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
    2014-04-25T19:22:40+00:00

    Thanks! This really helped! I'm amazed by the fact that we need to resort to such "hacks" to workaround the problem.

    So my understanding of the problem is that some race condition of processes caused the toolbars to reset to default on startup, and the registry key that stores the custom toolbars settings is somehow overwritten by the default.

    My question is, if such an almost perfect workaround exist, how difficult would it be for Microsoft to release an update to fix it properly (and not break it again in future updates).

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  2. Anonymous
    2014-03-31T02:54:47+00:00

    Restarting Explorer does not restore my toolbar.

    In searching in the Internet I found the following workaround.

    In Windows 8 Forums I found the an article for backing up and restoring the toolbars.

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

    The batch files allow you to save and restore your Taskbar Toolbars.

    I modified the batch files to place the storage folder somewhere other than my Desktop.

    The using gpedit.msc I added the batch files to:

    Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).

    Now every time the computer is shutdown the Toolbars are saved and when it is restarted the Toolbars are restored.

    UPDATE 4/28/2014

    Using the Startup / Shutdown scripts has not worked out that great.  I now just make a manual backup when I make a change.

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-03-30T23:00:34+00:00

    I add the Quick Launch toolbar to all of my computers.  I recently purchased a Dell Venue 11 Pro tablet and began experiencing this same problem.  It is 32bit Windows 8.1 (non Pro).  I also have 4 other Windows 8.1 Pro PC's and 2 Windows 8.0 Pro laptops all 64bit that have never had this problem.  Next time it occurs I will try restarting Explorer.

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-03-25T12:53:20+00:00

    A race condition would explain my intermittent behavior.

    But alas, nothing in this thread has worked for me, and I have tried them all

    @Ethan Hayes: I can confirm that restarting my windows explorer did not fix the problem.

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-03-25T11:24:29+00:00

    Thanks, but I have Windows7 with SP1 installed with all updates and the problema continues.

    I suppose the problem was reintroduced in one of the latest updates and none of the solutions in this thread solves the problem

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