All Menus Toolbar - Add to Taskbar in Windows 8

How to Add Custom All Menus Toolbar to Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1​

   Information

This tutorial will show you how to create a single "All Menus" toolbar that opens into cascading menus of almost everything in your system.

The All Menus toolbar includes the complete Start menu (current user and all users), your user folder, Libraries, Computer, Homegroup, Network, Favorites, Recycle Bin, Recent Places, Applications, Devices and Printers, Programs and Features, All Tasks, All Settings, and Administrative Tools cascading menus.

Here's How:

1. Click/tap on Download below to download the All–Menus.zip file, and save it in any folder of your own.

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2. Right click or press and hold on the All–Menus.zip file, and click/tap on Extract All.

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3. Windows may then open another folder. At this point, to avoid confusion, just close all folder windows.

4. Right click or press and hold on the taskbar on your desktop, and click/tap on Toolbars and New toolbar.

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5. Browse to the extracted All–Menus folder from steps 1 and 2 above, and open it. Select the TM (Total Menu) folder, and click/tap on the Select Folder button.

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6. Unlock the taskbar.

7. Drag the TM Toolbar all the way to the left corner of your taskbar going past the other items (taskbar buttons and pinned icons), which will jump to the right.

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8. Grab the first "handle" to the right of the TM toolbar, and drag it to the left across the TM toolbar icons so they are hidden.
NOTE: They must be hidden in order to appear as cascading menus.

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9. Lock the taskbar.

10. Your toolbar should now look approximately like this below. It's main menu is at the far left of the taskbar, and each item in it expands to another menu. Shown here is the combined Start Menu expanded. It in turn contains items that expand, of which one is shown.

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Related Tutorials

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• How to Create a Start Menu Toolbar on Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Back Up and Restore Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Pin or Unpin a App, Folder, or Drive on Start Screen in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Add Quick Launch to Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Pin Recycle Bin to Taskbar in Windows 8 and 8.1
• How to Create a Control Panel All Tasks (GodMode) Toolbar in Windows 8 and 8.1

 

[Brink]

Hey mate,

I was just looking your tutorial over to get it polished up, and noticed that the TM toolbar looks like this for me when you first open it instead.

Notice how in your screenshot it doesn't have the CLSID numbers in the names like mine does.

 

[pcRat]

Settings is the only one with CLSID number on mine
I had to check it out and I'm keeping it, its cool but I'm so use to the Start Screen Menu

 

[davehc]

I agree. I understand, if users don't wish to try and customise the modern screen as a start menu, but, if a more familiar start menu is needed, then Classic and similar are the easiest way to go.

 

[Dragon Drop]

Interesting! I gather the toolbar does work, though?

After posting the link I downloaded it myself and got the result shown, i.e. the CLSID's don't appear in the names. Apparently they sometimes appear and sometimes not. When I first created those folders their names appeared without the CLSID.

I'm at my office now and I can't use their computer for this stuff, but this evening I'll look again.

Just as an experiment: Pick one item, say

RecycleBin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}

Open your own copy of the "TM" folder -- the copy that you made the toolbar from. Right-click the RecycleBin folder in it, and select "Rename." If the CLSID then appears in the name pane, delete it so the name is just "RecycleBin." Then see if (1) the CLSID still appears in the toolbar, and (2) the toolbar still cascades to the Recycle Bin.

If that doesn't work, delete the RecycleBin folder from "TM" and then create a new folder in its place, entering "RecycleBin.{645FF040-5081-101B-9F08-00AA002F954E}" as the name. As soon as you create it all the contents will appear in it automatically. Then see if the CLSID still appears in the name, and if so, rename it to just "RecycleBin."

If either of those fixes work for the Recycle Bin, they'll probably work for the other items too. Of course, that means you're creating the whole toolbar yourself the way I originally did, so my download link isn't doing you any good!

 

[Brink]

Yeah, they all work just fine other than the CLSID in the root shell folder names. The items in the menus themselves do not have the CLSID numbers of course.

If you remove the CLSID from the name, it will break it and become just an empty folder.

It's still a helpful toolbar for those that would want it though.

 

[Dragon Drop]

This is quite mysterious. I'm trying to find ways to get rid of the CLSID's in the toolbar display; but I can't even "duplicate the problem" because for me they don't appear there anyway. I tried again downloading the folder from this page and making the toolbar. I get no CLSID's on the screen, not even in the folder itself if I open it. It may be that how they appear depends on your settings (i.e. SOME kind of settings) or it may be that the folders are getting converted into a different form when you download them.

For me the system automatically leaves the CLSID out of the displayed name. You can use any name you want, and it will identify the folder for browsing purposes, but the CLSID alone determines the folder's contents.

I tried it just now. In the TM toolbar folder I created a new folder and called it
Godzilla.{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A}
That's the CLSID for "Devices and Printers." The resulting folder looked like this

and it opened the Devices and Printers window. It worked from the toolbar, too. And the CLSID didn't appear anywhere.
In its "Properties" box the "Type" field says:
File folder (.{A8A91A66-3A7D-4424-8D24-04E180695C7A})

Then I renamed it "Casper" -- just that alone, without typing the CLSID again. It changed to this


and still worked the same way.

Try that and see if you get the same results.

 

[whs]

Very nice but probably a bit overwhelming. One would have to weed it out for the purposes one will use it. I am a big friend of toolbars and will certainly try that.

I like your high contrast theme. That was probably quite a job to set it up that way.

 

[Brink]

DD,

I'm not sure. For me the CLSID shows every time, and will break if removed. Odd that it works for you.

 

[Dragon Drop]

I still have 8.0 at present. Maybe 8.1 just won't do it.

whs: I posted something last week about how to set up the colors. Windows has a whole item-by-item color-setup menu, but you can only get it after you're in high-contrast mode.
http://www.eightforums.com/customiz...e-title-text-color-post324033.html#post324033

 

[whs]

I still have 8.0 at present. Maybe 8.1 just won't do it.

whs: I posted something last week about how to set up the colors. Windows has a whole item-by-item color-setup menu, but you can only get it after you're in high-contrast mode.
http://www.eightforums.com/customiz...e-title-text-color-post324033.html#post324033

Yeah I know. I once setup that high contrast skin in Windows 7. Was quite a job. But unfortunately it is unusable if you have Office. The office skins are not compatible with that setup.

 

[Dragon Drop]

I noticed that the items do appear with the CLSID's if I look at them in the zipped folder. So maybe the problem has to do with the un-zipping.

Somebody try this: Instead of creating a toolbar from my folder, make a new folder of your own somewhere. Then download my folder, but don't "unzip" or "extract." Instead, open the zipped folder, open the "TM" folder inside it, then "select all" and COPY the items from TM to your own new folder. Then make the toolbar from your folder instead of mine.

 

[Dragon Drop]

Well, after experimenting and comparing notes, it seems that the CLSID's sometimes show in the toolbar and sometimes don't -- depending on your Windows version, or on your settings, or whatever -- but either way, the toolbar at least works. I hope somebody will find it useful (though I do these things mainly for fun anyway).

But, although the "CLSID-Toolbar" idea may have been mine, Brink has to get part of the credit for writing this tutorial; I couldn't have done it without him.