I have a late 70's Rockwell contractor saw that has a rather inconvenient blade guard that is a nuisance to use and a pain to install and remove. This has led to too many close calls (though I do still have all my fingers, but have suffered some blood loss of the years). After one close call that could have been disastrous, I started looking at aftermarket fences and settled on the Shark bladeguard. Nicely made (though not cheap). Better operation than the OEM guard, and much easier to install/remove, reducing temptation to leave it off all the time.
The set comes with two different height supports for the guard, plus a splitter when the guard is not in use.
The system is available in different thicknesses for normal or thin-kerf blades.
A nice feature you can copy even if you don't buy the guard is the use of a wrenchless system to make installation/removal easier. Just replace the bolt on your current guard holder with something like this (or just a wing-bolt or threaded knob).