Get the Quick Launch Bar back in Windows 7

I like Microsoft Windows 7 and I like the Windows 7 Taskbar interface. However, judging by the cacophony of voices in the Windows Blog there is still great a great deal of affection for the Windows XP Quick Launch Bar interface. In fact, you can almost guarantee that someone will call for a return of the Quick Launch Bar at least once in the discussion forum whenever the Windows 7 interface is the topic. Therefore, I offer this How do I explanation of how to get this feature back.

Now, don't get me wrong. I like the Quick Launch Bar and still use it on all of the Windows XP machines I interact with - my workstation where I am writing this blog post for example. But I also like the Taskbar of Windows 7 and find it performs the same function as the Quick Launch Bar - at least as far as my computing habits go. But a vocal minority feels differently, so here is how to get Quick Launch back.

Quick Launch Bar resurrected
The Windows 7 desktop of one of my test machines. Notice that there is a Taskbar, but not Quick Launch Bar.

Image created by Mark Kaelin for TechRepublic.

This gallery is also available as a TechRepublic blog post and download.