Is it possible to add new items to the Charms Bar?

Question

If you press Windows + C in Windows 8, you will get the new UI element called the Charms Bar. It contains some useful links for sharing and searching:

If you want to customize it, searching on internet will probably lead you to a third-party application like this or this. However, it seems that they will only allow you to set a new skin for the bar's buttons.

Is it actually possible to add a new button or remove any existing button from the Windows 8 Charms Bar?

Solution 1

The charms bar was designed with only these in mind. There is no official way to add icons to the charms bar.

Solution 2

Whilst it is not possible to do exactly what you desire with the Windows 8 Charms Bar, there is a degree of manipulation that can be achieved with it.

My WCP CharmBar Customizer is a free portable application that will help customize many aspects of the Windows 8 Charms Bar.

If at any time, you decide that you don’t like the changes anymore, you can restore default settings with only one click.

Download:

http://www.softpedia.com/get/Desktop-Enhancements/Other-Desktop-Enhancements/My-WCP-CharmBar-Customizer.shtml

Comments

[kiewic]

I would like to pin my favorite apps there :P

[Admin]

And with good reason. They're trying for consistency (for a change) across all editions of Windows 8.

[herhor67]

They have been looking after such consistency by making their recent products less and less customizable (ribbons, charm bar, start menu, etc). This is why people should use Linux.