FastMenu looks nice, too., thanks! And the language restriction shouldn't be a problem for me. ;)

Not yet; I'm going to check it out, but I'd prefer an offline solution.

I used a similar approach with the desktop folder, but your toolbar solution avoids the issues with folder settings under Vista and is much more practical, thanks. I actually didn't even know you could create such toolbars on the taskbar, heh.

I'm stil undecided which method to use but there a quite a few good suggestions here. Thanks to everyone who replied! :)

Ooohh, a tiling window manager. No doubt a gamer with taste.

I think I'll go with the toolbar on the windows taskbar, linking it to the "Games" folder I already created for the desktop. Not the prettiest solution but easy and effective.

I really would have liked uing RocketDock, but it seems you can only have so much icons before you run out of space and I fear that might happen soon if I put all the games in there ... :(

If you want something really nifty, you could use an emulator frontend, that way you could have pictures of all your games with whatever else you want

My system is a little messy, but it could be streamlined if you mess with it, I suppose

I install games on a secondary drive - D:
in a subfolder - D:\Games

Now, for the purposes of starting games without having to open an explorer window, navigating to and then clicking the exe, I :-

Have another folder - D:\Temp
within which I have 2 more subfolders - D:\Temp\Games (and D:\Temp\Utils)

In these folders (or Directories - Fucking WINDOZE! They're DIRECTORIES YOU PRICKS!!)
I drop all the created-at-installation shortcuts.

On my Taskbar/Navbar at the bottom of the desktop,

Right Click > Toolbars > New Toolbar....and point the explorer window at the games shortcuts folder, and lo, on your navbar you have a handy quicklink to all your game shortcuts.

You can then, in future, just cut-n-paste new shortcuts into this, rather than "exploring" to the proper folder.

See attachment.
It's available after wipes and complete reinstalls of any OS once set up, you just start from the "create new toolbar" point of the destru...instructions :P

Enjoy.

Yeah, that's what wmliv suggested, too, and what I'm currently leaning towards, even though I'd prefer something with shiny little pictures ... ;)

Such as ...?

My weird 2 cents:

My Game Explorer is Excel (!!). I have this huuuuuuuuuge Excel sheet with tons of PC game titles... It includes Release Dates, Genres, some Review Scores, if I own them, if they are installed, if I finished them (and when), if they are available on GOG or Steam... It is "my personal metacritic, all in one file". So, when I am looking for the next thing to play, I filter all games I haven´t finished (about 80 of them right now), by year, genre or whatever I am in the mood for, and pick one.

(Big defect for you: no shiny little pictures) :)

Since it contains stuff I do NOT own, the spreadsheet works as a buyer´s guide as well. For example, I can filter everything GOG offers, sort it by Average Critic Score, then use my personal preference to pick something to buy. Lovely!

Now, for the disk organization part: I used to keep all my games in a second partition, carefully organized in different folders... I even had directories for series -- so there would be D:\Divinity\Div1, D:\Divinity\Div2, etc. With my new Windows 7 machine I finally said "SCREW ALL THAT DOS-THINKING!"... ;) :)

So now I let Windows put the games wherever it wants (unless it is REALLY absurd) -- and I Windows Search if I must (for mods and tweaks). Google Mail trained me to think like this -- STOP SORTING FOLDERS, JUST SEARCH THE DARN THING! It has been working very well, in part because I usually play only a few games at a time, which are pinned to the Start Menu until I am done with them... I spend less time fiddling with Windows, more time playing.

Cheers!

P.S.: Now, I will go back to finish Titan Quest now (up next, the first Fable). I am calling from 2006, what does 2011 look like? :) :)