Toolbars I put on the Task Bar disappear with each restart

Anonymous

I just recently installed Windows 8.1, and as soon as I finished the upgrade, and ever since, I have had this problem. Any custom toolbars I put on the Task Bar disappear whenever I restart. For quite some time now (since Win ME, I think), I have used custom toolbars for My Computer (now called This PC in 8.1) and my Favorites, or Links within my user profile (not to be confused with my Internet favorites). Having those has been extremely handy as it allows me to view and access any of my drives quickly, and open folders I frequently access with one click. I think it was starting in Vista that toolbars had to be located on the Task Bar rather than being on some other side of the screen (I put my custom toolbars on the left side, and appropriately called it my sidebar). Having those toolbars limited to the Task Bar was no real problem, I just had to get used to my Task Bar being larger.

My current computer has had Win 8 installed from the beginning (I installed it myself using a clean install, not an upgrade). When I upgraded to 8.1, I was able to add those toolbars to my Task Bar no problem (right-click Task Bar >Toolbars >New Toolbar... and I select the folder I want to use for the toolbar), but every time I restart or shut down/turn on my computer, the custom toolbars disappear, leaving only the regular Task Bar and the Language Bar (I customarily keep the Language Bar on to be able to switch between typing English and Japanese, so I'm quite glad that at least it doesn't disappear). If I enable any of the toolbars already on the list in the Toolbars menu, they also disappear with each restart (such as Address and Bing Desktop; not that I use them, I'm just saying this to make diagnosis easier).

Granted, this is not a seriously harmful issue, as I am always able to put the toolbars back on again after each restart, and I don't restart ALL the time. But it's a major annoyance and it hurts productivity. Is there some way I can fix this problem? Or is there some update I can apply to do so?

Ethan Hayes

Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.

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78 answers

Anonymous

2014-12-03T17:22:23+00:00

Why does Windows have this issue?

Does Windows 10 also have this issue?
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Anonymous

2014-10-20T16:58:16+00:00

To add to this discussion,

I am using Windows 7 Pro machine at work. This machine is not hooked up to the internet but is hooked into the company's intranet. My company is very strict on downloading of any material. Any USB drive attachment has been disabled. And, the machine has not had a windows update since Sept 13. We are not using Active Desktop completely. We do have to log on to be verified by a central server but our desktop does not follow us to alternate computers.

Within the last month, I have been having the problem with my toolbar (attached to the task bar) has been disappearing intermittently with a complete shutdown of my machine.

ITunes is not installed. No new program has been installed at all. The toolbar (called Favs) has worked perfectly for years until recently.
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Anonymous

2014-09-18T16:51:43+00:00

Thanks, TxRedCat, this worked for me almost completely. it restores my 6 toolbars and the settings (no text, large icons, width on taskbar), but it does not restore the order of the items - which means that the most important programs are not shown on my taskbar.

Does anyone know how to also save/restore the order of the items?

Thanks!

edit fyi: My toolbars rarely disappear. I'm positive that it happened as a result of allowing iTunes to update itself yesterday so I could backup my ipad before installing ios 8. It very well may have been itunes the last time, too, it was a long time ago.....
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Anonymous

2014-09-12T15:32:44+00:00

hi all

I went through all 49 replies so far for this issue

I am seeing the same

I use language bar a lot, do not want to disable that (did not tried this solution yet)

But I found the best solution is the one provided by "TxRedCat"

The one that lets you restore these toolbars when you want

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9612-taskbar-toolbars-back-up-restore-windows-8-a.html

I develop a lot so this is not new to me, in fact, I was looking for ways to modify the jump list and link above guided me to that, thanks a lot TxRedCat

What I did is that I took the three sections (Toolbars, Taskbar pinned apps, and jump list) into one batch file, modify it to let it backup and restore from my own location and that is it

So I have now two batch files

One for Backup all and one for restore all

The backup all need to run it only when I do changes

Restore all will run at every restart (put it in startup folder)

So I found this as the best solution here
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