Advanced Launcher

Advanced Launcher is an application you can use to create multiple toolbars with links to programs, documents, system folders, commands, Internet pages, email addresses, menus, or contents of a system folder. This way, you can quickly access favorite Windows locations and tools from the desktop.

The setup procedure doesn't take long and requires minimal effort. Although this isn't mentioned, the utility gets integrated into the Windows startup sequence, but this can be later disabled from the settings panel.

The toolbars are very small and can be configured with as many items with links as you want. The default one opens two menus with the programs and deslkop items, and it also connects you with Windows Explorer, Notepad and the screensaver.

The options are available via the toolbar's right-click menu, where you can edit the properties of the exiting toolbar, delete it, as well as put together new ones.

It's possible to edit a toolbar's caption and icon, making it stay on top of other windows, create large buttons, show tooltips and the border, allow docking, autohide when docked, and minimize it to the systray to become minimally invasive.

When adding new items to the toolbar, you can specify the link mode and other options, such as caption, URL, email address, command, and parameters. Menu separators can be added too. These items can be re-arranged in any order in the toolbar. Help documentation is available.

It worked smoothly in our tests, without hanging, crashing or prompting error dialogs. CPU and RAM usage was minimal, so it didn't hamper system performance.

Advanced Launcher comes packed with practical options for creating quick launch toolbars for various purposes and it's free to use. No recent updates have been made, though.