How can I simplify the main tree? E.g., How do I remove "Drives & Devices", "Images", and "Services & Plugins"?
Of those 3, only one of them can be disabled: Images . Here's how:
Tools > Options > General > Features > Image Support (uncheck)
You can do the same thing with Video, Data, and anything else you don't need. But it won't remove very much from the tree. You can collapse the tree entirely with the Pane divider so it disappears from view. That makes it really simple! lol
But I suspect you probably don't want to do that.
Another thing that might help you:
I keep several tabs open:
* Player with Playing Now
* Albums
* Another View
* Maybe yet another view
This way I don't ever need to use the tree. I just switch tabs to the various things that I use all the time. Like Playing Now, or the Albums view (my two most common).
I also have Startup set to re-open all of my previous tabs so they are always there even after stopping and restarting MC. Maybe some of this can help you out.
Good luck to you,
Brian.