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My OS is Windows XP, with SP2. I put 4 folders (which contain other folders as well as files) on the taskbar as toolbars, using them as pop-up menus; I placed them to the right, next to the notification area, and enabled "Lock the taskbar." Recently they started to move out of their places every time I started the computer, and spill the subfolders onto the taskbar. I've put them back several times, unlocking the taskbar first, and then relocking it each time after the repositioning; I also had to remove and then re-add the folders as toolbars a few times, because they were hard to move around with the strewn-about subfolders on the taskbar. But they have repeatedly repositioned themselves; and also, a blank section of the taskbar has appeared on the left, next to the quick launch bar, in which minimized windows cannot go, so that they end up piled up in a small area on the taskbar, between the blank section and the misplaced folder-toolbars; I can move this blank "toolbar" left or right, and resize it, but can't figure out how to remove it.

I'd like to know:

  1. What's possibly causing the toolbar-folders to keep moving out of their places, and what can be done to stop it;

  2. Whether there is a way to remove the blank "toolbar'; and

  3. Whether there are more controllable ways to maneuver toolbars on the taskbar than dragging the double bars.

Many thanks for answering my questions.

3 Answers 3

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I imagine that you meant Quick Launch rather than the Task bar.
Anyway, Window's handling of these tool bars is rather buggy, and there is no solution known to me of keeping a complex setup for long. As Galileo said: "But it does move".
The only solution is to use a launcher. See Best Free Program Launcher. My favorite is Vista Start Menu.

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  • Thanks for the answer. But I do mean the taskbar, where you can enable folders as menus.
    – Notetaker
    Sep 6, 2009 at 20:47
  • Then you mean that you've added them as new toolbars. In my experience, even adding one toolbar with one item can cause the layout to become fluid, whether the bar is locked or not, and this happens on some machines but not on others. I've never understood this problem, probably a bug in Windows. On machines where it happened, all my fiddling wouldn't solve the problem, and I finally gave up and took them out of the bar.
    – harrymc
    Sep 7, 2009 at 6:01
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maybe this is related to the default BagMRU size of 400 in windows xp. once this limit is reached, windows will discard settings of the oldest folders which subsequently seem to develop a 'life of their own' (i.e. revert to the default windows folder settings). you can of course change the BagMRU size:

  1. Launch REGEDIT from the Start menu's Run dialog.
  2. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\Shell. If this key is not present, skip to step 8.
  3. If a subkey named BagMRU is present, delete the entire subkey.
  4. If a subkey named Bags is present, delete the entire subkey.
  5. Look for a value named BagMRU Size (with a space between BagMRU and Size).
  6. If this value is not present, select New | DWORD Value from the Edit menu and name the new value BagMRU Size.
  7. Double-click on the BagMRU Size value, choose Decimal, and enter the desired number of folder settings for Win XP to remember (for example, 1,000).
  8. Navigate to the Registry key HKEY_ CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\ Windows\ShellNoRoam. If present, repeat steps 3 through 7.
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Have you tried True Launch Bar? It's a replacement for the Quick Launch bar, with a lot more functions, like popup menus and plugins.

True Launch Bar

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  • love TLB +1, although it ain't free.
    – Molly7244
    Sep 6, 2009 at 21:17

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