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

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  1. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T12:26:41+00:00

     

    Hi Ethan,

     

    This could be because the service responsible for this toolbar is not running at the Startup of the computer. I would like to know the name of the toolbar would you like to have on the Taskbar at the Startup of the computer. Also, let me know - How do you enable this toolbar every time you start the computer? Is it by double clicking on any .exe files on the computer?

     

    If yes, then you may try adding this .exe file of the toolbar into the startup folder on the computer and check if that activates the toolbar every time you start the computer. To try this, you may follow these steps:

     

    a)       Press “Windows Logo” + “R” keys on the keyboard.

    b)       Type “shell:startup” in the “Run” command window and press “Enter”. This will open the Startup folder on the computer.

    c)       Now, navigate to the location where you have the toolbar installed on the computer (C:/Program Files) using another Windows Explorer and then search for the .exe file which activates the toolbar on the computer.

    d)       Copy this .exe file from its folder to the Startup folder and then restart the computer after closing all the windows on the computer.

    e)       Now, check if the toolbar appears automatically on the Taskbar at the Startup.

     

    Hope this is helpful.

    Sorry Ethan, is a Windows system toolbar.

    There is no external .exe or service required at Startup (as far as I know), so this doesn´t seems a solution to this problem.

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-01-30T11:12:14+00:00

    Same problem in Windows 7 Pro. None of the solutions provided solved the problem.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-26T22:08:14+00:00

    I can confirm that this did NOT work for me.

    again, my problem is intermittent, so hard to pin down.  But I did this and then a week later they disappeared.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-14T23:20:59+00:00

    If that works,  I would also do the same after any changes you make to the toolbar.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-14T23:03:21+00:00

    I believe I have found the solution.  It seems too easy to be true but It has worked for me through three cold reboots so far.  

    Set your toolbars up as you like

    Right click on the taskbar and click properties

    Click on the Toolbars tab.

    Uncheck and then recheck the toolbars you use

    Click Apply

    Click Okay

    Reboot and hopefully your toolbars will still be there.

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