You have probably been seeing some news about the release of the WinCustomize Toolbar for your internet browser.  So as usual when something new like this comes up for WinCustomize, I thought many of you would enjoy a quick tour of some of the features this toolbar offers.

I guess the most obviously place to start is getting this installed so you can use it.  You can download the toolbar from https://www.wincustomize.communitytoolbars.com/ and it's available free for Firefox or IE.  It's safe to use and does not contain any spyware or malware.

It's pretty customizable, but for this tour I'm going to show the toolbar as its default configuration.  Clicking the WinCustomize button arrow will give you a drop-down menu which gives you access to various commands including the toolbar options.  Clicking the WinCustomize button itself takes you straight to the WC homepage.

The next feature on the toolbar is the search box.  The default search is powered by Google, but selecting the drop-down arrow will give you options to search through WinCustomize, a dictionary, eBay, images, etc.  The next button is Software, which when clicked takes you to the websites of applications such as WindowBlinds, IconPackager, etc.

The button next to that is Galleries, and is one of my favorite features of the toolbar.  I often need to quickly access the WinCustomize galleries to get a link, and using the toolbar I can get there with less clicks.  When you click this button you get a list of the most popular galleries on WinCustomize like the wallpaper gallery, and when clicked it takes you directly to that gallery.

Next up is the news button where we can broadcast news or events direct to users of the WinCustomize Toolbar, and when you click the message you will be taken directly to the message page.

Now we get to the Community button where it gives links to other community sites such as Skinning.net and Winmatrix.com.  Next to that we have the RSS feed which shows the feeds from several popular tech sites. Then there is a weather feature which shows your local forecast, and can be expanded by clicking.

Getting down to the last couple of sections now, and the next being the radio station gadget.  This lets you listen to your favorite radio stations through the toolbar.  There are several default stations, and it allows you to search and add your own.  The last feature in the default toolbar is the e-mail checker.  This works with several popular e-mail providers such as Hotmail and Gmail and can notify you when you receive new e-mail, and can take you right to your web based e-mail account.  It's a very handy feature.

The WinCustomize Toolbar also supports gadgets, which you can find access to in the options menu.  There are many to choose from and you can customize the toolbar to fit your needs.  This covers the basic features and functions of the toolbar, but feel free to explore and let me know of any other features you find useful and interesting.

Download the toolbar now!