Quick Launch - Enable or Disable

How to Enable or Disable Quick Launch in Windows 7​

   Information

By default Quick Launch is disabled in Windows 7. This will show you how to enable or disable Quick Launch as a taskbar toolbar using small or large icons in Windows 7.

   Note

Quick Launch is a toolbar on the taskbar. Quick Launch is used to open a program quickly from a shortcut from within it separate from the pinned programs on the taskbar.

The Quick Launch folder is located at the hidden system folder location below to add shortcuts to.

C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

   Tip

Microsoft has made available a hotfix that will resolve a problem where the taskbar customizations are lost and reset to defaults when automatic logon is enabled in Windows 7 and Windows Server 2008 R2. More details are available at FIX: The Taskbar is reset to the default settings when you use the "Automatically Log On" feature in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2.



If you still have the issue of where the pinned Quick Launch used in this tutorial disappears on you after logging off and on or restarting the computer, then a workaround for this issue is to either:

• Save your current theme after adding Quick Launch.
• If you have a 32-bit Windows 7, then it has been reported that you may need to turn off UAC if Quick Launch is disappearing on you after every restart.
• Open the hidden Quick Launch folder in the NOTE box above, then right click in the folder and click on New and Shortcut to add a shortcut into Quick Launch instead.
• Create a new folder, copy the shortcuts in the Quick Launch folder above into the new folder, then pin the new folder to the taskbar instead just like the Quick Launch folder here.
• To use a Microsoft hotfix. It is intended to correct only the problem that is described in this article. Apply it only to systems that are experiencing this specific problem.
  • Information: FIX: The Taskbar is reset to the default settings when you use the "Automatically Log On" feature in Windows 7 and in Windows Server 2008 R2
  • Download link: Help and Support

EXAMPLE: Default Windows 7 Taskbar

EXAMPLE: Quick Launch Enabled on Right Side of Taskbar
NOTE: This is the new Quick Launch toolbar with text and title, small icons, or large icons.

EXAMPLE: Quick Launch Enabled on Left Side of Taskbar
NOTE: This is the new Quick Launch toolbar without text and title, and with small icons or large icons.

OPTION ONE

To Add Quick Launch to Taskbar

1. Right click on a empty space on the taskbar, then select (hover on) Taskbar and click on New Toolbar. (See screenshot below)

2. In the Folder line, type or copy the location below. (See screenshot below)
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

3. Click on the Select Folder button. (See screenshot above)

4. You now have a Quick Launch toolbar on the taskbar. (See screenshot below)
NOTE: Click on the arrow to see your Quick Launch shortcuts.

5. To Expand the Quick Launch Toolbar
A) Unlock the taskbar.

B) Left click and hold on the dotted separator line just to the left of Quick Launch, then drag it to the left or right to adjust to unhide all of the icons. Release the left click when done. (See screenshot below)

C) Lock the taskbar.
6. To Remove Quick Launch Toolbar Icon Text or Title
A) Unlock the taskbar.

B) Right click on the dotted separator line just to the left of Quick Launch, then uncheck the Show Text and Show Title by clicking on them. (See screenshot below step 5B)

C) Lock the taskbar.
7. To Have Small or Large Icons for Quick Launch Toolbar
A) Unlock the taskbar.

B) Right click on the dotted separator line just to the left of Quick Launch, then click on View and select to have Large Icons or Small Icons. (See screenshot below step 5B)

C) Lock the taskbar.
8. To Have Quick Launch Toolbar on Left Side of Taskbar
A) Unlock the taskbar.

B) Left click and hold on the dotted separator line just to the left of Quick Launch, then drag Quick Launch as far to the left on the taskbar as you are able to and release.

C) If you still have any pinned program icons to the left of Quick Launch, then left click and hold on the dotted separator line just to the left of the icons and hold, and drag it to the right past Quick Launch and release. (See screenshot below)

D) The Quick Launch toolbar is now on the far left side of the taskbar. (See screenshot below)

E) Left click and hold on the dotted separator line for the other icons and drag them left or right to make any adjustments to how you want them placed on the taskbar. (See screenshot above)

F) Lock the taskbar.

OPTION TWO

To Remove Quick Launch from Taskbar

1. Right click on a empty space on the taskbar and click on Toolbars and Quick Launch to uncheck and remove it from the taskbar. (See screenshot below)

That's it,
Shawn

Related Tutorials

---

• How to Add Quick Launch to the "Send to" Context Menu in Vista, Windows 7, and Windows 8
• How to Backup and Restore Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Reset and Clear All Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Pin or Unpin a Folder to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Pin or Unpin a Program to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Use Small or Large Icons on the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Enable or Disable Windows 7 Taskbar Button Grouping
• How to Lock or Unlock the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Move the Windows 7 Taskbar Location on the Desktop
• How to Show or Hide the Windows 7 Taskbar with Auto-hide
• How to Center the Taskbar Icons in Windows 7
• How to Create a Internet Website Shortcut in Windows 7
• How to Use Toolbars in Windows 7 and Vista
• How to Pin or Unpin a Drive to the Windows 7 Taskbar
• How to Add or Remove a Toolbar on the Taskbar in Vista and Windows 7
• How to Enable or Disable Adding and Removing Taskbar Toolbars in Vista and Windows 7

 

[chrysalis]

it isnt dissapearing on reboots, but I agree fully. If it did do that I would still be using windows XP now, yes QL means that much to me it would be a showstopper to me upgrading.

I know a netadmin who works for a company that uses 6000 machines and they chose not to upgrade to windows 7 on the basis of the taskbar changes. They also chose not to upgrade to office 2007 because of ribbon. They actually more likely to go to vista than windows 7 as the gui changes are less significant.

 

[Kari]

Weird issue with Quick Launch toolbar, maybe some of you guys can help me?

I use Snipping Tool quite a lot and have it always placed in my Quick Launch toolbar. However, every time I reboot Snipping Tool has disappeared from Quick Launch. I have to manually put it back after every reboot.

When I put it back, I've tried every possible left and right click dragging option (move, copy, create a shortcut). No difference; next time I reboot, Snipping Tool is not there.

This only happens with Snipping Tool. All other shortcuts stay in Quick Launch, Snipping Tool never. I do not reboot so often, maybe two or three times a month (normally just hibernating) so this is not so big issue, more an annoyance. But I still would like to know why.

Kari

 

[Brink]

Hello Kari,

That is strange. Have you already tried pinning the Snipping Tool shortcut in the Start Menu All Programs area directly to the taskbar to see if it stays that way instead?

For in QL, did you create the Snipping Tool shortcut directly from the "C:\Windows\system32\SnippingTool.exe" file and placed it in the C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
folder?

 

[Kari]

I have not tried to pin it, I do not like and / or use pinned shortcuts.

Yes, I have tried to copy it to Quick Launch folder. Still, it disappears after a reboot. I know this is theoretically not possible, but it really disappears after every reboot. It's like if Windows restored my Quick Launch toolbar to some earlier point every time I boot. But that can not be the case, because if I add another shortcut after Snipping Tool and reboot, the latter shortcut is still there but Snipping Tool is gone.

What makes this even more weird is that it really is only the Snipping Tool that disappears. Everything else stays there. Always.

Interesting: I just rebooted 6 times, just to test this. Snipping Tool stayed there 5 times but now, after sixth reboot it's gone. Added it now manually, once again. So small change: it seems it is not disappearing every time as I thought.

Kari

 

[Brink]

Kari,

Umm, the mystery deepens. You might see if running a sfc /scannow command may be able to turn anything up, or fix it if there is a bad system file at fault.

 

[Kari]

Like you said, Shawn, the mystery deepens.

I've spent last two hours doing some heavy rebooting and testing, over 40 reboots. As I mentioned earlier, this is not so big issue because I normally hibernate, not reboot. Still, it is intriguing enough to make me want to play with it.

Computer in question is my private laptop (see my specs). It is running a German Ultimate x64 with English language pack, in-place upgraded from Vista Ultimate. Never had any problems, no blue screens, no problems with drivers, just working perfectly.

Here's what I found out:

• Snipping Tool is not the only disappearing shortcut. To test, I added some Office shortcuts to Quick Launch, and they too seem to disappear time to time, as well as some other shortcuts I played with
• It seems when shortcut is automatically added by the install or setup, it stays. When I add a shortcut manually, it disappears time to time (about one third of reboots, not always)
• The shortcuts I now tested always disappear simultaneously i.e. if Snipping Tool shortcut disappears, so do also these Office shortcuts I now tested
• It looks like Quick Launch is sometimes, somehow reverted to an earlier point

Tried sfc/ scannow. Only 5 reboots after that and nothing disappearing but it's too early to say if it fixed something. I'll continue to play with this later, no time now.

Kari

 

[kmorendha]

Easiest method for Quick launch, Taskbar in Windows7

Hey friends,

Just forget all..... Actually it's very easy to fix any program shortcut on taskbar/quick launch bar in Windows7.

How?

On START---->ALL PROGRAMS---> Right click on any program you want to fix on taskbar. You will get an option as "Pin to taskbar". Click on that & you're done! :shock: And for removing it from the taskbar, again right click on that program icon and "unpin" it.

Isn't it easiest than any other methods or even any other previous versions of Windows?


Cheers,
KAMAL

 

[Kari]

Hello Kamal, welcome to the Seven Forums.

If you are referring to my issue, it is not a solution I can use. I do not have any programs pinned on taskbar, I'm using a Vista style taskbar with Quick Launch. See the screenshot in this post.

Kari

 

[Raulrocks]

Hello mansrm81,

True, but with being able to pin items to the taskbar directly now I'm afraid that it will be a fading feature.

Shawn

I too thank you Shawn. I hope this doesn't fade away because unless I'm missing something, the "pin" thing doesn't work once you have open one session of your pinned item (e.g. IE). I then have to go to the start menu or a desktop shortcut to open another window. If I am missing something, please let me know. The quick launch is my life and one of the few features I liked in Vista was that you could send almost anything directly from Start to Quick Launch. It's almost like a conspiracy to take away anything of use.

 

[Brink]

Hello Raul, and welcome to Seven Forums.

I don't think it will be now. There will always be a need to pin a folder to the taskbar, so there will always be a way to create a Quick Launch using that if needed.

In your example, you would right click on the pinned IE icon on the taskbar to be able to pin multiple windows of open IE tabs or windows in the Jump List of the pinned IE icon instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Kari]

OK. First reboot in a few days this morning. And Snipping Tool has once more disappeared.

Put it back, once again. This is weird! How can a shortcut disappear by it self?

 

[Brink]

Hello Kari,

I'm not sure why or how for this one. It seems to work just fine for the large majority of people, but for just a few unlucky ones, some unknown cause is causing it to disappear after a restart. :huh:

Hopefully after some time with everyone comparing notes that this is happening to, we can come up with a common issue.

 

[KeReMiD4O]

Hello guys. I have a problem. My quick launch disappears on every system restart. I have to add it every time i start my laptop. How can i fix this?


Edit:
UAC is turned off, x32 bit system. Theme is saved. Just restarted, still the same - no quick launch.

 

[Kari]

I'm losing my nerves because of this.

First reboot in about a week and Snpping Tool, along with Word and Excel shortcuts gone again. One thing common with these three shortcuts is that I'd added them myself to the Quick Launch. I've installed two new pieces of software this week, RadioGet and Media Player Classic, and their shortcuts (put to Quick Launch automatically by the respective installations) have not disappeared.

Short: any shortcut I manually put there normally disappears after a reboot. No difference if copy the program or shortcut directly to the Quick Launch folder or drag and drop program or shortcut to the Quick Launch toolbar. Sefl added, it disappears.

 

[Brink]

Kari, and everyone that has the issue with the pinned Quick Launch disappearing after a restart,

You might see if pinning a folder to the taskbar with the shortcuts you wanted and a copy of the ones in Quick Launch would work better instead.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[copernicus]

I would recommend using jumlistlauncher. Get rid of the headache.

 

[ColourFly]

Sorry to ask a simple question, but I have created the Quick launch toolbar - how do I add the icons to it and get them away from the taskbar (like I can in Vista/XP) ? to tidy up the view?

Cheers

 

[Brink]

Hello ColourFly, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can add shortcuts to Quick Launch by adding the shortcuts into the hidden system folder location at:

C:\Users\(user-name)\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch


Pinning Quick Launch to the taskbar is the same as pinning a folder (above) to it. You can strech or condense the pinned folder on the taskbar using step 8D in this tutorial to how you want it displayed on the taskbar.

Hope this helps,
Shawn

 

[Tjoe]

OMG!!!

I love you (in a manly, sports-hug, platonic way of course)!!!

The lack of Quick Launch was driving me crazy and had me nearly about to ask my IT group to put me back on XP. I was mistaking those stupid "pinned programs" as QL.

My W7 is a brand new config (build 7600). Your steps worked perfect for me and I am VERY grateful for this thread.

Now if I can just find a solution to my #1 annoyance: Huddled Icons (not group similiar, but huddled). I want to have multiple instances of the same program running but NOT have them stay huddled together on the bar. I want to move them around like I could under XP. i.e. have an Explorer window or 2, then a browser, then my text editor, then another explorer or 2, another browser, etc... My search continues.

Thank you so much!
Tjoe

 

[Brink]

You're welcome Tjoe, and welcome to Seven Forums.

You can drag the pinned or open icons to any order on the taskbar, but I have not seen a way to have separate multiple say Internet Explorer icons yet.