Taskbar custom toolbar lost after restart

[Algebe]

I have a custom toolbar containing shortcuts to various programs. It's been perfectly stable on the left side of my taskbar for the past six months until yesterday. Now it disappears everytime I start up or restart my computer. An MS helptesk technician advised me to run SFC.exe, which showed no errors. She then suggested I put a new DWORD called
"EnableXam1StartMenu" in HKEY_CURRENT_USER>Software>Microsoft>Windows>CurrentVersion>Explorer>Advance. I've done that and found that it works for one restart. Then we revert to the lost toolbar situation. I'm using Windows 10 Pro, which was a native installation on a brand new desktop bought six months ago. As far as I can tell there have been no updates in the past few days that could cause this. The only recent change to my computer setup was the removal of one computer from our network and the deletion of associated mapped drives.

Has anyone else experiened this problem?

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Algebe,

When you say 'customized toolbar' I am presuming this is some form of executable you created given you were attempting to manipulate your Start menu via the Registry. Or at least it appears you were attempting that.

You could try the following instead:

• Right-click on Start then left-click on Run
• In the Run dialog type shell:startup then click OK
• Now press Ctrl + N to open a second instance of File Explorer. Here navigate to your customized toolbar executable and left-click on that executable once to highlight it. Then in the toolbar click Copy. If you cannot see Copy make sure Home tab is selected.
• Now close this File explorer window so you can view the original one you opened via Run command.
• Select the Home tab then click Paste in the toolbar to paste that toolbar into the startup window.
• Close the File explorer.

With any luck that may force the customized toolbar to load each time you startup your computer.

Regards,

Regedit32

 

[Algebe]

Thanks for the suggestion. Unfortunately it's not an executable. It's a folder containing a list of shortcuts to various programs that I use frequently. It functions exactly like the quick start area on the old XP taskbar. I created the folder with the shortcuts. I then added a new toolbar to the taskbar and selected that folder. It's worked fine until the last couple of days.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Algebe,

When you start your computer what settings have you chosen for logging on with?

Are you using an Auto Logon to avoid entering password every time?

 

[Algebe]

Hello Regedit.
Thanks for replying. I do use Auto Logon, and I've since heard that can cause problems like this, although I've been using Auto Logon from the start.

I've now discovered that the problem was most likely caused by the recent addition of an external (USB) hard drive. After disconnecting it, I was able to reboot without losing the toolbar. I then tried using a path for the drive instead of a drive letter. That seems to have solved the problem.

That suggests that Windows 10 can't handle too many drive letters at startup. I have four internal hard drives, several network shares and a couple of cloud drives with drive letters assigned. The latest external drive must have pushed it over the limit.

 

[Regedit32]

Hi Algebe,

Yes there does appear to be a few issues with handling relatively benign processing.

Another example of this is Applications writing registry entries that exceed the 255 character limit, which cause the Registry Editor to hang a lot when the Regedt32.exe or Regedit32.exe processes are called. It's possible in your scenario one or more of those external drives has a registry entry that exceeds that limit, and when called on the registry will crash when it hits the key; that crash may be before it finds the toolbar entries.

For the time being there is nothing you can do about that. Microsoft are aware of this, and hopefully will provide a permanent solution in time. The only known workaround is installing an older version of Regedit32.exe and Regedt32.exe both of which are capable of ignoring such keys. That would be fine but for the fact you want your External drive recognized.

Thanks for the update.

Regedit32

 

[ramayasket]

Ok, I ran into this issue. I have Windows 10 build 16299.

Well it seems that the cause for this is "language bar" which displays language as TWO symbols (e.g. EN or RU). I removed it in Control Panel -> Language -> Advanced Settings.

Instead, I configured the taskbar to display "Input Indicator" which displays language as THREE letters (e.g. ENG or RUS). With this configuration, I restart and my custom toolbar is kept.

 

[intosh]

Thanks Ramayasket! I tried this and my custom toolbar (Quick Launch) stayed put after reboot. Let's see if it will remain. It was super frustrating and I would have never thought it was the "language bar" (maybe sloppy Microsoft didn't figure it out either).