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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.
I've had this problem on several different windows 7 & 8 & 8.1 computers for the past few years.
I keep looking for answers and apparently there are lots of bad ideas that simply don't work.
There a few basic flaws in Windows that seem to continue over the years and may never be solved!
I'm running Windows 7 Ultimate x64. Have been having the same issue for a while.
I have custom toolbars which point to shortcuts, each in a separate folder stashed in ProgramData, for Taskmanager, Lock, Restart, Shutdown.... (all of them saving me a couple of extra clicks for those functions)
Losing my custom toolbars at random, after reboots or shutdowns, is a pain in the rear. I've tried all of the different registry tricks designed to make them stay put...none of them have worked.
The only "solution" I've personally found is to backup my custom toolbars and restore them, using a couple of .bat files I've made. Then, whenever I log into my computer and find that my toolbars have disappeared, I just double-click my "Restore-Taskbar_Toolbars.bat" and they're instantly back.
I found the original backup/restore tutorial **Here**at Windows SevenForums, written by Shawn Brink.
My customized .bat files, however, unlike the ones you can download from SevenForums, create the " Taskbar-Toolbars-Backup" directory in your system's ProgramData folder instead of on your desktop....Thataway, you can just keep the .bat files in that same folder, backup and restore from it too, without needing to drag the folder to your desktop each time.
* Since ProgramData is a normally hidden folder, you'll need to un-hide it via the 'Folder Options' menu in your Control Panel. Under the 'View' tab, put a tick in the "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" option.
* No, it's not a "solution" to the disappearing toolbars bug, but it saves a bit of time & effort, especially if you have 3 or more toolbars and lots of shortcuts in them.
* Thanks to Shawn Brink @Windows SevenForums for the tutorial.
I renamed all my icons in numerical order. When it reorders, it goes in alphabetical order, so I added numbers in front of them in the order I like. So, I have 1 Word, 2 Excel, 3 Photoshop, 4 Premiere, etc. They come back in order every time.
Why does Windows have this issue?
Does Windows 10 also have this issue?
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.
