If you remember the old office97 toolbar (that can also be installed with o2k, iirc), you could make different toolbars that fit each category and switch between them by hitting a button on the bar.
You can also look into gui replacements like geoshell (probably great for your particular goals since you can run geo WITH your current windows shell instead of as a full replacement), litestep, or whatever the current trendy one is
~Ladi