Start your favorite applications with one click

Microsoft Groupbar is a freeware application for windows xp that offers an enhanced window management capability.

Groupbar does not need to be installed, just download the file and start GroupBar.exe. The tool automatically appears as a sidebar on the left of your screen but can be placed in the other three corners as well. The sidebar displays all running applications, you are free to sort them anyway you like.

This does not seem to be a great enhancement until now, groubar has one functionality that makes it a pretty usefull program. You can group applications, for instance firefox, an email client and your instant messenger. Once grouped together they can all be started / minimised at once from the sidebar. Great if you have certain applications that you do use together.
Groupbar remembers window positions and size of the tools which happens to be another nice feature.
It is also possible to create snapshots of certain states. You can preview previous snapshots and restore your work state later. Snapshots are either temporary or permanent. Permanent snapshots can be created with the Create persistend snapshot function.

http://research.microsoft.com/vibe/videos/GROUPBARV0_1.MPG Filmpje.