CFMiniBar

Apart from the default ways to launch applications and video games, such as the Start Menu, desktop, or taskbar, there are various third party enhancements like CFMiniBar. With it you can keep the desktop just a slideshow for multiple background pictures, while launching all tools you need from a slim toolbar.

Lightweight, and easy to use

The application shows up on your desktop in the form of a toolbar attached to a side of the screen. It initially only provides quick access to some common locations like the computer, and all detected drives, including external ones. Luckily, this is not the most you can squeeze out of practicality, with a lot of configurations between this simple toolbar.
With the configuration panel up you gain access to control over different areas like position, minimization options, drives, own programs in two sets, Internet IP, special buttons, including some extra tools like an automatic PC shutdown utility, hot corner configuration, and time synchronization based on custom sources.

Custom programs and extra tools

At the press of a button, CFMiniBar starts with Windows every other time. It can be set to stay on top of other windows, whether to display border, or run a custom file explorer by simply specifying path and executable. In terms of visuals, you can pick icon sets for your own and default programs, set position to any top or bottom side, and orientation of icons.
Extra tools are a considerable bonus. The computer can be configured to automatically shut down at a specific, or recurrent time, with attributes to force everything to close, set a countdown, or restart instead.
Hot corners make it possible to execute up to four different commands by simply dragging the corner in one of the screen corners. This can mean to show the desktop, bring the toolbar up from the tray area, or launch a custom program.

A few last words

Taking everything into consideration, we can say that CFMiniBar is a cool, practical alternative to launch a large variety of custom programs or drives with little effort, while also keeping the desktop clean. Although there’s not a great variety in customization, A rich set of tools help in multiple types of activities to compensate.