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
    2013-12-31T17:36:41+00:00

    I also am having this problem. All 7 of my Windows 7 PC's received new drives and fresh installs of Win 7 Pro. Every single time any of my users reboot the PC, the quick launch toolbar is gone completely. I created the toolbar by placing a folder on the root of C: and named it "Quick Launch User". I then right clicked on the taskbar, chose new toolbar and pointed it to this folder. Loads everything fine. But next time PC reboots, it disappears completely. Right click taskbar and select new toolbar and it automatically chooses the exact same folder location as before. I tried enabling and disabling the screensaver...no change. I tried saving the user's theme after quick launch install...no change. I tried the group policy change to enable the quick launch bar, applied the new group policy and rebooted... no change. Any ideas?

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  2. Anonymous
    2013-12-31T18:59:40+00:00

    I ended up editing the registry by adding a REG_DWORD called NoSaveSettings and setting it to zero in the following location:

    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > SOFTWARE > Microsoft >  Windows > CurrentVersion > Policies > Explorer

    This seemed to correct this issue. This is on a Windows 8.1 machine. I believe this fix works for Windows 7 although the registry location may be different.

    There is a lot more support out there for Windows 7 on this item than on Windows 8 or 8.1

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  3. Anonymous
    2014-01-02T02:59:14+00:00

    smackagrin, thank you so much for this registry key.  It worked perfectly for me.  I thought I was going nuts with this issue and this fix makes me love my win8.1 machine again!

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  4. Anonymous
    2014-01-02T08:00:50+00:00

    That sounds like a great solution, but I tried it, and my toolbars disappeared again. Let me step through this to make sure I follow what you mean.

    1. I set my toolbars the way I want them.
    2. I open up Registry Editor by getting to the Run window, typing "regedit" and pressing Enter.
    3. I navigate to the key you specify so that at the bottom of Registry Editor it says "Computer\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer"
    4. In the right pane, (where I see the values "(Default)", "ForceActiveDesktopOn", "NoActiveDesktop", and "NoActiveDesktopChanges") I right-click the empty space and choose New > DWORD (32-bit) Value
    5. I type "NoSaveSettings" to name the value that.

    6. I double-click the value and ensure that the Value data reads "0". The Base type is Hexadecimal.

    1. I close out registry Editor and restart.

    But after doing these things, my toolbars still disappear. Did I go about adding the value the wrong way or something?

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  5. Anonymous
    2014-01-02T11:42:18+00:00

    You know...it worked for me when restarting the computer. However when I did an actual shut down and reboot the changes to the tool bar did not hold.

    It is not limited to just the custom tools bars I add either but the standard default ones as well. So basically any changes I make are not sticking.

    Each time I shut down and reboot everything disappears and I need to start over again. Surely, some one out there must have a solution for this.

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