Windows XP Professional turns on the Windows XP Quick Launch Toolbar automatically. Some people, however, don’t care to see the Quick Launch toolbar crowding their taskbar. To those people, and to people who want to customize the Quick Launch toolbar, I dedicate the next few pages of this article. Activating Windows XP’s Quick Launch Toolbar is a little tray of icons that sits next to the Start button, where you can stick shortcuts to start all of your favorite programs. It’s one of the handiest features in Windows and if you are running Windows XP Home, you may not even know that it exists.

To start the Quick Launch Toolbar, right-click on any open spot down on the Windows taskbar and choose Toolbars -> Quick Launch. That’s all there is to it. Your initial Quick Launch Toolbar includes icons for Internet Explorer, the desktop, and the Windows Media Player. Customizing Adding your own icons to the Quick Launch Toolbar is very simple, too, but you immediately run into problems trying to squeeze more icons into that teensy-tiny space. Here’s how to avoid the problem in the first place:

1. Make sure the Quick Launch Toolbar is showing (right-click any open spot down on the Windows taskbar and choose Toolbars -> Quick Launch).

2. Unlock the taskbar so that you can increase the size of the Quick Launch Toolbar. To do so, right-click any open spot on the Windows taskbar, and uncheck the line marked Lock the Taskbar. Windows shows two small drag handles, one to the left and one to the right of the Quick Launch Toolbar.

3. Grab the drag handle on the right and stretch it out (to the right) a bit.

4. Find a program that you want to put in the Quick Launch Toolbar. For example, if you have Microsoft Office installed and you want to put Word down there, choose Start -> All Programs, and look for Microsoft Word.

5. Right-click on the program, and drag it down to the Quick Launch Toolbar. You see a big, black I-Beam in the Quick Launch Toolbar that indicates where the icon will go. When you release the icon, choose Copy Here. When you drag icons to the Quick Launch Toolbar, right-click and choose Copy Here, so that the original program shortcut stays intact. If you leftclick (or right-click and choose Move Here), the shortcut gets moved.

6. Drag as many icons to the Quick Launch Toolbar as you like. When you’re done, butt the right drag handle up against the rightmost icon, and then right-click on the Windows taskbar and choose Lock Toolbar. You have more “play” with the Quick Launch Toolbar’s resizing drag handles than you think. Try squishing the Quick Launch Toolbar by setting the right drag handle on top of the rightmost icon, and then lock the Toolbar. When you choose Lock Toolbar, chances are good that all of the icons appear anyway. It never hurts to tighten things up a bit, so Windows can use as much of the taskbar as possible. Customizing the Windows Taskbar If you have more than one program running, the fastest way to switch from one program to another is via the Windows taskbar. With a few small exceptions, each running program carves out a chunk of space on the Windows taskbar. If more than one copy of a program is running (not an unusual state of affairs for Windows Explorer, among others) or if a program has more than one file open (common in Word, for example) and Windows runs low on real estate in the taskbar area, the chunks are grouped together, with the number of open documents in front of the program name. If you click on the button marked 4 Microsoft Word), for example, you see a list of the four documents that Word currently has open. Click on one of those documents, and Word comes up, loaded for bear. The Windows taskbar has many tricks up its sleeve, but it has one capability that you’re likely to need.

Auto-Hide lets the taskbar shrink down to a thin line until you bump your mouse way down at the bottom of the screen. As soon as your mouse hits bottom, the taskbar pops up. Here’s how you teach the taskbar to Auto-Hide:

1. Right-click an empty part of the taskbar. Usually the area immediately to the right of the Start button is a good place.

2. Choose Properties. The Taskbar tab should be visible.

3. Select the Auto-Hide the Taskbar check box, and then click OK. If you don’t want to hunt around for the mouse or if your mouse has suddenly gone out to lunch Windows XP has a feature called Coolswitch that lets you switch among running programs, while (insert your best W.C. Fields impression here) your fingers never leave your hands . . . er, your fingers never leave the keyboard. Wink, wink. Just hold down the Alt key and press Tab. When you get to the program you want, release the Alt key. Bang.

Custom Startup

Do you start a specific program just about every time you crank up Windows? Maybe you want to get the Windows Media Player going every time Windows wakes up. A friend of mine always starts the Windows Calculator. Of course, he’s a hopeless drudge, so don’t let him influence you. You can easily tell Windows XP that you want to run a specific program every time Windows starts. You just have to put the program in the \Startup folder. Say you want to start the Windows Calculator every time anybody logs on to Windows. You can make that happen if you put a shortcut to the Calculator into the All Users \Startup folder, like this:

1. Right-click on the Start button and choose Explore All Users.

2. Double-click your way down to the Startup folder (C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Start Menu\Programs\Startup).

3. Go back to the Start button, and choose Start -> All Programs -> Accessories.

4. Right-click on the Calculator and drag it to the \Startup folder. When you release the Calculator, choose Copy Here. You’re done. The next time anyone logs on to Windows, the Calculator will start. If you want the Calculator to start for just one user, you need to put a shortcut to the calculator in that user’s \Startup folder. The easy way: Have that user log on, right-click the Start button and choose Explore. Then follow Steps 2 through 5 in the preceding list.