Toolbars I put on the Task Bar disappear with each restart

Question

I just recently installed Windows 8.1, and as soon as I finished the upgrade, and ever since, I have had this problem. Any custom toolbars I put on the Task Bar disappear whenever I restart. For quite some time now (since Win ME, I think), I have used custom toolbars for My Computer (now called This PC in 8.1) and my Favorites, or Links within my user profile (not to be confused with my Internet favorites). Having those has been extremely handy as it allows me to view and access any of my drives quickly, and open folders I frequently access with one click. I think it was starting in Vista that toolbars had to be located on the Task Bar rather than being on some other side of the screen (I put my custom toolbars on the left side, and appropriately called it my sidebar). Having those toolbars limited to the Task Bar was no real problem, I just had to get used to my Task Bar being larger.

My current computer has had Win 8 installed from the beginning (I installed it myself using a clean install, not an upgrade). When I upgraded to 8.1, I was able to add those toolbars to my Task Bar no problem (right-click Task Bar >Toolbars >New Toolbar... and I select the folder I want to use for the toolbar), but every time I restart or shut down/turn on my computer, the custom toolbars disappear, leaving only the regular Task Bar and the Language Bar (I customarily keep the Language Bar on to be able to switch between typing English and Japanese, so I'm quite glad that at least it doesn't disappear). If I enable any of the toolbars already on the list in the Toolbars menu, they also disappear with each restart (such as Address and Bing Desktop; not that I use them, I'm just saying this to make diagnosis easier).

Granted, this is not a seriously harmful issue, as I am always able to put the toolbars back on again after each restart, and I don't restart ALL the time. But it's a major annoyance and it hurts productivity. Is there some way I can fix this problem? Or is there some update I can apply to do so?

Ethan Hayes

Answer 1

Not even close dude -- it's not a browser issue.

Answer 2

Nope... nothing to do with the icon cache.

The toolbars themselves just disappear and have to be re-added.

Answer 3

I have the same problem

Either the toolbar (a quick launch one I have created) disappears, or the shortcuts located within it are reordered

Answer 4

Restarting Explorer does not restore my toolbar.

In searching in the Internet I found the following workaround.

In Windows 8 Forums I found the an article for backing up and restoring the toolbars.

http://www.eightforums.com/tutorials/9612-taskbar-toolbars-back-up-restore-windows-8-a.html

The batch files allow you to save and restore your Taskbar Toolbars.

I modified the batch files to place the storage folder somewhere other than my Desktop.

The using gpedit.msc I added the batch files to:

Local Computer Policy, Computer Configuration, Windows Settings, Scripts (Startup/Shutdown).

Now every time the computer is shutdown the Toolbars are saved and when it is restarted the Toolbars are restored.

UPDATE 4/28/2014

Using the Startup / Shutdown scripts has not worked out that great.  I now just make a manual backup when I make a change.

Answer 5

Hi,

Thank you for the reply.

If you find that one or more of your icons are not displaying correctly, or that your Icon Cache is corrupted, you might want to rebuild the Icon Cache. The Icon Cache or IconCache.db is a special database file that Windows utilizes to keep copies of each icon handy. When Windows needs to draw an icon, it uses the copy from the cache instead of retrieving the icon image from the original application file. This helps in making Windows draw the icons faster.

If you need to rebuild the Icon cache, Open File Explorer > Folder Options > Views to show Hidden System Files. Next, go to C:\Users\Username\AppData\Local folder and delete the hidden IconCache.db file. Reboot the computer. This action will purge and rebuild the icon cache.

Let us know about the status of the issue. We would be happy tohelp you further.