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DADDY BOB'S COMPUTER Q & A
April 13,
2008
Q.
On one computer I can put shortcuts on the
little bar at the bottom, but on another I
cannot. What is different?
A.
The little bar at the bottom of the desktop
in Windows XP and Vista has three distinct
sections. The left end of it is called the
Quick Launch Tool Bar, and is the section
that the user can place icons representing
shortcuts of often used folders and
applications. The center section is called
the Taskbar, and this is where the current
open but minimized folders or applications
are placed. The right end is called the
System Tray, and the operating system and
some applications place their icons
there for programs or portions of programs
that are running in the background, many
unnecessarily. (See a
previous article
for more on this)
If not,
locked, the three sections can be resized by
dragging the separator bar left or right.
Also, the entire bar can be moved to the top
or either side of the desktop if desired.
Just click and drag it and it will stay at
the edge where it is moved. Folders can also
be turned into toolbars, something that
occasionally happens by mistake. Click on
any folder icon on your desktop, and drag it
to the side or top. It will turn into a
toolbar. To remove it, right click on it,
choose toolbars and then uncheck its name in
the menu displayed.
Additional toolbars can be displayed in the
lower Taskbar too. Right click on the
taskbar, choose toolbars, and depending on
the Windows versions and installed programs,
there is a choice of toolbars that can be
displayed. Removing these is similar to
removing one at the side or top.
There are
some toolbars installed by applications that
will keep coming back even if you choose to
not display them. One in particular that I
find very annoying is called the language
bar. For some reason, Microsoft believes
that everyone will be using multiple
languages. This is the tool bar that
mysteriously shows up just to the left of
the System tray. Here is Microsoft's
description of it:
The Language bar provides a quick way to
change the input language or keyboard
layout from your desktop. You can move
the Language bar anywhere on your
screen, minimize it to the taskbar, or
hide it.
Now that
sounds like something that everyone will
definitely want to do all the time, doesn't
it? Should this be as bothersome to you as
it is to me, here's how to turn it off and
keep it off. Right click on the little
microphone icon, choose settings, then the
Language Bar button. Uncheck the "Show the
Language bar on the desktop" and click OK.
It won't come back unless you turn it back
on deliberately.
Back to
the original question. By default, when
Windows XP or Vista is installed, the Quick
Launch toolbar is not activated. This is why
you cannot place icons in it. To active it,
right click the taskbar, choose Toolbars,
and check Quick Launch. You can also right
click the taskbar, choose properties, and
then turn on the Quick Launch tool bar to
activate it. While there you can make other
tool bar settings like hiding it, keeping it
on top, grouping similar items, and locking
it. In Vista Aero there is an addition
setting that allows showing the minimized
item as a thumbnail when the cursor is
placed over it. Once the Quick Launch
toolbar is activated, you can place icons
for shortcuts to often used programs in it.
I place
necessary or desired icons in the Quick
Launch tool bar and then set the desktop so
no icons are displayed. This, along with
hiding the taskbar then allows the desktop
to properly display the wallpaper picture
and not have a lot of unused or otherwise
useless icons cluttering up the desktop.
Currently, my Quick Launch tool bar has 22
icons and they fit nicely. To show or
not show the desktop icons, right the
desktop, choose "Arrange Icons by" in XP or
"View" in Vista, then check or uncheck "Show
desktop icons". In XP this change can take
up to 10 seconds or longer to complete, but
In Vista it is almost instantaneous.
It is
possible to change the size of the icons in
the Task bar, but doing it is not obvious.
In XP, right click the desktop, choose
Properties, click the Appearances tab, and
then the Advanced button, Click on one
of the "X" in the display, and then you can
change the size. This will also change the
size of the icons in the bottom taskbar. In
Vista, right click the desktop, choose
Personalize, then Windows Color and
Appearance. Click the the last item "Open
Classic Appearances properties", and then
proceed as above for XP. |
