If you are using Windows 7, 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.
This article was posted by VG in following section: Windows 7.
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Astitva
its good but of no use//.......
u can easily pin shotcuts to the taskbar then why this
Marc
Awesome... I have been looking everywhere to find how to do this. Thank you. I know people say "but you don't need this anymore" but I just didn't like how "pinning" things to the taskbar worked. You could end up having a shortcut in the middle of the taskbar right in the middle of a bunch of running apps. That's just weird :) This is perfect, thanks again.
person
I don't know why you would want to have the quick launch back... I guess that is just some people......
Sam_VDC
Why people want the old Quick Launch?
Because they want to organize and delete all their messy shortcuts off the desktop.
Toorop
Hi,
nice tip, but I have a strange problem. Anytime I shut down win7 and restart it, the newly created quick launch bar disappears, I have to add it again (New Toolbar ...) with every new win7 start.
Any solution?
Thx in advance!
Meg
Thank you! This is my major problem with 7. I hate the way it 'pins to taskbar'. There is way too much space between icons, and with the 10 icons I have in my quicklaunch, it takes up most of the task bar. This is way better!
dj_karol
Hi,
I've got the same problem like Toorop and I've tried what has been adviced and I can't find these entries in registry, but the problem still occures. Please help, anyone.
Toorop
Hi Karol,
my problem simply disappeared after some time. I just kept adding again and again the Quick Launchbar Folder in the new taskbar menu. After some restart / shut down it worked - one or two day if I remember correctly. So just add it again when you turn on your PC, and at some point the system will get bored, and the taskbar remains ;)
alxmse
Good job / trick! 10x a lot!!! why those of microsfot don't make easyer this option for all users?! :)
T
Awesome tip! I really appreciate having the icons stay in one place and stay on the taskbar!! :) Thank you!