Linkbar

If you have a lot of items installed on your computer the desktop is sure to quickly become a crowded space. You can prevent this by storing important files in a particular folder you quickly access, but there are better alternatives. For instance, Linkbar places all shortcuts of interest in a cool, customizable launch bar.

One of the first thing you need to know is that no setup is required to make the application work. This means you can have it stored on a thumb drive in case you want to quickly use it on other computers. Personal settings are saved on the local computer, so you can’t just create a portable launcher directly from the thumb drive.

It all takes about a couple of seconds from the moment you start the application. When launched, a dialog shows up asking if you want to make the linkbar available to all computer users or just the current one, and to choose a folder to use as source. Note, however, that the application only targets shortcuts, so the source folder only needs to be composed of that.

However, you don’t have to use just a particular folder for item input. Bringing up the context menu on the bar itself lets you insert shortcuts on the spot. This is done through the default Windows shortcut creation wizard.

Icons are neatly shown on the launch bar, without any text though. You can access the program properties panel in order to manage view settings, such as icon size or bar position, margins, order of shortcuts, whether or not to enable text, as well as an auto-hide feature.

To sum it up, Linkbar is an application which can surely help you quickly bring some order to your desktop, especially if you have all shortcuts of interest already piled up in a folder. Management is a walk in the park, and your new launch bar is ready in a couple of seconds from the moment the program is launched.