Ultimate Tutorial to Tweak and Customize “Command Bar” in Windows 7 Explorer
“Command Bar” which is also called “Folder Band” or “Toolbar” was first introduced in Windows Vista. Command Bar was developed to replace the standard toolbar present in Windows Explorer. All previous Windows versions such as Windows XP, 2000, 98, etc came with normal toolbar in Windows Explorer which provided easy access to common buttons such as cut, copy, paste, delete, etc.
When Microsoft introduced Command Bar in Windows Vista Explorer, it was highly criticized by users because Microsoft didn’t provide any setting or option to customize the Command Bar. Users were not able to add or remove buttons from Command Bar. Also users were not allowed to hide Command Bar in Windows Explorer. On the other hand, classic toolbar in previous Windows versions was highly customizable.
The same Command Bar was also used in Windows 7 Explorer and its still not very customizable in Windows 7.
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But as usual we have posted many tutorials in past to tweak and customize Command Bar in Windows 7 Explorer. Some of these tutorials also work in Windows Vista. Today for your convenience, we are going to put together all these tutorials in a single place so that you can find them easily and quickly. It’ll also help you in reading a tutorial if you missed it in past.
After following this ultimate tutorial, you’ll be able to:
- Add new buttons such as cut, copy, paste, etc to Command Bar
- Rename, remove or hide Command Bar buttons
- Move Command Bar at bottom in Windows Explorer
- Auto-hide or disable Command Bar in Windows Explorer
- Customize “Organize” and “Layout” menus in Command Bar
- Remove “Preview Pane” button from Command Bar
- Remove “Get Help” button from Command Bar
- Remove “Burn” button from Command Bar
So without wasting time, lets start the ultimate tutorial to tweak and customize Command Bar in Windows Explorer:
Table of Contents
- 1. Add New Buttons such as Cut, Copy, Paste to Command Bar
- 2. Rename, Remove or Hide Command Bar Buttons
- 3. Move Command Bar at Bottom in Windows Explorer
- 4. Auto-Hide or Disable Command Bar in Windows Explorer
- 5. Customize “Organize” and “Layout” Menus in Command Bar
- 6. Remove “Preview Pane” Button from Command Bar
- 7. Remove “Get Help” Button from Command Bar
- 8. Remove “Burn” Button from Command Bar
After following this tutorial, you’ll be able to add many useful buttons such as Cut, Copy, Paste, Delete, Rename, Select all, Undo, Redo, Properties, Menu bar, Details pane, Preview pane, Navigation pane and Close buttons in Windows Explorer’s Command Bar in Windows 7.
Windows 8 Explorer comes with new Ribbon UI and it provides one click access to turn on/off Navigation Pane, Preview Pane and Details Pane. You can enjoy a similar feature in Windows 7 Explorer by adding similar buttons in Command Bar using following tutorial:
How to Customize Command Bar in Windows 7 Explorer? Add Cut, Copy, Paste, etc Buttons
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After following this tutorial, you’ll be able to customize existing default buttons present in Command Bar in Windows 7 Explorer. This tutorial will help you in removing unwanted buttons and renaming desired button text in Command Bar.
How to Rename, Remove or Hide Command Bar Buttons in Windows 7 Explorer?
3. Move Command Bar at Bottom in Windows Explorer
By default, Command Bar is shown at top in Windows Explorer. If you want to move it to bottom, this tutorial will definitely help you. The same method should also work in Windows Vista but we have not checked it in Windows Vista.
How to Move / Show Command Bar at Bottom in Windows 7 Explorer?
4. Auto-Hide or Disable Command Bar in Windows Explorer
Lots of people want to hide the Command Bar in Windows Explorer so that they can get more free space in the Explorer window. Following tutorial will tell you how to set the Command Bar auto-hidden in Explorer window. In this way, it’ll only appear when you hover your mouse cursor over it:
How to Auto-Hide or Disable Command Bar in Windows Vista and 7 Explorer?
The Command Bar in Windows Explorer contains a main menu item “Organize” which allows you to customize many things such as folder options, etc. It also contains another menu item “Layout” which allows you to turn Menu bar, Preview pane, Details pane and Navigation pane on or off.
Following tutorial will help you in customizing these menus. You can add new options, remove existing options and much more.
How to Customize “Organize” and “Layout” Menus in Command Bar in Windows 7 Explorer
This tutorial will help you in removing “Preview Pane” button from Command Bar in Windows Vista and Windows 7 Explorer. It’ll also restrict users from accessing Preview Pane in Windows Explorer.
How to Remove “Preview Pane” Button from Command Bar in Windows Explorer?
The “Get Help” button is shown at the extreme right corner of Command Bar. Many people never use the button so you can remove it using following tutorial:
How to Remove “Get Help” Button from Command Bar in Windows 7 Explorer?
Following tutorial will help you in removing “Burn” button from Command Bar in Windows Explorer:
How to Remove “Burn” Button from Windows Explorer Command Bar in Windows 7?
That’s all for now. We’ll keep updating this topic whenever a new trick is found to customize Command Bar. So keep checking this place regularly. If you have any query, feel free to ask it in your comment…
Awesome. Thank you so much for these tutorials. 🙂
You have some excellent articles VG which no other site has. Thanks for your hard work.
Hi Vishal I Am a Great Fan Of You.. Thank U Very Much For Posting Such Great Tricks ,, Direct Links To Apps Etc. I Was Wondering Is This Possible To Add “Go Up Button” On The Toolbar As It Was On XP..???????????
^^ Check following:
https://www.askvg.com/get-good-old-up-button-back-in-windows-vista-and-7-explorer/
@All
Thanks for your comments. I’m glad you like the tutorial. 🙂
I love your explanations. They are clear, precise and succinct! A lot of work. Who deserves a big thank you.
Got any tutorial to remove help button in Windows 8 explorer?
Use Can Use The Same Tutorial Which Is Provided.
Only Thing Is That If You Replace shell32.dll in windows 8 your computer might get bricked. due to security measures
HI! I hope someone with understanding of this gets chance to read and respond. Lots of peeps trying this (plenty of results, plenty of relative successes/failures), I’m still struggling, and this is like the homepage on the topic! great layout and levels of understanding and clear explanation shown here, well done!
Some q’s (anyway that has experiences they’d like to share, please! enlighten us!)
– there are a plethora of tools built to serve this specific task, including CustomExplorerToolbar (great UI to achieve batch results quickly) ExplorerToolbarEditor, and maybe tweakers like 7plus (check it out, looks like an AHK script on steroids with a UI), UWT and XdN Tweaker….
Do you need to run as admin to achieve the desired/expected results?
By running as admin, does the app have the auth. to take reg key ownership?
Trying to understand why I’m having partial successes..
I just wanna get rid of
Burn
Print
Email
New Folder
Sharing
and add nav pane, to every folder (for now!)
The guide linked to on removing tells you to remove commands from the shell. I found this removes the ABILITY to perform the operation, not just removing the ‘command bar shortcut’
keen to learn of experiences of others.
Windows 7 Ultimate 64-bit (native virtual disk)
If I get any traction on this I’ll share more, otherwise have to assume no-one can hear my hollers in cyberspace!
Sir,
Is it possible to have a Shortcut to a batch file (saved in D drive) in Standard Command bar?
^^ I don’t think its possible.