Coolbarz adds up to four auto-hiding program launching toolbars to Windows

The option to pin programs, files or folders to the Windows 7 taskbar improved how I work with the operating system significantly.

While that is a great way to have access to often used programs or files, it is limited to a single location on the screen.

Coolbarz, a free program for Windows adds up to four additional toolbars to Windows that auto-hide when they are not used.

Note: It requires the Microsoft .Net Framework 2.0 to run.

You may add programs, shortcuts, Internet sites or files to each toolbar to launch them quickly from the locations they are displayed in.

It is up to you to add toolbars to one, several or all four locations (top, bottom, left, right) on the system.

The available toolbars, their location and style are configured in the program settings. What you may find interesting there is the program's support for multi-monitor systems. If you use them, you may display some toolbars on secondary monitors instead of the primary display.

Other options provided include in-depth positional settings that define visibility, icon size or alignment of icons for each toolbar individually.

The sidebar toolbars display icons and titles by default, while the top and bottom toolbars only icons.

In addition to that, you may customize show and hide delays, and the maximum width of individual buttons.

Customization options don't end there though. You may change or disable the fading effect, force reduced memory usage or disable tooltips in the two other tabs provided in the settings.

There you also find a preview option which is also handy during initial configuration.

All toolbars are empty by default and it is up to you to fill them with life. A right-click on a toolbar displayed on the screen displays options to add individual items to it.

You may also drag and drop files to the toolbar directly which is a lot faster than using the "add files" menu to add individual files.

Still, the initial configuration, meaning adding programs and files, and arranging them, may take a while.

Items are removed from the toolbar with a right-click on them and the selection of "remove item" from the context menu that opens up. If you want to start over from the beginning, select "clear items" instead which removes them all in one swift operation.

Coolbarz uses quite a bit of memory when it is running in normal mode. This drops to a low amount when you enable the integrated memory reduction option in the settings.

Conclusion

Coolbarz is a highly configurable program for Windows that you can make use of to add up to four toolbars to primary or secondary displays individually. All toolbars are individually configurable, for instance to display some all the time and others only when you move the mouse into the area they are located in.

The program's quite useful, especially if you don't make use of the Windows taskbar, require more space for programs and shortcuts, or want to separate groups of programs from each other. (Thanks Jojo)

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