If you are using Windows 7 or later, you might be wondering where are the good ol' "Show Desktop" shortcut and "Quick Launch" toolbar in Taskbar?
Actually "Show Desktop" shortcut has been moved to extreme end of Windows 7 Taskbar in form of a small rectangle and Microsoft has disabled "Quick Launch" toolbar intentionally because the same functionality is provided using the new PIN feature in Windows 7.
But you can enable "Quick Launch" toolbar back in Windows 7 and it'll also contain the good old "Show Desktop" shortcut using following simple steps:
1. Right-click on Taskbar and select "Toolbars -> New toolbar...".
2. It'll open Browse dialog box. Now paste following string in the "Folder:" text box:
%appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Press Enter and click on "Select folder" button.
3. It'll immediately add Quick Launch toolbar to Taskbar.
4. Now right-click on Taskbar and uncheck "Lock the taskbar" option.
5. You'll see a placeholder to drag the Quick Launch toolbar.
6. Right-click on the toolbar placeholder and uncheck "Show Title" and "Show Text" options.
7. If you want to increase the icon size, right-click on the toolbar placeholder and enable "View -> Large Icons" option.
8. Drag-n-drop this toolbar to the left of Taskbar.
9. That's it. Now you have the good ol' "Quick Launch" toolbar and "Show Desktop" shortcut back in Windows 7 Taskbar.
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Posted in: Windows 7
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Oldsailor65
What a bunch of crap that MS did by doing away with the 'SHOW DESKTOP" icon. I don't know why in the hell they do things like this.
Leigh
Thank you very much for your clear and correct instructions. It's so unusual for every step in an instruction actually to agree with the the Windows 7 operating system on a computer, and for the instructed "tweaks" actually to produce the desired result. Well done!
Ashleyy
Yay! instructions were clear and worked perfectly!!! not having these icons was a huge pain...thanks so much!
Evaldas
Great instructions,that helped me a lot. Thanks!
Frank Rizzo
Thanks. M$ is so stupid. I guess they know whats best for us , Yeah right.
Greg
Thanks so much, this will make life a little bit simpler. Cheers
carol ring
I completely agree....not only are the instructions/steps to take clear & easy to understand, the
visuals are great, and everything worked. What a concept, thank you so much!
Cassie
THANK YOU!!!
Edwardo Suarez
Absolutely brilliant article - this man is my hero. A simple but much used tool, foolishly taken away by MS can now be added back.
Daniel
...I'm just hoping that once that Ballmer is gone, MS will start improving their stuff instead of continuously breaking it. How ID**T can this man be: they had about all the personal and business OS market at their feet, people were feeling comfortable with windows xp (and office 2003, another example) and preferred it to any other system. But no, they had to change everything, so now many people started looking for alternatives. Why? They had too many customers? Wtf???
Stamimail
I'm using Quick Launch buttons to minimize gaps.
Advantages:
1. Saves space (There are very small icons).
2. It's there when paging (multipage taskbar).
The Disadvantage is that it is not support Jump Lists.
So if we can get Jump Lists by RightClick (or Alt + RightClick) on Quick Launch button, It would be the best from my point of view.
Another solution to achieve the 2 advantages would be welcome...
Jeff MacArthur
Wonderful fix, this has been bugging me for 2 years...I love this ..thanks so much
Alan
Thanks very much for clear instructions.
I was using Vista and decided to upgrade to Win 7, and was really turned off on how MS broke such a simple feature. Without your help, it would still be broke.
Now it's fixed.
Good job, well done.
David
Thank you. It's hard to make an old dog adapt, and this returns a feature I use(d) constantly.
Ajay
crystal clear instructions......thanks a lot ......
Marie
Thank you soooo much for posting this. Instructions were so easy and clear! :)
calvin
I have never understood why the NS geeks keep making changes just for the sake of change. Moving the show desktop icon to the other side after a decade on the left is plain silly or bone stupid, take your pick. Windows 7 is a better operating system, than XP, which was pretty good, so why go out of the way to annoy your customers? Still not as bad as The Ribbon in Office 2010. What a fiasco.
igi
i cannot drag and drop that quick launch toolbar
Paul
This is at least the 2nd time I've used this. Thanks!
S
Dude you are a F ING GENIUS.
THANK YOU!
P
Awesome! Thank you so much!
L
Great instructions,that helped me a lot. Thanks!!
Perwira
Thank you very much for the guide. The instructions are easy to follow. I am happy with my Show Desktop shortcut.
Tosha
good job with the instructions. thank you for the post
Kevin
Very helpful, but now I have a second, unwanted tool bar on the right side of the screen displaying icons for active windows. how delete?
thanks!
VG
^^ Please provide a screenshot to better understand your problem.
SAM
IS THIS THE SAME AS CLICKING 'THE RIGHT-SIDE OF THE DATE AND TIME' ???
Paul N
Thanks. :) This is at least the 3rd time I've used this -- over maybe 3 years or so.
Alan
The other instructions on the Web -- including Microsoft's -- didn't work. This one did work. Thank you very much.
PS They left out your #4 and #5.
xuartema
This is awesome, thanks a lot !, I was looking for it for quite a while. Now my 7 is like I always wanted. The QuickLaunch and ShowDesktop are unquestionable and nonnegotiable options.
Al
Actually, we had already two options available to us in order to show the desktop:
1. Right-click on the Taskbar and there you find "Show the destop".
2. Then you could have the Desktop toolbar installed by right-clicking on the Taskbar, then Toobars, then Desktop. This give a menu with all your desktop icons. Why not after all ?
But with the ShowDesktop button and QuickLaunch toolbar, it's even handier.
Thanks for the clear instructions provided here.