Toolbars I put on the Task Bar disappear with each restart

Anonymous
2013-10-30T18:34:15+00:00

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

Windows for home | Previous Windows versions | Performance and system failures

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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  1. Anonymous
    2014-02-05T16:30:08+00:00

    It is NOT simply "locking the taskbar"

    and it is NOT putting something in the startup.

     This really is a bizarre problem.  My toolbars will last through multiple reboots and sleeps and then all of sudden one day disappear again.  Sometimes the toolbars don't reset but the keyboard toolbar is added.   My theory is that it has to do with windows updates but I have not tested this yet.  

    I have my windows updates turned off and it still happens to me intermittently.

    For the record NOTHING suggested in this thread has worked for me yet.

    My only theory is that when I upgraded from 8 -> 8.1 it switched to an "MS account" instead of a local one.

    That's when this started.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-31T00:51:11+00:00

    It is NOT simply "locking the taskbar"

    and it is NOT putting something in the startup.

     This really is a bizarre problem.  My toolbars will last through multiple reboots and sleeps and then all of sudden one day disappear again.  Sometimes the toolbars don't reset but the keyboard toolbar is added.   My theory is that it has to do with windows updates but I have not tested this yet.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T23:15:25+00:00

    It might NOT have been for you.  But it WAS for me.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T18:29:46+00:00

    It is NOT simply "locking the taskbar"

    and it is NOT putting something in the startup.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T14:59:10+00:00

    After being troubled by this for ages, I simply locked the taskbar - and all now seems well

    (Right click taskbar > Lock the taskbar)

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