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
    2015-02-05T23:51:06+00:00

    Fixed my own problem.  Although I haven't researched further as to why, I was running a toolbar that was a .exe from HP called HP Support Assistant.  It puts itself immediately to the left of the tray.  My other "folder" toolbar(s) would be to the left and expandable into my double height taskbar.  Anyway, on a lark, I removed the HP Support Assistant as a toolbar (pinned it to the taskbar instead), and bingo ... all better.  I don't know if this same combination of .exe and folder toolbars is causing the rest of you issues but I'm good now.  Hope this helps someone.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-02-07T08:37:45+00:00

    I've spent 20 min reading the entire thread and tried several things but I'm still having an issue that may indeed be different... 1) I add a custom toolbar (folder with programs, etc. in it), 2) I change my taskbar to be 2 rows in height, 3) I drag my toolbar to the bottom row so my taskbar icons can occupy the top row, 4) I lock "all taskbars", 5) I reboot, 6) my toolbar appears but squashed over to the right near the tray and all of my sequence settings for that toolbar content are reset to alpha sorted.  I have done the save.bat and restore.bat but that doesn't fix this. It doesn't seem to matter if I'm using one, two, or three monitors or whether I have the taskbar extended fully to all or apply tasks to only the monitor they are running on.  Nuts.  Anyone else with this?

    Fixed my own problem.  Although I haven't researched further as to why, I was running a toolbar that was a .exe from HP called HP Support Assistant.  It puts itself immediately to the left of the tray.  My other "folder" toolbar(s) would be to the left and expandable into my double height taskbar.  Anyway, on a lark, I removed the HP Support Assistant as a toolbar (pinned it to the taskbar instead), and bingo ... all better.  I don't know if this same combination of .exe and folder toolbars is causing the rest of you issues but I'm good now.  Hope this helps someone.

    ShiffrinPhillip,

    The backup/restore .bats don't fix the issue, I said that in my post. It only saves some time.

    I don't have the HP Support Assistant; I only have shortcuts for Taskmanager, Lock, Restart, and Shutdown:

    I've had this same configuration for over a year and a half, same exact toolbars. Never had a problem with losing them until a month ago or something like that. My wife's laptop has the same shortcuts, set up exactly the same way, same o.s. as mine (Win 7 Ultimate x64), same theme, and hers stay put....

    It's really weird. I have no earthly idea what's causing it. Maybe some corrupt system-file. I hope your 'fix' actually works for you, and stays fixed, but I have a feeling that it's just a matter of time before it happens again. Keep us updated, O.K.?

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  3. Anonymous
    2015-02-20T02:30:53+00:00

    Update Feb.19, 2015

    Seems that, at least for me, getting rid of Kaspersky Internet Security 2015 did the trick. I uninstalled it several days ago, installed BitDefender Internet Security 2015, haven't had a single occurrence of disappearing toolbars since.  

    Perhaps some of you are using Kaspersky also? If not, I'd still recommend checking out an alternative antivirus, just to rule out that possibility. Maybe your a.v., as seems to be the case with my previous KIS install, is deleting the user configuration somehow...

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-02-20T17:38:04+00:00

    I'm not using Kaspersky.

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-02-21T02:55:46+00:00

    I'm not using Kaspersky.  

    "...If not, I'd still recommend checking out an alternative antivirus, just to rule out that possibility. Maybe your a.v., as seems to be the case with my previous KIS install, is deleting the user configuration somehow..."

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