How to get the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7

If you followed the instructions in my recent post, your Windows 7 taskbar will now look and work almost the same as the taskbar in Windows XP and Vista. Almost, but not exactly. The Quick Launch bar will still be missing. Follow the steps below to get it back:

1. Right-click on the blank area of the taskbar, point to Toolbars and then click New toolbar.

2. Copy and paste the following line into the address box and then hit Enter on your keyboard: %SystemDrive%\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\

3. Click on the Quick Launch folder to highlight it and then click Select Folder.

The Quick Launch bar will automatically appear at the right of the screen, close to the notification area. You can now simply unlock the taskbar by right-clicking it and clicking Lock the taskbar (to remove the check mark) and drag the Quick Launch bar to where you want it to be. Note that it’s best to first unpin any items that are pinned to the taskbar – see my previous post to learn how to do this.

As I mentioned in that earlier post, it’s really a good idea to use Windows 7 for a while before making these changes. Once you get the hang of how things work in the new operating system and discover features such as Peek, Shake and Snap, you’ll probably not want to go back to the old school way of doing things.