True Launch Bar v7.0 is released (October 15, 2014).

Using True Launch Bar in portable mode

Since version 6.6.5 beta you can use True Launch Bar without installation (portable mode):

• Download 32-bit portable package
• Download 64-bit portable package

Download the 32-bit or 64-bit (the same as your Windows version) package, unzip it into any folder and run tlbhost.exe. With the portable mode you can use True Launch Bar in standalone version only. It is impossible to open portable True Launch Bar on the taskbar.

The packages does not include the plugins. Run tlbupd.exe to install/update the plugins you need.

Redesigned "Customize Menu"

We've totaly redesigned the "customize menu" to make it more flexible. The "Customize sub-menus" context menu item is removed. Now you can use the single "Customize menu" to set options for all menus in any level. Also you can add the options for torn off and docked menus. If you right-click the toolbar and select "Customize menu", you'll customize all menus on the toolbar. This is something like the default menu settings. Also you can right-click inside any menu and customize its submenus only.

On load, all menus try to find the options for its level first. If there are no options for this menu level in any parent menu, menu uses the options from parent menu (or default if this is the first level menu).

Two additional options in "Customize menu" dialog box:

• Overwrite sub-menu options - turn on this option if you want to reset the all sub-menus to the default state defined in "Customize Menu" of parents.
• Remove the menu levels in sub-menus - this option removes any levels options in submenus - all submenu will use the default options defined in current (or parent)  "Customize Menu".

Small tip: how to reset all menus to the default settings. Right-click the toolbar, select "Customize menu", delete all sub-menu levels, turn on the "Overwrite sub-menu options" and "Remove the menu levels in sub-menus" and press OK.

Menu Animation: Speed or Duration

Using the duration as the measure of menu animation is good. But you can notice the big difference in the animation speed for small and large menus. Now you can select the speed as animation measure to make the animation the same for small and large menus.

Note: you cann't to select the speed measure for the Blend animation.

Run on mouse hover for single button

Run on mouse hover is great feature. You can run applications without any mouse click. If you want to disable "run on mouse hover" for some buttons or if you want to enable this feature for one-two buttons only, right-click the button, select Appearance and turn off/on the "Run item on mouse hover" option.

Text with shadow

The text glow was released some years ago. And it is very useful for transparent menus and toolbars. But sometimes the text with shadow looks much better. You can turn on the text shadow in:

• For menu: TLB Settings->Menu->Colors->Show text shadow
• For toolbar: TLB Settings->Toolbar->Colors and fonts->Show text shadow

"More Icons" button size

The button "More Icons" - the small button with two arrows. TLB places items into this button-menu when there are no room on the toolbar. The size of this button was hardcoded into True Launch Bar since the beginning of time. Now you can change the size in TLB Settings->Toolbar->Sizes->"More Icons" button size.

Show Standalone True Launch Bar over the full screen applications

By default the Standalone True Launch Bar is hidden when the full screen application is active, so you can see the video or play games without TLB. But if you want to use True Launch Bar with full screen application (for example as a menu bar for full screen browser) just right-click the empty space of the toolbar and turn on the option Show over full screen apps. Note, this option also forces the Always On Top mode.

New life of the Related Links

The related links is cool feature of True Launch Bar. You can add some links to folders, websites or applications to any button. But the using of the related links was not very friendly. You have to right-click the item, find Related Links submenu and click the link you need. Now it is possible to show the related links in the popup tips, so just pont button wait for popup tip and click the link you want.

This is not the only boost of the related links. Now it is possible the run the verbs (the commands from item context menu). You can add the links to Manage for the My Computer shortcut or Empty Recyle Bin for Recyle Bin shortcut. Also now you can run applications with command line parameters using the related links.

Improved styles for popup tips

Some time ago the new tool tips was released. And it is possible to change the appearance of the tool tips with CSS file (tanks to litehtml engine). But CSS are Cascading Style Sheets. So it is possible to use some CSS files to change the appearance of some items of the tool tip text. New version of True Launch Bar supports using some CSS files. Also the preview is added. So one CSS can change the tool tips background, other the caption font or related links appearance.

The predefined CSS files can be found in the tips subfolder of the TLB installation folder.

Aero Glass support for Windows 8

Now you can use the Aero Glass for Windows 8 with True Launch Bar. To activate aero glass support, turn on the option Aero Glass for Windows 8 is installed in TLB Settings->Options->Skins.

Improved standalone toolbar docking

Do you like to move your Standalone True Launch Bar between displays or sides? Now True Launch Bar saves the position and size for every display side and restore them when you dock toolbar to the saved side again. Also now you can move toolbar to the other sides via context menu. Right-click the empty space of the toolbar, select Dock submenu and select the display and side.

Tags for docked menu with auto-hide

The new tags are working well with the Standalone TLB toolbars. Now it is time to add tags for the docked menu. You can set the tag option in the Customize menu dialog box. Also now the tags can open the toolbar or menu with the mouse hover - you don't need to click. Do you have too many docked menus? Now it is not a problem with option Full screen active zone for menu tags. When you turn on this option, all tags will appear when you move the mouse the the screen side, just select the tag you need.

Word Wrapping for all view modes

Some time ago, the word wrapping was added into True Launch Bar for the menu with default view mode. Now this feature works for all view modes. Also the word wrapping is working for toolbar button labels. You can limit the maximum text lines in TLB Settings->Options->General->Labels text rows.