Windows Live Toolbar

For today's tip, I’m going to show you a cool new toolbar called Windows Live Toolbar. It’s a new toolbar made by Microsoft that is bursting with magnificent features. In this tip, I’ll tell you all about the features the Windows Live Toolbar has to offer and where you can download it.

First off, I’ll show you what it looks like. Make sure you take time and go through all of the available services it has.

Search

All search toolbars have a search engine. This one searches Windows Live Search, which is a new search engine by Microsoft. It has a clean, sleek interface. Windows Live toolbar takes searching to a whole new level. When you start to type a query in, it tells you relevant popular searches. If you have a favorite search engine that you’d like to use instead of Live Search, Live toolbar also lets you use whatever search engine you want.

Tabbed Browsing

Although Internet Explorer wasn’t one of the first to use tabbed browsing, it did add a new feature to contribute. It’s called “My Tabs.�?This allows you to save the open tabs and then open them in separate tabs with just one click. Another great feature is the ability to save all the open tabs into your favorites at the same time. This is an advantage if you need to pick up where you were before. For more information on tabbed browsing, go here.

Safety and Phishing Filter

You’ll be able to surf with a greater piece of mind after you hear this. Using the state-of-the-art Windows OneCare Live, Microsoft has shrunk it into a mini toolbar add on that they call the OneCare Live Advisor. It prevents you from going to fraudulent Web sites with its phishing filter. It blocks pop ups and alerts you if something suspicious is going on in the background. Best of all, it allows you to initiate a PC scan with just a click of a button.

Onfolio

Have you ever bookmarked a Web site only to find out that when you click on it, all you get is the infamous “This page cannot be found�?error? That won't ever happen again if you're using the built in program called Onfolio. You’ll be able to save Web sites to your computer. But that’s not all Onfolio can do. It also manages your favorites in a neat and clean interface. It uses special folders called collections to group your savings as well. And, with the click of a button, you can switch to your managing or reading RSS feeds.

Custom Buttons

You can completely customize the Windows Live Toolbar's useful add ins. Microsoft has an entire gallery of thousands of buttons. If that’s not enough, it even allows you to create your own buttons. Whatever you want, you can put it at your fingertips.

Here’s what mine looked like after I customized it:

I added a Gmail button, a movie notifier that tells me about new movies and show times and I also included a stock ticker. You can experiment and add whatever you please.

To download the Windows Live Toolbar, click here. With all of these magnificent features, you’ll feel guilty because you’re getting it for free!

Have fun!

~ Neil Patel