Windows Tips: Have You Clicked Your Links Toolbar Today?

One of Windows' most versatile features is also one of the most underused: the Links toolbar. You can customize other Windows toolbars by adding shortcuts to launch applications, documents, folders, and Web sites (for Windows 95, doing this requires using the Desktop Update portion of Internet Explorer 4).

But the Links bar goes beyond these capabilities, letting you add multiple custom menus, for example. Any toolbar can be placed on the taskbar at the bottom of the screen, positioned on any screen edge, or floated anywhere on the screen. But you can also put the Links toolbar at the top of all folder and Windows Explorer windows, and in all Internet Explorer browser windows.

Follow these steps to get the most out of the Links toolbar in the least screen space. Note: If you use Windows 95 without the Desktop Update feature of IE 4, these tips will work only in the IE browser window, not on the taskbar or in folder windows.

Put 'er there: To add the Links toolbar to the taskbar, right-click the taskbar, choose Toolbars, and select Links on the resulting menu. Drag the Links toolbar off the taskbar to make it float anywhere on the desktop, or dock it on any edge of the desktop. To change the Links toolbar's appearance, right-click the toolbar and check or uncheck options: Uncheck Show Text to hide the text labels; choose the View submenu to select large or small icons; and uncheck Show Title to hide the word Links.

To place the Links toolbar in a folder window or IE browser window, open the folder or browser, right-click the menu bar or toolbar at the top of the window, and choose Links. Unfortunately, you can't customize the toolbar's appearance when you add it to a folder or browser window, except as described below in "Keep the name short."

Add your links: Place shortcuts to files and folders onto the Links toolbar by dragging them from Explorer to a spot on the toolbar. To add a shortcut to the Web page currently open in your IE browser, drag the Control icon (the little blue 'e') in the upper-left corner of the browser and drop it onto the toolbar.

You can drag shortcuts from the Start menu or its submenus to the Links bar, too (except for certain built-in Start menu items, such as Start, Help and Start, Run). To remove an item, drag it from the Links bar to the Recycle Bin, or right-click it and choose Delete.

Add custom menus: Want faster access to one of the menus that pops out of the Start menu? Just drag and drop it onto the Links toolbar. You can add your own custom menu to the Links bar via the Links folder, which holds the shortcuts whose icons appear on your Links toolbar.

To open this folder, click Favorites on the Windows Explorer or Internet Explorer menu bar (or choose Start, Favorites), and then double-click Links. Right-click an empty area of the folder, and choose New, Folder. Type a name for the folder and click OK.

Now in another folder window, select one or more application (.exe) files, documents, Web links, or other files that you want to create shortcuts to, and right-click and drag them to the new folder icon. Release the mouse button and choose Create Shortcut(s) Here. When you click the icon for your new folder on the Links bar, a menu will pop up showing the shortcuts you added to that folder (see Figure 1).

Note: If you're using the first edition of Windows 98 or Windows 95 with IE 4's Desktop Update, the menus appear as pop-up toolbars. When they're visible, you can customize them by right-clicking and choosing the same options as you would for other toolbars.

Make a 'Recent Documents' menu: To add a menu to your Links bar that shows the same contents as your Start, Documents menu, use Microsoft's free Tweak UI utility to change the location of recent shortcuts to a folder inside the Links folder. For details, see last month's Windows Tips. Visit our downloads section to download Tweak UI.

Rearrange as needed: If you don't see the custom menu you just created, it may lie off the edge of the Links toolbar. Early Windows and Internet Explorer versions required that you use the scroll button at the right end of the Links bar to view your custom folders, and then drag them left to the desired location.

In later versions, clicking the double greater-than symbol ( >>) at the end of the Links toolbar shows the rest of the toolbar as a menu. Simply drag your custom folders from that menu and drop them anywhere on the Links bar. You can use this method to rearrange any of the icons on the Links bar, not just your new menus.

Keep it simple: You can create as many menus as you want on your Links toolbar--and even put folders within folders to create submenus. Adding too many menus, submenus, and shortcuts will slow your access to the files, however. You'll either get lost navigating through the items, or you'll have to click the double greater-than symbol to view all your Links shortcuts.

Just add shortcuts to the items you use most often, and place items you use less often on a few simple menus that pop up from the toolbar. For example, make an 'Apps' menu for often-used programs, a 'Folders' menu for folder shortcuts, and a 'Web' menu for favorite Internet sites (as shown in Figure 1).

Get the look you like: It's easier to locate icons on your Links toolbar and its menus if each one has a distinctive look. This is especially true for generic Web and folder shortcuts. To change a shortcut's icon, right-click it and choose Properties. With the appropriate Shortcut, Internet Shortcut, or Web Document tab in front, click Change Icon and select an icon (see Figure 2).

If you don't see one you like, click Browse; then locate and open other files that contain icons. These include Progman.exe, Moricons.dll, and Pifmgr.dll (look for these files in your Windows, System, or System32 folders), as well as icon files downloaded from the Web. Make your selection, and click OK twice.

You can also change the icon for a menu you added to the Links bar (or for any folder, for that matter), although doing so is a little trickier. For details, see "Unique Folder Icons," in the February 2000 Windows Tips. The task is simpler when you use a utility such as ChangeIcon.

Keep the name short: If you want to save space on the Links toolbar, eliminate the icons' descriptive names. If your Links bar is free-floating or on the Windows taskbar, right-click an empty part of the toolbar and uncheck Show Text. When the Links bar is on a folder or IE browser window, hiding the text is more difficult, but you can name each icon with a single punctuation mark, as shown in Figure 1.

If you have IE 5 or later, right-click an icon on the Links bar and choose Rename. In IE 4, open the Links folder as described in "Add custom menus" above, select an icon, and click its name (or press <F2>). Type your new name and press <Enter>.

Open folder links in the same window: When the Links toolbar is in a folder or browser window, selecting one of its folder shortcuts will likely open the folder in a new window. I say "likely" because how the folder opens depends on your version of Windows and IE, among other factors.

To set your folders to open in the window that's currently open, choose View, Folder Options (in Windows 9 x) or Tools, Folder Options (in Windows 2000 and Me) and make sure the General tab is in front. (In some versions of Windows, you have to click the Settings button.) Now select Open each folder in the same window and click OK as many times as needed.

Note: Shortcuts you open from the Links bar must be folder shortcuts, not applications. To find out which it is, right-click the item's icon and choose Properties. If the text in the Target box is a path to a folder, the shortcut leads to a folder. If the Target box contains an application file name (such as 'Explorer.exe'), the shortcut goes to an application, and this tip won't work for it.

When you have a single-pane folder or browser window visible, the shortcut will open in the same window when you right-click it and choose Open. With a two-pane Explorer window open (one with a folder tree on the left), right-click the folder shortcut and choose Explore (sometimes Open works, too). Unfortunately, this tip requires IE version 5 or later.