I have used a "dock" similair to this before called RocketDock. They are very easy to use and once it is installed you can drag icons on to it and they will stay there. You can customise them with different themes and you can put them at the top, bottom, left or right side of the screen.They are quicker and easier than the normal start bar as the link is there straight away instead of clicking other links to get to it.
Here is a link to download the RocketDock.