True Launch Bar

Marshall Brooks · May 6, 2024

Might be something on my end with firewall or filter issues, then. It's a 5K file - 248x32 pixels. One thing I did notice - your example shows the image in the panel. I just see a gray panel with TLB.png at the bottom and the trash can at the top, so I suspect it isn't actually being loaded to the forum, for whatever reason ...

I wasn't questioning him, but I've been on other forums where you couldn't upload until you have X number of posts, etc.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

Marshall Brooks said:
Probably not the correct forum for this, but the official TLB forum seems to be pretty much dead.

I've been using TLB for several weeks and like it but I ran into an odd issue. See the attached file and the third icon/button.

The icon contains the "Shortcut Arrow." Originally, I used the icons from my Quick Launch Toolbar and they work fine. I have "Shortcut Arrows" enabled in File Explorer and see them there.

The Third icon (FrameMaker 2022) is new. Previously I was using this for FrameMaker 2019. If I create a new Shortcut, it does NOT have the Shortcut Arrow, but after a day or so, it re-appears.

Does anyone know what in TLB controls the visibility of this arrow.

(Not sure I can add attachments yet.)

Repeated that first post from Marshall for the convenience of readers. Here's his image, with the shortcut arrow imposed on the icon:

Sorry it got blurry when I enlarged it.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

The original:

Marshall Brooks · May 6, 2024

I typo'd - it is the fourth (not the third) icon (FM) that has the arrow that I would like to have not shown - but I don't want to change my Windows settings to remove it.

@Wisewiz - thank you for the assistance.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

I used TLB for about fifteen years. I find W11 okay without it. But if I recall correctly (IIRC), if you right-click an icon that's in TLB, you'll get a menu that offers Properties, and that'll get you a menu that includes Change icon.

Marshall Brooks · May 6, 2024

Actually, I'm using Windows 10, but I'm about to upgrade. I used the Quick Launch Toolbar in Win10. I started using TLB b/c as I understand, you can't pin toolbars to the Win11 Taskbar (without running Explorer Patcher or StartAllBack) or similar.

Wisewiz said:
I used TLB for about fifteen years. I find W11 okay without it. But if I recall correctly (IIRC), if you right-click an icon that's in TLB, you'll get a menu that offers Properties, and that'll get you a menu that includes Change icon.

You can, but I don't want to change the icon, I just don't want it to have the shortcut arrow. I just tried it (right-clicked and selected the same icon it was already using) and it works (shortcut arrow is gone), but that also happens when I delete the icon and drag the shortcut to the TLB toolbar, but it reappears in a day or so. What MAY work is extracting the icon from the FrameMaker program and pointing to the icon itself instead of the program, but I never had to do that with any of the other icons, I use in TLB.

BTW - if anyone is doing a search, there is a TLB menu setting under Toolbar>Appearance called "Show Arrow on menu button", which seems promising, but that is for arrows that TLB adds, not the shortcut icon arrow.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

Between my taskbar, my Start menu, and my Power menu, I find I have everything I used to use TLB for. Some pics:

Marshall Brooks · May 6, 2024

My issue is I never liked pinning icons to the taskbar. I could put my QLT icons in the start menu, but it would take an additional mouse click.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

Click each one for a clearer image. The first two are my TLB in W10. The buttons are L > R Trash, FF, Mail, Clipboard, Librarry, Tools, System, and Access (all my main folders and drives). Then, My Computer, Chrome, and Google Keep.

Marshall Brooks · May 6, 2024

Post #129 helped. Key difference is you were using pinned icons in Win10, and TLB was just another pinned icon. I don't plan to use pinned icons, except I will have ONE for TLB in Win11, which I could avoid if I allowed it to load at startup.

Wisewiz · May 6, 2024

I can't imagine why you WOULDN'T have it load at startup, assuming you use it for as many and varied things as your posts suggest.

Marshall Brooks · May 7, 2024

Just to follow-up, Reply #125-126 (Right-click and change the icon to the same thing) did not work long term. The 4th icon had the shortcut arrow again this morning. I don't think the icon is the problem. I looked at button 2, which does NOT have the shortcut arrow, and it's icon is pointing to the .exe file icon, but it does not have the shortcut arrow. Also, in File Explorer, ALL of the shortcuts in the default toolbar folder have the shortcut arrow, but only the 4th one (which is fairly recent) does in TLB. I think it is some TLB setting, but I don't know why it only affects this icon/button - but that means it must be some per button setting, I think.

Wisewiz · May 7, 2024

Since TLB.is perfectly happy to use .png icons, and since they’re so readily available on the Net, I think it would be one way to short circuit the icon adjustment Windows
(or TLB) wants to make. I used only .pngs all the time. Set the icon size in TLB settings.

Marshall Brooks · May 7, 2024

I'll give a .png icon a shot. Still think it has to be some setting somewhere, since none of the other buttons require it. (BTW - I did see a right-click on the button and Protect option, which is supposed to keep the icon from changing, but I don't think that is the issue either - again, since none of the other buttons require it.)

Marshall Brooks · May 8, 2024

A bit early to tell, but so far, changing to a .PNG image seems to have fixed the issue - at least it hasn't reverted yet. A bit annoying that this one button has to be handled differently than all the others, but I don't think I would have tumbled to using .PNG button images on my own - thanks again!

Wisewiz · May 8, 2024

Welcome. That process of marking shortcuts is carried out by adding an overlay icon to another icon, as you know. I don’t think it can be done with a .png.