Keith Kim’s Blog

Application Menu for Vista

Posted by Keith under Cool Apps

With Vista, it is very convenient to use the ‘Start Search’ menu in Start button (it’s not ’start’ button any more). Just press the window key and start typing — it’ll find applications, email, docs, etc. (There are many freeware programs do this in XP, by the way).

But I have too many applications, and with XP, I usually organize the “Programs” menu; put all the CD/DVD utilities in a folder, and so on. That way, I can quickly find the application I need. With the Vista’s ‘Start Search’ feature, it’s only useful if I remember at least partial name of an application to find it.

I can still go back to ‘classic’ menu and organize ‘Programs’ folder in Start menu, but then I lose this ‘Start Search’ feature of Vista. How can I keep both? I’ve found this little utility from snapfiles.com, called “TrayBar.”

This is exactly what I wanted! (The screenshot shows XP, but it supports Vista, and I run it on my Vista home premium fine.)

Just uncompress it, and run. No need to install. I usually put applications that don’t need to be installed in c:\bin\ directory, by the way.

I have added several applications in “Start Menu”, and also in sidebar’s launcher gadget.  But they can only have several apps.  With this app, I can list all of my applications, grouped by folders.

Nice job!