How to Quick Launch folders from Windows Vista Taskbar?

Computers make life easy and hard to live at the same time! The easier it makes your life, you find yourself wondering why it doesn't make your life easier than what it is actually making it now. That makes life a bit hard to live and we always end up wanting more.

We want things done as quick and easy as possible. And I know how hard life can be if you have too many files and folders to live with and you always grapple with the idea of finding your files when you need them quickly and easily. Sometimes you wish you had some files at your fingertips. Now, I found a way to put my favourite folders on the Quick Launch of my Taskbar on my Vista and it made my life a little easier than it ever was. And I keep all those files I think I may need often in the folders on my Taskbar and now they are available to me at a double-click.

How did I do it? Let me demonstrate. For example, let us say, I want to put a folder named "Start Menu Test Folder" on my Taskbar Quick Launch. What do I do? Look at the picture below:

Step 1: I go to the place where the folder I want to put on the taskbar is located. I right click on the folder. In this case it is the "Start Menu Test Folder" I right-click on. I right-click on that and send a shortcut to my desktop.

Step 2: Once I am sure I have the shortcut to the folder on my Desktop, I go right-click on the Taskbar. Your Taskbar is locked usually. You are right-clicking to unlock it. Yes, right-click on the taskbar and unlock it.

Step 3: Once you have your Taskbar unlocked, it is easy. Click on the folder you want to be on the Taskbar and drag it to the Taskbar Quick Launch. Drag and drop the folder on your Taskbar Quick Launch. The folder will appear on your Taskbar. If you want to change the name of the shortcut, you can right-click on it and rename. Once you are done, right-click on your Taskbar and lock it again.

To avoid clutter and confusion, make sure that you don't keep more than one or two folders on your Taskbar. I am not sure if you know, you can put your favourite programmes on the Taskbar this way.  Right clcik on the Programme you want on your taskbar and click on "Add to Quick Launch" You can also pin to on your start menu, if you want.

I am not sure if the same thing can be done on Windows XP. I request the readers to try this on their XP, if they have one, and tell me if you can do it.