Many programs, when they install, ask you if you want to add a shortcut to the Windows Quick Launch Bar. What if you want to add a program manually to the Quick Launch Bar? Here is how,

Add a shortcut to the Quick Launch Bar

Step-1:

Locate the program that you want to add to the Quick Launch Bar. You can locate the programs in either the “Start >> All Programs” menu, on your folder or on your desktop.

In this example, I’m going to add “Adobe Photoshop 7” from the “Start >> All Programs” menu to the Quick Launch Bar. Click the “Start” button and then keep your mouse over the program that you want to add to the Quick Launch Bar.

Step-2:

Just drag the program to the Quick Launch Bar area. On the above screenshot, the black text cursor that you see just before the >> anchor is the anchor that guides you where to place the shortcut.

Now, you should have your shortcut added to the Windows Quick Launch Bar.

If you are not comfortable with dragging and dropping then you can use the file explorer method.

Step-1:

Copy the program (the .exe file) that you want to add to the Quick Launch Bar.

Step-2:

Navigate into “C:\Users\DemoGeek\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch” folder. The drive and the folder DemoGeek might be different on yours. Paste the clipboard content to have a shortcut added to the Quick Launch Bar.

Remove a shortcut from the Quick Launch Bar

To delete a shortcut from the Quick Launch Bar, just right click on the shortcut and click the “Delete” menu option. Don’t worry, your program will still be there on your computer. Only the shortcut gets deleted from your Quick Launch Bar.

With it’s limited screen real estate you might want to be a bit careful on what you add to the Quick Launch Bar. Too much clutter on the Quick Launch Bar will make it a bit harder to manage. The rule of thumb is that you only add the programs that you use quite often and would like to have it handy to launch. Remove the shortcuts that you don’t use much.

On a related note, see how to turn on/off the Windows Quick Launch Bar?