Now it is the age of Windows 10. Microsoft released the technical preview version this operating system with advanced feature, high security system and transparent, user friendly interface. But those who still love to use the Windows XP interface can get back their favourite quick launch bar in Windows 7 and Windows 10.
You can doc any item to the Taskbar combining the features of both quick lunch bar and Taskbar.
Restoring the Quick Launch Bar to Windows 7 Taskbar
To restore the quick launch bar in windows 7 you’ll have to right-click on the open area of the Taskbar and choose Toolbars > New toolbar. Also unlock the taskbar from the menu as well.
The next step involves in putting the following code
%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launchat the “Folder” area then clicking on “Select folder“.
Immediately after that you will find the quick launch bar has been created at your taskbar.
But the traditional residence of the quick launch bar is the most left part of the task bar. You can shift the quick launch bar to the left by dragging the dotted bar. Check that if the Taskbar is unlocked, by right-clicking on the task bar. Otherwise, you would not see the dotted bar.
Now you would like to show the icons only in the quick launch bar. For this, right click on the dotted bar at the left of your quick launch bar and un-check both of the “Show text” and “Show title”.
The quick launch bar should show only the shortcut icons. You can adjust the width of the bar by dragging the dotted bars.
Let me know if you like the quick launch bar in your Windows 7 or not.
Restore Quick Launch Bar in Windows 10
Although, the process is completely same as Windows 10, yet, I would like to show the same trick with Windows 10 user interface. This will help you to understand all the things better.
At first, right click on empty place of your your Taskbar, expand “Toolbars” menu and select “New toolbar”.
Then, enter the following path in the “Folder” box. and click on “Select Folder” button.
%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
That’s it! Now, you can find an additional Quick Launch Bar in your Taskbar, which looks as follows.
Final Word
This is quick helpful for them, who do not want to navigate through This PC on Windows 10 and Computer on Windows 7 to open frequently used applications. On the other hand, the tutorial doesn’t require any expert knowledge as well.
I’m still getting used to windows 7. Just had it a couple of weeks and as I’m definitely not a techie I find this post very helpful. Thanks.
Patricia Perth Australia
Good tip. I actually use the quick launch bar a lot especially for opening programs like windows mail.
One more nice post Tanmay, I would try messing in my free time. 🙂
Hey Tanmay, you are coming up really good tutorials. Thanks for these tuts bro.
Very nice tip.
TechieNow
Awesome!
Just the good old startmenu looks and I’ll be happy as a little puppy
now i am used window7 ultimat 64bit .how can i use 32bit software?
I tried the above and got the path does not exist. Any ideas? Just July 31 updated to windows 10. I don’t get it.
tried using the above protocol and received a message path can not be found or doesn’t exit. any additional thoughts?
Really appreciated tutorial…Thank you.
Brilliant!
Thank you Tanmay, you just saved me hours of work = all done in 30 seconds for Windows 10. I have no idea why Microsoft persist in disabling the best features of their OS, trying to prevent their paying clients from using the applications.
Thanks again, most helpful.
You titled this post “blah, blah, blah for windows 7 AND windows 10” Where’s 10??? And what are you supposed to do with that phoney-baloney code you put out? You say, “blah, blah, blah in putting the following code” Where are we to ‘in putting’ this code. Obviously, you gota little excited and forgot that people afre looking for a quick-launch for w10 as well. Don’t know why you spend so much time on past versions when most of the people coming top your site are asking for assistance on the new software they are trying to work with. VERY DISAPPOINTING and a huge waste of time. In the future, please be more accurate with your labeling
Smash:
The Windows 10 instructions are there now (April 2017). Maybe the author added the section after your comment. Maybe you scrolled past the section and missed it.
However, even now in 2017, a huge portion of users still use Windows 7 and even XP. Businesses don’t like to spend money on new tools when the old tools work just fine, and not everybody has your budget for updating hardware every few years. So the instructions which include both version are quite valuable.
I did it this way the last years since Windows 7 every single time I had to reinstall.
Now I did a fresh install of Windows 10 (before it was an upgrade from Windows 8.1) and I got a problem:
Every time I restart the order of the icons in the quick launch bar is not saved properly but defaulting to “some state” it had yesterday plus new added icons right of that.
How to fix that?
Regards,
Gordon
This week, a Windows 10 Update made my Quick Launch toolbar disappear. Other search results led me to running sfc and DISM. That was a waste of time. I am thankful for finding this page. The simple instructions were exactly what I needed. Thank you for helping me, Tanmay.
A bit of value could be added to the page by including instructions about how to adjust the icon sizes and the labels. When the toolbar was restored on my desktop, the icons had changed from small to large, text labels had appeared with the icons, and a label had appeared at the top. (I fixed it easily, but some users might need help.)