Although most of the features and functions included in Windows 7 are at least some sort of improvement of previous Windows versions, one of the areas where this is sadly not the case is the Windows Explorer toolbar. Sure, you get a small text based toolbar with a few different functions, which is not so bad in itself, but it’s not what you would call particularly useful most of the time. For instance, ‘Include in Library’, ‘Share with’ and ‘Burn’ are not really buttons many people will use often or perhaps even at all. That’s why a lot of experienced users really miss the toolbar that is available in XP because it is useful AND can be customized to a reasonable degree, something which is sadly completely lacking in Windows 7.
It’s a bit of an oddity then, that simple but functional buttons like Cut, Copy, Paste, Undo, Delete etc. are nowhere to be found in Windows 7 by default, the commands you are likely to use the most often. There are a few tools around to give you back some sort of toolbar, but for the most part they don’t look quite right to me. The great Start menu and Explorer enhancer utility Classic Shell can give you a toolbar, but I think it looks a bit odd and out of place. This is actually one of the very few things I quite like about the upcoming Windows 8 with the inclusion of the Explorer Ribbon toolbar.
One of the freeware utilities over at Nirsoft can help you at least get some of these missing buttons back giving the default toolbar a bit more functionality. CustomExplorerToolbar is a small and portable program that can add or remove buttons for when a file or folder is selected or when nothing is selected, because there is a difference. You don’t really need things like cut and paste buttons when there is nothing selected in the window to cut or paste, so they can be left out of that toolbar. The program does require administrator privileges so make sure you right click and ‘Run as Administrator’ if needed.
The one and only window has all the options needed to add and remove the buttons. The ‘Action’ dropdown simply selects whether you want to add the ticked options to the toolbar or remove them. ‘Toolbar Mode’ is for the two different types of toolbar you can configure. If you click on at least one item in the Explorer window, one type of toolbar will be displayed. If nothing is selected in the window, you will get a second different toolbar. Both can be configured separately. The ‘Folder Types’ option means you can also configure for just standard folders or library folders like Pictures or Music. Useful if you want something like ‘Slideshow’ in Pictures or ‘Send email’ in Documents and not ‘Cut’ and ‘Paste’.
To add some buttons, select the ‘Add…’ action, tick what’s required in the ‘Button List’, and select which folder types you want to affect. Then click ‘Do IT!’. Open an Explorer window to see the result. If you have a problem, make sure all Explorer windows are closed.
To remove the buttons, select the ‘Remove…’ action, tick only what you want to remove, and ‘Do It!’. A remove all or reset option would have been a handy option in the program. Do be aware that the default buttons provided by Windows cannot be removed, only what you add through CustomExplorerToolbar itself. It is certainly much easier using this program to get extra buttons than ploughing through the registry to do it yourself.
Compatible with Windows 7 32bit and 64bit