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Desktop Toolbars With IE4 installed, the Win
95 Task Bar becomes the launch-pad for a set of new Desktop Toolbars. IE comes
with four pre-defined toolbars, and lets you create your own custom bar too (click here for details). To open a Desktop Toolbar,
right-click on the Task Bar, choose Toolbars from the pop-up menu, and pick a
toolbar from the list. |
 The Desktop Toolbar
This toolbar contains the same set of icons as your Win 95 desktop
(My Computer, Recycle Bin etc). There's not a whole lot of point in putting it on the
desktop, since it then sits next to the 'real' icons it's representing!
However, like all toolbars you can dock it to another screen edge,
then place it in Auto Hide mode (right-click on the toolbar and choose Auto Hide from
the pop-up menu). It will then disappear, leaving the screen free for applications, and
appear again when you move the mouse pointer near the edge of the screen where it's
docked. That way you can get at your desktop icons without minimising all you
applications.
The Win 95 Desktop and Desktop Toolbar are automatically
synchronised in both directions, i.e. if you drag an item (e.g. a folder) onto the
toolbar, a button appears on it, and a shortcut to the item also appears on your desktop.
 The Address Bar is the odd one out of the four
standard toolbars - whereas the others contain links to local and Internet objects (see
below), the Address Bar is a copy of the Address Bar from the standalone IE 4 browser.
Type or paste in a URL (Web page address), and a browser window opens showing the page.
 Because Win 95's local and Internet filing systems are now integrated you can
type the name of a local folder and that will be opened instead.
You can even type the name of a document file into the Address Bar -
if it's from a suitable application, it will be opened in the browser window in OLE
in-situ editing mode (click here for more details).
 Clicking
the arrow at the right of the Address Bar opens a pop-up list showing the local and
Internet locations you've opened from the bar. Choosing one of them takes the browser
window directly to that item.
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The Start menu for Windows 98 is enhanced by Internet
Explorer 4 most noticeably by adding a Favorites item, which opens cascading menus into
your IE 4 Favorites folders. There are also improvements made to the Find and Settings
menus. It also upgrades the Win 95 Task Bar with a new system of customisable Desktop
Toolbars, which provide single-click access to programs, documents, folders and other
objects on your local system and the Internet.
Clicking on an individual Favorites entry
launches a browser window showing the target Web page - or alternatively a local file or
folder, as Favorites can now point to local as well as Internet items (
It's essential to organise your Favorites into sub-folders (unless you've got
very few of them) otherwise the Favorites menu fills the entire screen. You can't do any
reorganising from the Start button Favorites menu, but it's easy to find the Organise
Favorites dialog, as the Favorites menu is now on the menu bars of all filing windows
(and the Windows Explorer).
Finding Room for Toolbars. The Task Bar is a fairly
crowded place already, and adding extra toolbars soon fills it up. 
The 
The left-hand standard Quick Launch button loads an
Internet Explorer browse window with your Home page, just as if you'd launched IE from the
Programs menu or desktop icon.
The right-hand standard Quick Launch button launches the
Channel Viewer - alias IE 4 in full-screen mode.
The Quick Launch button is one of the handiest innovations
in the IE-enhanced Win 95 desktop. A single click clears all the application and filing
windows from the screen, leaving the desktop clear and its icons and embedded Active
Desktop items accessible. Another click brings the applications back again. Although this
is the same function as the existing 'Minimise all windows' option on the Task Bar
right-click menu, it's just that bit more convenient (and seems to work more quickly too).
Customising Desktop Toolbars. You can add your own
items to any of the toolbars except the Address Bar.