Customizing the 'Address' toolbar on the taskbar

[Soulfire]

This topic concerns the 'Address' toolbar that you can attach to the taskbar by right-clicking on the taskbar and selecting 'Address' from the 'Toolbars' menu.

I have found that the address bar works exactly like the 'Run' dialog that you can access from the start menu. You can enter URL's into it and it will launch them in your default browser window. You can also type the name of an executable file located in one of the Windows system folders(C:\Windows\, C:\Windows\System32, etc.). When you enter an executable's name(without the .exe extension), the icon from that executable's file is displayed in the address bar. For example, you could type 'Notepad' into the address bar, and press enter. Notepad.exe would open, since it is located in C:\Windows\, and the icon for the address bar would change to that of Notepad.exe's icon.

What I want to do is have the ability to create custom 'commands' to launch specific programs with. So that, for example, I could type 'Winamp' into the address bar, and Winamp would open just as if I had clicked it's icon in the start menu or quicklaunch bar. One way of accomplishing this would be to create a small executable for each command that I create, with the name of the command being the executable's filename. The executable would simply launch the desired program that is associated with it's command. So, for example, I could create a small program that launched Winamp from wherever I had it installed, compile the program to 'winamp.exe', and save it in the C:\Windows\ folder. I have already achieved this, and it works fine. However, I noticed some strange behavior while converting one of my quicklaunch icons to this command style. If I typed 'aim' into the address bar, it would launch AOL Instant Messenger, even if I had not created the command's launch executable yet! I inspected all of the system folders, and there was no aim.exe to be found. I know for a fact that it is launching directly the official AIM executable file from the folder I have it installed to, because I can change the icon resource of the authentic aim.exe, to a different icon, and it affects the icon that is displayed in the address bar when I use the 'aim' command. I also searched through the registry and Windows configuration files, but found no references to the path and filename that aim.exe was installed as, that looked like they would have anything to do with the address bar.

I'm completely stumped as to how Windows knew to launch AIM from that command. There was no aim.exe in any Windows system folder. The AIM application directory is not a system folder. So my guess is that somewhere in the system there is a list of 'shortcuts' or 'commands' that can be used in an address bar, along with their respective programs that they launch. My question is: How can I add my own 'commands' to this list? Where is the list located? Somewhere in the registry that I missed, perhaps?

[morease]

I find the URL's in the register but not sure where the "notepad" etc are. How do you erase the contents of the taskbar address window?

morease

[carotids]

Originally Posted by morease

I find the URL's in the register but not sure where the "notepad" etc are. How do you erase the contents of the taskbar address window?

morease

The address bar will load commands that are in the default path... just as if you type it in the RUN box as you suspected. If you want to add shortcuts, then you should really try out the new msn desktop search. You can assign shortcuts so easily. I turn off the IE plug-in, but this new search box on my task bar just rocks.

I have them side by side on my taskbar now. It rocks!

Download the toolbar
MSN Desktop Search: Commands and Shortcut Tutorial
Microsoft Desktop Search Shortcut Page

[jklopfer]

You can make custom commands by learning Batch file programming and setting a .bat file in a directory defined by the path...

here is an example of a .bat file i named l.bat... That way to ran a command in the address bar I type something like "l ps" to start photoshop

-Jon
Here is the example file:

@ECHO off
cls
REM -------------Help stuff---------------
if '%1'=='help' goto HELP
if '%1'=='backup' goto BACKUP
REM -----------Commands------------
if '%1'=='edit' START c:\progra~1\wscite\SciTE.exe
if '%1'=='editme' START c:\progra~1\wscite\SciTE.exe c:\nojbat\l.bat

if '%1'=='ps' START c:\progra~1\adobe\adobep~1\photoshop.exe
if '%1'=='il' START c:\progra~1\adobe\adobei~1\adobei~1.lnk
if '%1'=='golive' START c:\progra~1\adobe\adobeg~1\golive.exe
if '%1'=='flash' START c:\progra~1\macrom~1\flashm~1\flash.exe
if '%1'=='cool' START c:\progra~1\coolpro2\coolpro2.exe

if '%1'=='word' START c:\progra~1\micros~2\office11\winword.exe
if '%1'=='aim' START c:\progra~1\aim\aim.exe
if '%1'=='ssh' START c:\progra~1\sshcom~1\sshsec~1\sshcli~1.exe
if '%1'=='mail' START c:\progra~1\MOZILL~2\THUNDE~1.exe

if '%1'=='ftp' START c:\progra~1\SMARTFTP\smartftp.exe

if '%1'=='d' START firefox http://dictionary.reference.com/search?q=%2
if '%1'=='weather' START firefox http://www.weather.com/weather/local/46260
if '%1'=='g' START firefox http://www.google.com/search?q=%2+%3+%4+%5+%6+%7+%8+%9
if '%1'=='cal' START firefox http://www.google.com/calendar/render?pli=1
goto END

:HELP
echo +----------C O M M A N D S-----------+
echo !------------------------------------!
echo !edit - SciTE !
echo !ps - Adobe Photoshop !
echo !il - Adobe Illistrator !
echo !golive - Adobe GoLive !
echo !flash - Flash MX Professional !
echo !cool - Cool Edit Professional !
echo ! !
echo !aim - AIM !
echo !ssh - Secure Shell SSH Client !
echo !ftp - SmartFTP Client !
echo !mail - Mozilla Thunderbird !
echo ! !
echo ! !
echo !g - Google (up to six words) !
echo !d - Dictionary (plus keyword) !
echo !cal - Google Calendar !
echo !------------------------------------!
echo !editme - Open l.bat in SciTE !
echo +------------------------------------+
pause
goto END
:END
exit

[spydercanopus]

If you have a shortcut on your desktop for AIM it will run that defaultly. The same goes for a folder. If you have a folder called... "byteusa.com" and type that into the Address bar, even in I.E., it will open that folder.

[sueyi]

Easier than creating a directory of batch files .. create a directory of shortcuts. E.g. I create a shortcut called "googletalk" that links to "C:\Program Files\Google\Google Talk\googletalk.exe". Add your shortcut directory (e.g. C:\alias\) to your PATH environment variable. Then you will be able to just type the shortcut name (e.g. googletalk) to access the programs from the RUN menu or any DOS cmdline.