm happy. If that changes, I'll comment back.

And, so far, it appears that the developer has not abandoned this tool, like TLB and many others I looked at.

Investigating. Will report. Promise.

txbd75k said:

With the arrival of Win11, I've been searching for a replacement for True Launchbar/Free Launchbar. Win11's removal of support for tool bars on the task bar is a real mess. I'm sure I'm not the only one who questioned "Why did I install this support OS???".

Like many of you, I wandered the web looking for alternatives. I've been a user of Start10 for years and now Start11, from Stardock. I found and installed Stardock's Fences tool and thought I had found a good solution by my TLB loss. After a few days of playing with it (very cool tool), I gave up. It's inability to open in front of any other window on the screen was a mess - it was beautiful, but created more work than I wanted. And you had to create a hot-key to see the windows.

After playing with 5-6 other tools, I tripped on Quick Access Popup Quick Access Popup – “Here’s another program I cannot live without.” – NoOscarForLeoD on Reddit.com and I think I found my TLB replacement (for the things I used TLB for). It isn't a Taskbar Toolbar, but it's a real System Tray Toolbar - i.e. located on the left side of the screen with the other System Tray tools. Honestly, it's like TLB, just a few inches to the right of the side of the display.

What am I missing from TLB? I'm not done investigating QAP, but it appears that it only has a single popup, with submenus off of that screen. I had multiple separate menus before, but I can live with this.

One trick is to find where Win11 moved the system tray selection panel. Here it is:
View attachment 9652

Go to personalization / taskbar and then go down and open "Taskbar Carner Overflow" and just turn on the Quick Access Popup.

So far I'm happy. If that changes, I'll comment back.

And, so far, it appears that the developer has not abandoned this tool, like TLB and many others I looked at.

Click to expand...

If you use Winaero you can restore the Classic Taskbar that supports add-on toolbars. You can also relocate it to any edge. Most importantly to me was that I have my TLB back. You will also lose the clock and a couple of other Tray apps. They can also be restored with some patches. All I am missing is the Win-X menu. It was handy but not a deal-breaker. Winaero will do the same stuff to the Desktop Context Menu.

I liked Winaero for tweaking, but it sounded like a mess to restore things on the taskbar that it changed when putting the old bar back in. It's a pretty impressive tool!