[Feature] Icon-only view and mouseover tooltip support like "Quick Launch"

[ghost]

With the well known "Quick Launch" in the task bar it was up to Windows 10 possible to hide the names of the shortcuts (.lnk) and only the icons (.ico) were visible in the task bar.

With "mouse over" in the "Quick Launch" on a symbol only then the name of the link as well as the comment of the .lnk was shown. If you left the comment of the .lnk empty, it was even clearer.

Sadly, the "Quick Launch" has been completely taken away from us with Windows 11.

It would be very friendly if this function would be available in a similar way in your software too.

Enclosed a suggestion how it could look like

Conceivable would be a new "Quick Launch Experience" settings function e.g. as

1. don't display shurtcut names (check box)
2. enable mouse over to impress link name + comment (check box, or as standard)
3. an option for horizontal display would be nice (check box)
4. add specified paths (folder path list)
   Setting only affects on added paths, similar to the handling of the windows function to add a path to the environment variables

I am aware that there are many requests.

However, there are still a large number of users who are looking for a practical solution for the missing quick launch function in the taskbar of Windows 11, which has been unreasonably limited in its function.

It will certainly take time and it won't be possible directly in the taskbar, but if you make it possible, you will be the king.

My thanks in advance

keywords are
task bar + %UserProfile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

[Hofknecht]

@useforgh
Thank you for the feedback!

is only minor change to allow 'Icon only':

but should be maybe in extra combobox as you said
e.g. checkbox next to 'Maximum Menu Width' called 'Display Name (otherwise only icon)', when deactivated then 'Maximum Menu Width' deactivated and set to 0 )
so we will probably adjust here something

• commit change to allow 0 (insteat 25) as minimum value for 'Maximum Menu Width'
• need further tests if there are side effects?
• add combobox 'Display Name (otherwise only icon)' to make the option more clear to the user

a fast and easy solution is to activate tooltip

but this has a lot of issues exspecially that the tooltip appears in front of mouse, so when you want to open, then it disturbs the click. so better via mouse enter and leave events and implement via:
ToolTip toolTip = new ToolTip();
toolTip.Show(cellValue, dgv, dgv.PointToClient(Cursor.Position));
but we need to find location next to the cell, so it should not appear on the cell.
We need here more efford to implement a clean solution which where we have more control about the tooltip.

• think about a good solution

appear horizontal sounds good, but brings a lot of questions and complexity with it.
e.g. in which direction menus should appear, how is the look and feel. where should be the search and the function keys.
for me it only looks good if there are only shortcuts. how should we restrict this.
currently the biggest issue is the complete UI redesign for this. Currently we try to reimplement the GUI in WPF, so i think this topic would be a longer way. But i am also not sure if this looks good, because we can not replace the current taskbar and the taskbar normally always stays horizontal already, so maybe it is already the correct way to appear vertical.

• should be documented in discussion together with the other related about UI?

i am not sure if i got your point here, but therfore i think or hope that current config should be enough, the user can add files from folder via current config

Furthermore/Related:

• also a important point related to quick launch is that user can add shortcuts via drag drop: see here ([Feature] Drag drop files into STM #332)
• maybe related Adding multiple colums of shortcuts. #379, so maybe we want to have current one and kind of second drag drop for such often used shortcuts with only icon
• maybe related [Feature] Show path, complete filename, bigger icon in kind of preview #333, so maybe we should show more info than only name
• maybe related [Feature] Show preview for jpg #473, so maybe when file then there is another or similar preview. Layout should be similar and fit together?

[ghost]

Hello Mr. Hofknecht

since we didn't have much choice with the IE "Quick Launch" and also didn't really need it, so I would approach it from this point of view just as reduced. So there are not many requirements.

1. Quick Launch as a fixed folder
Conceivable would be generally under "%userprofile\AppData\Roaming\SystemTrayMenu" a fixed folder which is also named "Quick Launch" (by you with the setup). This is similar to the old version, there was no choice. That would be very practical, because there are enough profiles in AppDate, which you save anyway.

2. Search funktion? Not needed bc it's quick equal short
The old Quick Launch never had the claim to show 1000 files in the preview function or similar nonsense.
A search function in a new Quick Launch? There is no such need.

2. Context menu similar to the old Quick Launch
a) open file path (e.g. in autoruns named as "jump to image" of an linked file)
b) show properties (of the .lnk OR of the file located in Quick Launch)
c) run as admin (the linked file)
....................
d) cut/copy/delete + paste between two icons
e) drag/drop to quickly insert a file between two icons
to drop a new .lnk between two icons in the old version has never caused an impact of sort function. the new .lnk was always placed at the end)
....................
thats all of the old version

PLUS for the new version
NEW entry: open Quick Launch folder
If you add to every menu the context menu "open folder path" then we will edit the entries in the source folder.
If that makes things easier for you, then please.

3. sort function Z-A
convert vertically:
listing from bottom to top, because quick should be quick and the most frequently used .lnk should then also be very close to the systray of your program.

For this, it would be enough to have Z-A available (dedicated folders) in addition to A-Z.

OK, an individuelle sort function is not available right now
Alternatively, this would require numbering of the .lnk filename, but again, this would require Z-A sorting bc it makes things easier.
And if it should go horizontal at some point and your systray hangs in the right corner, then we need Z-A here too.

4. Solution Mouse hover to display the file name?
I looked at this in the old Quick Launch.
Each button of the mouse makes with button "press down" the insertion of the filename disappear, making access to the icon again. So e.g. right click lets filename disapear nothing else happens as long as you press the mouse button.
Only when you release the mouse button the context menu pops up.
This should also the soulution for the left button to open the linked program.
Is this a solution?

5. Position and look
Because of your question about the position of a horizontal "Quick Launch". Since you have to click on the systray on the right, then the Quick Launch should also open there starting horizontally with a small distance above the taskbar.

.
.
If you use the smallest icons (16x16) in the old Quick Launch, horizontally more than one row of icons is possible without problems, depending on the chosen height of the taskbar.

.
.
Vertically only one column is possible in the old Quick Launch.
If the old Quick Launch was too short, then you could extend it by clicking on double arrow.
As you see: horizontally no file names.
You were able to display the file names in the old version too but never usefull bc wasted to much space.

.
Thx

[Hofknecht]

@useforgh
we marked as 'future extension' and 'needs discussion'
e.g. a fixed folder or representing in horizontal view will very probably not more be implemented in v1
we are currently implementing v2 which will still need long time.

In the future we will have a look and think again if we can implement more configurations to be able to look more like Quick Launcher or to have its functionalities
OR
there should be an extra project, I am sure some implementation parts could be similar

TODO check the small points we can do and make a discussion for future

[ghost]

A standalone Qick Launch Programm would be great.

Thanks for listening.