8start Launcher
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  Add Button
   
  Drag from Desktop - Add Shortcut
 
   
  Drag from Start Menu - Add Shortcut
 
   
  Drag from Windows Explorer- Add File/Folder Link
 
   
  Drag from Browser - Add Web Link
  Drag from icon in browser address bar (Tested in Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome)
 
   
  Move Button/Group to other Category
 

Button and Group can be moved easily within a Category by using Drag and Drop

To move Button/Group to other Category, Drag the Button/Group to the target category, then move mouse right, then move mouse up to the desire location, the only release the mouse button.

* 'Panel Type Category' Button/Group cannot move to 'Tree Type Category'

 
* Picture below show how to move Button to other Category
   
  Explaination
 
 

Categories
Categories are function like tabs.

Two type of categories
Panel Type Category
- These categories are used to contains groups and buttons.
* 8start Launcher creates a Panel Type Category named 'General' during installation
Tree Type Category - These categories contain tree notes/shortcuts/favorites.
* 8start Launcher create a 'Tree Type Category' automatically during insallation, and associate it with a Tree named 'Tree'
* In my example screenshot above, 'Portable Notes' and 'Server Notes' are 'Tree Type Category'
* A Tree Type Category cannot be the first category in 8start Launcher.
* A Tree Type Category is explained in detail in help page - Tree.

Groups (for Panel Type Category Only)
A group is a collection of buttons

Buttons (for Panel Type Category Only)
A button is an icon, it can be shortcut, folder link, portable file link or website link.

   
  Button Style - define the style of a button. (bold/border/with label/size..)

-

Right Click on a Button > Edit Button to launch Organize Button dialog

- Click the icon in template to quickly apply a style to a button or group of buttons. Customize the style by using the Button, Icon and Label options. Maximum button width is 10 and height can be half or full button size.
 
- Please note that in order to fully ultilize the 8start panel spacing, the button will be filled in 8start in row by row order, combination of different button sytle in a group is possible.
   
  Speedy Search - one click google search
  It's a simple page similar to the default Firefox homepage that allows you to search Google. 8start.com gets a share of all ad revenue generated by searches done through the page.

So, if you'd like to set it as your homepage, that would be cool, too :-)

Speedy Search with the following advantages.

- Accessible by One right click on 8start launcher logo.
- Use your preferred browser to search by defining it in 8start Launcher setting dialog box.
- The logo of search page is very small so the page is loaded very fast.
- The page is designed to be as simple as possible to make it load faster.
- Auto focus in the search box when the page launched. (faster than using toolbar to search as toolbar search does not auto focus)
   
  Drive Capacity Status
-

To add drives to be monitored in My Computer Group,  click 'Menu' then 'Setting'

-

Click the drive letter to highlight the fixed or removable drive which you want to be monitored. (Click again to unselect the drive)

-

To save system resources 8start Launcher will only refresh the available disk space when you click the group header 'My Computer'

 
  Show 8start Launcher
  * Windows 7 may hide the 8start icon
If so, you need to set behaviors of 8start icon to "Show icon and notification" (in Control Panel > All Control Panel Items > Notification Area Icons)
-

click the 8start Launcher icon at system tray

 
- use hotkey and / or  the middle mouse button (select 'Enable hotkey support' or 'Enable Mouse Support' in Menu > Setting)
* * If you have a 4 button mouse (or more buttons), you can assign a hotkey for the 8start Launcher, then assign the 4th mouse button to launch the hotkey (most of the 4 button mice come with a driver which can configure the 4th button as a hotkey). You will find it is very useful to show/hide 8start Launcher using the 4th mouse button.
   
  Hide 8start Launcher
-

click the Hide button in the 8start Launcher panel. Please note that after launching a program with 8start Launcher, the Launcher launcher panel may sit behind the new launched program.  it is not necessary to 'Hide' 8start Launcher.

- use hotkey or middle mouse ( To enable these features select 'Enable hotkey support' or 'Enable Mouse Support' in Menu / Setting dialog)
   
  Auto Hide 8start Launcher after button clicked
- From the 8start Launcher panel, select 'Menu'then 'Setting
- Select 'Hide yourself after application/file launched'
- If you do not enable 'auto hide' feature (I personally don't enable it), you can still hide 8start Launcher automatically by using a Middle Click on a button.  The program or files will be launched and 8start launcher will be hidden automatically.
   
  Close 8start Launcher after button clicked
- Press 'Shift' when you click the button in 8start Launcher and after the function is performed, 8start launcher will close.
   
  Change the width of 8start Launcher
- At 8start Launcher panel, click 'Menu' then 'Setting'
- Change the value in 'buttons per row'
- In some skins, setting the value below 4 may cause 'Menu' and 'Hide' buttons to be inaccessible. Set to smaller value (less than 4) only if you confirm that the skin can support it.
   
  Portable - Run in your flash drive
-

3 ways to install 8start Launcher in your flash drive.
1.) The easier way, download the following zip file, extract it to your flash drive. (MSCOMCTL.OCX and RICHTX32.OCX are needed for Vista or Windows 7, run InstallComponents.exe if the components not exists in Vista or Windows 7)
2.) Use 8start Launcher setup file (can be found in download page), select the path of your flash drive as destination path, uncheck desktop and start menu when installing, delete uninstall.exe in your flash drive. (No Windows registry will be created)
3.) If you have installed 8start Launcher on your hard drive, copy 8start.exe and skin folder and icons folder from your hardisk to your flash drive. (If you just want to run 8start Launcher in your flash drive, you can uninstall 8start Launcher from your hard drive after copying to your flash drive. 8start Launcher is designed to run well on either your hard drive or your flash drive.  We recommend that you have a copy of 8start Launcher in your hard drive to help to launch the applications installed on your hard drive such as Microsoft Word, Excel.

Click 8start.exe to run 8start Launcher in your flash drive

- When you create buttons in 8start Launcher for your flash drive, use link option with relative path. Windows shortcuts are not portable, please don't use them when define buttons in your flash drive.
- 8start Launcher is a portable freeware, you can found more portable freeware and information about portable freeware at www.portablefreeware.com
   
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