Sorry to ask this, but I'm kinda confused by the big offer of applications and their functions.

What I want is a bar (on the left side of my screen) to place shortcuts to my fovotite programs in. I want it to be always on top, and to auto hide when I dont use this. I know I can do this by draggin a folder with the icons in it to the left side of my screen, but that bar you get that way doesnt look too good. I want it to look slick, it has to slide in smoothly.

Can anyone tell me what I need? Thanx in advance!