How to Lock the Taskbar Permanently in Windows 7

More often than never, some frustrating circumstances may arise. You spend a lot of your precious moments to add some of your most favorite programs to the taskbar. Besides, you have pinned some of your personal or important applications to the taskbar and locked it.
But what if your friend or relative who happens to use your machine completely changes all your saved settings in the taskbar? You are now in a fix. Locking the taskbar or unlocking it is just a click away! We at TechTipsApp.Com, show you how to lock the taskbar permanently in Windows 7 so that no one can alter it.
Below are some specific guidelines to carry out this process to make you more efficient. Check this out.

Locking and Unlocking Taskbar in Windows 7

Right-click on the taskbar and click on ‘Lock the taskbar’ at the context menu. This will mark that option in the context menu with a tick mark. This indicates that the taskbar is locked.

If you want to unlock the taskbar, just right-click again on the taskbar and unmark the ‘Lock the taskbar’ option from the context menu.

So, any one can lock or unlock the taskbar in your computer. But if you want to disable the lock/unlock feature permanently in your Windows computer, follow this registry tweak.
Tip: Reset Windows 7 Password Without Disk.

Lock the Taskbar Permanently Using Windows Registry

Perform all the tasks to be done to organize the taskbar and then move your cursor on anywhere at the taskbar. Right-click and click ‘Lock the Taskbar’ from the context menu.

Now, press Win key + R key combination from the keyboard and type “regedit” (without quotes) in the ‘Run’ command box.

This is the most important step of them all. Carefully navigate to the following path at the registry editor window.
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer

Once you are done with this, right-click anywhere in the right pane of registry editor. Click on ‘New’ and select New >DWORD Value. Always remember to rename the key as ‘LockTaskbar’.

Move your cursor to this recently created key, double-click on it, erase the previous value “0” (zero) and put in a new value “1”, as displayed into the figure below.

Close the registry editor window.
Now, your taskbar lock feature has been permanently disabled from being affected of any changes. Even, right-clicking on the taskbar shows “Lock the Taskbar” option is inactive. You are now on the track of keeping all your personal applications pinned to the taskbar without letting anyone even know about it.

However, this feature enables you to lock the taskbar for the currently logged in user. If the user accesses any other account to log into your machine, he/she is still capable of making alterations in your taskbar.
Important : If you wish to make some alterations in your taskbar again, just rechange the value in the registry editor from “0” to “1”.
You might also like to read how to lock down PC With USB flash drive.