How to enable the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7
By default, Windows 7 doesn’t have the Quick Launch bar enabled. But some users may find that they really need the Quick Launch bar back like it was in Vista and XP. Windows 7 doesn’t give you any instant way to bring it back, but it is still possible.
1) Right click any empty area in your taskbar, and uncheck Lock the Taskbar.
2) Right click any empty area of your taskbar again, select Toolbars, then New Toolbar.
3) Copy the following address, and paste it into the address bar of Windows Explorer.
%userprofile%AppDataRoamingMicrosoftInternet ExplorerQuick Launch
4) Select the Quick Launch folder, and click on Select Folder below. Do not double-click Quick Launch.
5) Now you’ll see Quick Launch in your taskbar. Since we previously unlocked the taskbar, you can place the Quick Launch bar anywhere you want by dragging it to the leftmost or rightmost corner of the taskbar.
6) You’ll want to hide the Quick Launch text and program titles as well. Right click the Quick Launch bar and deselect Show Text and Show Title.
And now you’ve got the Quick Launch bar that was in Vista and XP. Some of you might be happy to know that there is also a Show Desktop and Flip 3D icon.
We will be regularly updating the website with Windows 7 tips and tutorials from now on. Be sure to Subscribe to our RSS feed so you don’t miss out. Also, we want to hear your thoughts about our tutorials. Please let us know in the comments.
-Al
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Tags: quick launch bar, windows 7, windows 7 quick launch, windows 7 quick launch bar
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35 Responses to “How to enable the Quick Launch bar in Windows 7”
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I know most people who have learned for to adapt to the Superbar will see little or no need for a Quick Launch bar. I thought I should cover on a few tips that will help those who don’t like the new changes to still enjoy Windows 7 as it is.
We’ll be pushing out more advanced tips in the near future regularly. Stay tuned for more and don’t forget to check out our forums!
Thank you for this. This would be a great option to keep in Windows 7 as I use the quick launch keys constantly.
If anybody followed the tutorial because they felt they needed the quick launch bar, I’m interested in hearing why the taskbar pinning idea didn’t work out for you
The problem is in Windows 7 you can not PIN a folder to the superbar. I had no choice but to create the quick launch bar. It’s too bad, I find that it’s stupid to not allow folders to be quick launched from the new bar.
Majestic
There are several things I don’t like about the pinning action. (1) the space taken by the icon is to much and reducing the icon to small does not save much space (2) Opening multiple windows of the pinned application is a pain, you have to right-click and then click on the icon (3) just looking at the icon you cannot determine if the application is already open or if there are multiple windows of the application open. (4) I have not discovered how to rearange the sequence of the pinned applications. I put my “most” used applications on the launch bar and I want them in an order that is useful to me, example I want all my office applications in one group, all of my different browsers in one group, etc.
Hi John,
I can’t help you with most of the issues that you have with pinning the icons, but I may be able to clarify a couple of them for you.
As for how to tell if you have multiple windows open, I’ll draw a little diagram that hopefully will clear up the difference.
Single window:
–
| |
–
Multiple Window:
— -
| | |
— – (Picture it as a two squares overlapping each other) If there are more windows, they will overlap behind as well.
Rearranging your icons should just be a matter of clicking on the icon (holding the mouse button down) and dragging it to where you want it. I just tried it with both pinned and non-pinned icons, and it worked for me.
The space saved isn’t in the icons themselves. However it’s in the difference between having the icons, and then having the actual window name open to the right of it. Having just the icons allows you to have more windows open, without losing the ability to find out which is which. IMHO at least.
As far as not being able to tell which icons are open, it may be that your background is too dark or a solid color. On my desktop, which has a picture for a background, the open icons are clearly visible. In Step 2 of the article, they are clearly visible as well (IMHO). However in Step 1, the Word icon isn’t as clear (IMHO because of his background or he has some effect turned off). My suggestion (if you’re interested) would be to try a lighter background or try other things just to see if the icons show up better for you.
Have a great day:)
Patrick.
Major pain about the new pinnign idea , if you want to launch 2 instances it is not possible, the old quick launch gave you the possibility to launch 5 remote desktop clients or 3 firefoxés besides each other , the new pinning concept simply activates the already opened pinned window.
major issue for me.
I’m glad i stumbled upon the article here
True, left click always activates the opened instance, but you can also open multiple instances by right-clicking the pinned icon, then left clicking the application in the displayed menu.
[...] Vía | Windows 7 Center [...]
I followed it, and worked great. Thank you. I prefer using the quick launch simply because I usually launch multiple windows of my web browser, and it is just easier to do so using the quick launch buttons. Also, maybe I’m just an old timer and set in my ways. I’ve been using the QL for so long that I kind of like to stick to it. Would be nice to have the option to pick between the two or be able to enable either as needed/wanted.
Thanks,
Ron
It worked for me. I use it to launch multiple windows (especially Visual Studio)and my Vista install quick launch has 30+ icons on it. The method Microsoft have chosen to launch another instance of a program (centre mouse click) conflicts with usage of other programs IE and Visual Studio for example use the same method to close items.
Oh thank goodness you can get it back!
I can’t stand the new taskbar… To me it just seems a really half-arsed attempt to copy the MacOSX thing.
it is stupid new windos act like quicklaunch as a toolbar
hola,s a mi no me funciono, cuando pego eso me dice q tengo q acerlo desde otro lado, y probe en varias partes, y por ende no se genera una carpea QL
q ise mal??
usa esta linea
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
[...] Windows 7 Center :Windows, Windows [...]
thanks for the tip to bring quick launch bar.
I didn’t like the super task bar for the reason that, if i had option selected to combine the programs, then i had to first hover at the program group and then to the desired window. A simple example could be chatting with multiple friends on msn client and you’ll be messed up if of switching to multiple windows through super task bar.
I’m not sure I follow you on this. I’ve had up to four separate MSN IM’s and four or five separate Skype IM’s going. They showed me the name at the top of the window and it was orange (if there was something new in the window). I’ve had no problems going between conversations– even between applications.
Have a great day:)
Patrick.
I should add that I have the settings configured so all of my MSN IM’s (and the main windows) are combined, same with Skype and Yahoo.
Granted, I have to hover over the icon for a second or two before the windows show up. But, I’d have to do that in Vista as well or XP when I had them grouped there.
The copy and paste did not work. I get check path and try again..
@ chiino
the copy paste would not work since the “\” are missing in it.
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
use this
That worked just fine..Thanks
Hi!
This tip is great, but how I can move the QuickLauch out from taskbar?
I like it on top of my screen!
Thanks!
Thank you so much! I was wondering how I could get back my beloved quick launch bar, I thought it was lost forever.
Personally, I don’t mind the superbar or whatever they call it, but its annoying once I need to launch another window of firefox because I no longer have the application available to click.
As for the launching of a new firefox window, I simply right clicked on the icon in the Superbar and chose “Mozilla Firefox”. It opened a second window.
Personally, I think if you set things up to your liking, the Superbar can be relatively close to a Quick Launch. But that’s my opinion only. I’m not slamming anyone that wants the Quick Launch back, just suggesting that there is a viable alternative to it.
Have a great day:)
Patrick.
Works fine for me! Thanks!
I see no point in having a new version out of windows and they are similar to the old, by my side I like this new system as the former had never seen and I was able to xp, but since everyone likes there put it your way*****************
no le veo el sentido que haya salido una nueva version de windows y quiera que se parezca a los antiguos, por mi lado me gusto mas este nuevo sistema ya que el anterior tenia vista y nunca fui capaz con xp, pero como hay gustos cada quien lo pone a su modo
I couldn’t find the reply right-off hand that I’m commenting to, so I’ll post it here. The replier talked about how you can’t pin a folder to the superbar…
If you right click on the Windows Explorer icon that’s pinned to the superbar, and wait a second or so, it will show you the most frequently used folders. So, if the folder that you’re trying to “pin” is one that you use on a regular basis, it shows up there.
I think that what they tried to do was to combine the quick launch bar with the rest of the taskbar. And I still say that with a little tweaking, it works.
Have a great day:)
Patrick.
Hi Patrick,
I tried what you said and now I no longer feel the need got the quick launch bar! Thanks a lot I guess we all have to just discover how Windows 7 works
Majestic
Great tutorial – works great, except when I restart and Windows 7 boots up again, I notice all my icons in the quick launch bar have disappeared! 8^/
Any idea why?
I just tried the suggestion with W7 Ultimate and I get a popup telling me that the path does not exist.
Same thing for me exactly. Any resolution yet?
Can’t live w/out my tiny quicklaunch bar, I’m going to use it in combination with pinning, thanks so much!
When I copy the address into Desktop/Folder:/Select Folder it take me to Local Disk/Users and I get an error message that says my name and the address name Path does not exist.
What am I missing here?
Someone had corrected the Quick launch path above in this thread, just copying and pasting it for you guys:
%userprofile%\AppData\Roaming\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
It works, Terrific, now fast again !