How to Add the Quick Launch Toolbar to Windows 7 Taskbar

Missing the Quick Launch Bar on your Windows 7 PC? This latest OS from Microsoft has new and interesting features like Jump Lists, federated search from desktop, advanced drive encryption etc. However if you have just upgraded from Windows XP to Windows 7 you may be wondering what ever happened to the Quick Launch Bar that you have become so accustomed with.

The Quick Launch Toolbar is disabled by default in Windows 7 as this concept of adding shortcuts to a toolbar is now replaced with a new taskbar where you can directly pin all your favorite programs. If you are not happy with a cluttered taskbar and like to get the Quick Launch tool bar back, here is a way to do that.
1. Right click anywhere on the Task Bar and select Toolbars –> New toolbar…

2. In the ‘New Toolbar -  Choose a folder’ dialog box, enter ‘%appdata%microsoftInternet Explorer’ in the address bar.

3. Now select the ‘Quick Launch’ folder and click on ‘Select Folder’.

4. You can now see that the QuickLaunch Toolbar is added to the Taskbar at it’s right end, next to the system tray (see screenshot below).

5. Ok, so you want to have the Quick Launch bar to the left of the Windows 7 Start Menu, similar to Windows XP. To move it to your desired location, first unlock the task bar by right clicking and unselecting ‘Lock the taskbar’.

6. Now you will be able to see the dotted lines to the left of the Quick Launch Bar. Just drag  and drop the tool bar to where ever you want on the task bar. (You can see a similar drag and drop operation of the task bar icons in action in Windows 7 task bar icon rearranging.)

7. Don’t like the default title and text that is displayed on the Quick Launch Bar? Don’t worry. You can easily turn it off and get an icon-only tool bar by right clicking anywhere on the Quick Launch Bar and unselecting ‘Show Text’ and ‘Show title’.

8. This is how your QuickLaunch Bar should look like once you are done with all the steps. If you want to add more Quick Launch buttons, just right click and select ‘Open Folder’. Place shortcuts of all your favorite applications here.