Several readers have suggested placing your Favorites into Quick Launch (in the Windows task bar). This sounds like a good idea as long as you reserve this for only a few of your very favorite sites. If you get too many icons in Quick Launch, it becomes difficult to tell which is which at a single glance.
To put a site into Quick Launch, grab the URL with your right-mouse button and drag it down to the Quick Launch bar. When you release the mouse button, choose Create Shortcut(s) Here.
If you decide to delete some of the Quick Launch items, just right-click the one you want to get rid of and choose Delete from the menu.
Did you know that every icon in the Quick Launch toolbar is nothing but a shortcut? (The Quick Launch toolbar is the row of icons to the right of the Start button, by default.) That means you can set the properties for each, just as you would any other shortcut.
For example, suppose you want Internet Explorer to open maximized every time. Right-click the Internet Explorer icon (on the Quick Launch toolbar) and select Properties. On the Shortcut tab, next to Run, click the down arrow and select Maximized. Click OK, and the next time you click that icon, Internet Explorer will take over the entire screen.
(Tip: Follow these steps to make any application shortcut open the target program in a normal, maximized, or minimized window.)
Do you have so many shortcuts on your Quick Launch toolbar that they aren't all visible at once? Tired of scrolling left or right to get to them all? For one-click access to all Quick Launch shortcuts, turn this toolbar into a floating palette.
See the vertical bar on the left edge of the Quick Launch toolbar? Click it, drag the entire toolbar to a new location on your desktop, and let go. And no, you aren't stuck with that huge resulting window. Resize it as you would any window--hold your mouse pointer over any corner and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag in either direction. Move the palette to any location on screen, and you have one-click access to all shortcuts inside.
(Tip-in-a-tip: If you want to make sure your Quick Launch palette doesn't get buried by other windows, right-click its title bar and select Always On Top.)
Have you decided that you like the toolbar better? In two quick steps, you can put it right back where it started (we're assuming to the right of the Start button, with your Taskbar across the bottom of the screen). Click the palette's title bar and drag it downward until it expands to the full width of the screen (across the top of the Taskbar). Let go, and the toolbar jumps down to its original form, but on the right side of the Taskbar.
Now just move the toolbar next to the Start button. Hold your mouse pointer over the bar's left edge, and when it changes to a double-pointed arrow, click and drag the bar to the left. When your mouse pointer is just to the right of the Start button, the Quick Launch toolbar will jump into place there. Let go of the mouse.
(Tip: You'll need to resize the other toolbars on the Taskbar to get everything back in perfect order. As a quick review, hold your mouse pointer over a toolbar's left edge, then click and drag in either direction.)