Windows XP ruled the market for around 5 years and even after that a very few people moved to Windows Vista. The real migration took place with launch of the more efficient version in form of Windows 7 in the market. There are still people who wish to retain the way their workspace looks despite all the exciting features that the new operating system brings along with.

The Quick Launch Toolbar

The Quick Launch Toolbar is one of the excellent features of Windows XP that every one loved. You were not supposed to search for the programs in the huge list in the Start Menu rather you had an excellent shortcut to all of the ones that you preferred using for most of the time. The Quick Launch Toolbar was then inherited by Windows Vista and had the same toolbar as Windows XP had apart from just one addition of the Aero Screenshots of the programs that were running on the computer. The basic programs like Internet Explorer, Media Player had their shortcuts in the Quick Launch toolbar. You had the option to add more buttons and links into it and remove the ones you have by default.

Once you add the quick launch toolbar it is going to look the same way as it used to look in Windows Vista. The Windows 7 toolbar docks some of the programs to the taskbar. This does serve as the Quick Launch but for the conventional users this is not as attractive.

Adding Quick Launch Toolbar

Adding Quick Launch Toolbar in Windows 7 is not a difficult task to do. You need to do a few steps and all is through:

Right click on the taskbar and move to the Toolbars menu, click on New Toolbar at the bottom of the menu. Unlock the taskbar as well while doing this process by clicking and un-checking Lock the taskbar on the main menu.

In the location bar of the window that appears, you need to put this address: %appdata%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch

You are going to fall in the Quick Launch folder of your computer. Select the folder and accept it. You will notice a Quick Launch Toolbar on the taskbar on the right side of your computer’s screen.

As your taskbar will be unlocked by now, you can drag and move the Quick Launch toolbar to the right side. Drag the dotted line to the left side of the taskbar.

Through on the left, the Taskbar will appear to have text tags and a lot more that will make it look odd. You can right click on the dotted lines and un-check the Show Text link and the Show Title link on the menu that extends. You will be left with the icons only that are going to look the same way as they used to look in Windows Vista. You can then lock the taskbar once again to make sure that you have your taskbar protected from changes.

After your taskbar has been restored, anyone who will move past your computer will merely understand if you are running a Windows 7 based system or Windows Vista based system as the Quick Launch Toolbar is the only thing that marks the distinction.