Windows 7 taskbar, create popup menus?

Question

Is there a way in Windows 7 to create a single icon that pops up with a menu? I'm used to having True Launch Bar installed, but at the moment it doesn't integrate with the new taskbar/shortcut bar of Windows 7, so I'm missing it.

Basically, I'd like to pin a single icon on the shortcut bar, and when clicked, pops up a menu that contains, as an example, all my games, or all my development tools, instead of pinning them all to the shortcut as individual icons.

It doesn't have to be built into Windows 7 either, so if there's 3rd party solutions available, please point me to them as well.

Note that I know that TLB is compatible with Windows 7 in the sense that I can install and enable the TLB launchbar, but it is separate from the Windows 7 taskbar, in the sense that only integrates a XP/Vista style quick launch bar into the taskbar. What I'd like is to mix popup-icons into the taskbar, among the other normally pinned applications.

Answer 1

What you want to get is Jumplist Launcher. It lets you add shortcuts into the program's jumplist so you always have them available and don't have to fill your taskbar with 20 different shortcuts.

Answer 2

There actually is a solution to this. And it's also working in Windows 10.

I use custom menus since Windows XP (quick launch), but the current quick launch isn't friendly with subfolders. In Windows 7 you use Links instead:

Right-click windows taskbar -> Toolbars -> enable Links

Then you have to open the Links folder, it should be located somewhere here

%USERPROFILE%\Favorites\

(the best way is to create a folder in newly added Links menu and then right-click and open that folder)

Fill your folders with shortcuts, another folders, executables, songs, movies, ... whatever
You can create as many folders as you want, you can then choose which and how many of them will be shown on your taskbar (by drag'n'drop). You can also change default icons for them.

The only drawback to this is that some programs (don't know why not all) which you start from that menu will first show a popup alert if you are aware that this program can hurt your computer as this is Links folder, which was dedicated to web-related content first. (*workaround below)

The advantage of this solution is that if you create custom toolbar using other tools, you can't use those shiny custom icons for popup menus.

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EDIT: There is a workaround to disable those annoying alerts, though I recommend it only to experienced users and to those who know what they are doing with their PC as this will lessen windows security. *note that this is available only on Pro editions.

In the start menu enter gpedit.msc. Then go to User Configuration -> Administrative Templates -> Windows Components -> Attachment Manager and Add ";.exe;.lnk" to the "Inclusion list for low risk file types" setting.

Answer 3

7stacks might be what you seek.

7stacks

use it and love it. :)

Answer 4

I'm not sure of the steps off hand, but have you tried creating a new folder toolbar? If you right click the Taskbar, and select Toolbars, by default there is one for the desktop (so you can activate that to see how it would work). I think that there is an option on that popup menu to create a new toolbar for an arbitrary folder. So, you could create a folder that contains all of the shortcuts to all of your games, and then you'd have access to those shortcuts from the taskbar.

See here for the complete list of steps (near the bottom of the page).

Answer 5

You can probably try building such a program yourself which will have a custom Jump List. You would then just right-click on the icon for that to work.

Would certainly be possible that way but involves some coding. Altough the .NET APIs for the new taskbar are pretty nice.

Answer 6

Indeed, both 7stacks and Jumplists are useless, you can do this with LINKS and custom toolbars. In order to have a configuration like:

StartMenu-AppStack1-AppStack2-QuickLaunch-OpenAppTabs

do the following:

• create a new toolbar in the taskbar, put in the folder whatever links you need. Then drag this new toolbar in the left side, this will be the quick launch toolbar.
• enable "Links" toolbar in the taskbar and drag it in the left side, near start button. Unlike the other toolbars, links will be seen as menus, just fill the folders inside with other folders or shortcuts. You have to disable texts and titles accordingly, also resize icons if necessary. It will be even better then XP.

A medium person has about 50-100 application installed.....each one should be reached in maximum 2 clicks, this can be done best by stacked links near start menu.

Answer 7

Try creating a new folder toolbar and then docking it all the way at the right. That way it won't show any icons until you press the >> button to show the popup menu. Sometimes the toolbar size gets messed up after you lock it again, but you can use this trick to fix it.

Answer 8

https://github.com/plerup/LaunchBar

get the setup from the author website.

"Please note that as opposed to the original QuickLaunch toolbar, the LaunchBar toolbar window cannot be manually resized, only positioned. It will always just be one button wide/high and adjusted to the number of buttons present."

Answer 9

I tried few apps trying to do that. Now I'm using Free lunch bar. This the best what I find.