Thank you for being a valued part of the CNET community. As of December 1, 2020, the forums are in read-only format. In early 2021, CNET Forums will no longer be available. We are grateful for the participation and advice you have provided to one another over the years.

Thanks,

CNET Support

General discussion

Windows 7 Doest not Maintain Customized Taskbar Settings

Nov 18, 2009 12:33AM PST

Hi everyone,

I recently did a clean install of Windows 7 Pro and Home Premium on my desktop and laptop (specs below). After installing all my apps and transferring all my files, I always customize my taskbar with toolbars and shortcuts, and the address bar so I can quickly type web addresses, launch programs or commands. The problem is that every time I reboot my computer my taskbar icons and toolbars go all over and do not stay in the configured positions. This does not happen if I return from standby or hibernation. I have tried creating a new user account and just customizing the taskbar to see if maybe my account is corrupted but I get the same results. Do you have any suggestions or explanation on why this is happening and how to fix it?
Here's a link to how my taskbar looks like http://cid-4e6cd2cad23974a4.skydrive.live.com/self.aspx/TechSupport/Taskbar.png

Thanks

Jose ? Glendale, AZ

Desktop
Windows 7 Professional 64bit
Asus P5K Deluxe
4GB SDRAM DDR2 1066 (PC2 8500)
2.4 GHz Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
2TB HDD in RAID 10
ASUS Radeon HD 2900XT 512MB

Laptop
Dell Studio 1555
Windows 7 Home Premium 64bit
4GB DDR2 800 (PC2 6400)
2.2 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo T6600
500GB HDD
ATI Mobility Radeon HD 4570 512MB

Discussion is locked

- Collapse -
Give this a try
Nov 18, 2009 5:05AM PST
- Collapse -
taskbar issues
Nov 18, 2009 7:29AM PST

Hi Tara

I changed my taskbar back to default, rebooted my computer and everything stayed as normal. Then I added all my icons and address bar, but kept the taskbar at its normal height, rebooted and again everything stayed as configured. Then I made my taskbar two levels high as I have in the link on the original post, rebooted, then all my icons and address bar moved out of place again. Any suggestions?

Thanks

- Collapse -
Will look into this more
Nov 20, 2009 2:34AM PST

I cannot find any information regarding the problem you are having, I will continue to check for solutions. Let me know how your progress goes as you trouble shoot.

Cheers,
Tara

- Collapse -
I had a similar problem
Dec 11, 2009 2:43AM PST

and tried various solutions that didn't work. Then I tried this. 1)Arrange all icons etc as you want them. 2)Right click a blank area of the desktop and click on Refresh. 3)Reboot.
I don't know what made me try this....desperation probably, but it solved my problem.
Worth a try if nothing else has worked.
let me know how you get on.
Good luck.
Mike7P

- Collapse -
stubborn taskbar..
Dec 11, 2009 8:13AM PST

Hey Mike7P,

I appreciate your reply, any suggestions no matter how crazy they may sound are very welcomed, I tried what you had posted but my taskbar icons still will not stay. I right clicked on my desktop and selected refresh, then rebooted. I also tried this under a brand new user account. At first it seem like explorer.exe is crashing but if it was, my desktop icons would have lost their arrangement. I'm certain that this is not an act of malware as my Dell laptop also suffers from this problem right out of the box.

Any thoughts?

Thanks

- Collapse -
Sorry josegtza
Dec 11, 2009 2:22PM PST

not sure that I can help much further. I just thought the suggestion I posted may have worked as it sorted my problem.
It does seem a bit odd that you can't get it to do what you want.
Don't give up. I'm sure there's someone out there with the answer!
Kind regards
Mike7P

- Collapse -
task bar
Dec 12, 2009 2:15AM PST

i think you should reinstall windows, my brother had this problem when he tryied to play with the bar but after reinstall it worked good, first try to click repair, if that doesen't work try to reinstall. hope it works

- Collapse -
if...
Dec 12, 2009 12:57PM PST

If you do reinstall make sure you backup all your data...

Tara

- Collapse -
Problem Found!!!
Dec 13, 2009 6:48AM PST

I did a clean install of Windows 7 on my laptop as suggested by doguletzz, then proceeded to customize my taskbar as I wanted it, then rebooted my laptop and the taskbar stayed as I had left it. Afterwards I proceeded to install all my drivers and applications rebooting every time anything was installed. It wasn?t until I installed the Zune software and enabled the Zune taskbar toolbar that I ran into the same problem as before. I placed my taskbar back the way the wanted it and unchecked the Zune toolbar, rebooted and the taskbar customizations stayed. I tried this on my desktop PC and duplicated the same results.

Can anyone else confirm similar results? Thanks.

- Collapse -
Thank you
Dec 18, 2009 2:34AM PST

Thank you for sharing your process on the forum, it is always nice to see how some (bizarre) solutions are found.

- Collapse -
This might work
Dec 20, 2009 10:14PM PST

create a second account or delete the offending account. We have a three user account system, one developed this problem and we deleted that account and started another to replace it, now it appears repairs, for now.