Quick Launch Bar Windows 10

The Quick Launch bar also contains the Show Desktop feature, which is a more obvious place than that small rectangle on the far right side of the Taskbar (especially in Windows 8 and 10). Maybe you prefer to use a more old-school, ungrouped taskbar with shortcuts on the side. How to get Quick Launch bar in Windows 10: Get Quick Launch Right-click on an empty space on your taskbar and hover over 'Toolbars' to reveal another menu and click on 'New toolbar.'

Add Quick Launch Toolbar Windows 10
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Quick Launch Bar Windows 10

The Quick Launch bar was introduced in Windows XP, and sat on the far left side of the Taskbar next to the Start button. It provided a quick and easy way to access programs and your desktop.

Are you familiar with the usefulness of Quick Launch toolbar in Windows 10 or other versions of Windows? The Quick Launch toolbar is a useful section of the Microsoft Windows taskbar which provides you the option to add and launch the most frequently used programs quickly. The Quick Launch bar, which was removed in Windows 7, can be added back to the Taskbar in Windows 7, 8, and 10. You can also add any programs you want to the Quick Launch bar and we’ll show you how. The Quick launch is a convenient way to open programs and is located in the taskbar. When added to the taskbar, Quick launch helps you access files with much ease. You can drag any shortcut, file, folder, drive over the Quick Launch toolbar and then drop the item to create a shortcut of it in Quick Launch.

In Windows 7, the Quick Launch bar was removed from the Taskbar, but it’s still available in Windows 7, 8, and 10 if you know how to add it back. Why would you want the Quick Launch bar back when you can pin programs to the Taskbar? The Quick Launch bar also contains the Show Desktop feature, which is a more obvious place than that small rectangle on the far right side of the Taskbar (especially in Windows 8 and 10). Maybe you prefer to use a more old-school, ungrouped taskbar with shortcuts on the side. In any case, we’ll show you how to add the Quick Launch bar to the Taskbar in Windows 10, but this will also work in Windows 7 and 8.

To add the Quick Launch bar back to the Taskbar, right-click on an open area of the Taskbar, and go to Toolbars > New Toolbar.

Copy and paste the following path into the box at the top of the On the New Toolbar – Choose a folder dialog box and press Enter.

Then, click the “Select Folder” button.

You’ll see the Quick Launch toolbar on the Taskbar, but it’s on the right. The original Quick Launch bar was on the left next to the Start button, so we’ll move it to the left side of the Taskbar.

To move the Quick Launch bar, you’ll first need to unlock the Taskbar. To do this, right-click on an empty part of the Taskbar and select “Lock the taskbar” from the popup menu. When the Taskbar is unlocked, there is no check mark next to the option.

Click and drag the two vertical dotted lines on the left side of the Quick Launch bar to the left side of the Taskbar. You’ll find you can’t drag past the Windows Store, File Explorer, and Edge icons. But, if you want to get the Quick Launch bar right next to the Start button, we can solve that.

RELATED:How to Hide the Search/Cortana Box and Task View Button on the Windows 10 Taskbar

While the Taskbar is still unlocked, you’ll see two vertical dotted lines to the left of the Windows Store, File Explorer, and Edge icons. Click and drag those lines to the right of the Quick Launch bar. Now, the only icons between the Quick Launch bar and the Start button are the Cortana or Search icon and the Task View button. If you want the Quick Launch bar right next to the Start button, you can hide the Cortana icon and the Task View button.

The original Quick Launch bar had an icon and no text. There is no icon on this version of the Quick Launch bar, just the title “Quick Launch”, but you can hide the title if you want. To do that, right-click on the vertical dotted lines and select “Show title” to uncheck the option.

When the “Quick Launch” title is hidden, at least the first item on the Quick Launch menu displays on the Taskbar. You can move the vertical dotted lines to change the width of the Quick Launch bar on the Taskbar and show more than one item from the menu on the Taskbar. If you want to hide the Quick Launch title and show some items from the menu on the Taskbar, you might also want to remove the text from the items, so they will take up less space. To remove the text from the menu items, right-click again on the vertical dotted lines and select “Show Text” to uncheck the option.

Below is an example of the Quick Launch bar with no title and no text on the one item showing on the Taskbar.

Once you’ve set up the Quick Launch bar the way you want, lock the Taskbar again by right-clicking on any empty space on the Taskbar and selecting “Lock the taskbar” from the popup menu. When the Taskbar is locked, there is a check mark next to the “Lock the taskbar” option on the menu.

We decided to keep the “Quick Launch” title, and only have the Quick Launch bar be wide enough to show the title on the Taskbar. And, we hid the Cortana button and the Task View button, so the Quick Launch bar is right next to the Start button. Click the double-arrow button to access the Quick Launch menu.

If you decide you don’t want the Quick Launch bar on the Taskbar anymore, simply right-click on any empty space on the Taskbar and go to Toolbars > Quick Launch. The Quick Launch bar is removed from the Taskbar.

Note that when you remove the Quick Launch bar from the Taskbar, it’s also removed from the Toolbars submenu. If you want to add the Quick Launch bar to the Taskbar again, you will have to follow the steps in this article again.

Create Quick Launch Bar Windows 10

We’re going to show you how to add programs to the Quick Launch bar in Windows 10 using an option on the Send To menu to send a shortcut to the Quick Launch bar. The procedure here works in Windows 7 and 8 as well.

Add the Quick Launch Option to the Send to Menu

To get started, we need to add the Quick Launch option to the Send to menu. To do this, press Windows+R on your keyboard to open the Run dialog box. Type shell:sendto in the “Open” box and click the “OK” button or press Enter.

NOTE: The procedure in this section only has to be done once. Then, you can add as many programs as you want to the Quick Launch bar using the Quick Launch option on the Send to menu.

The SendTo folder opens in File (or Windows) Explorer. Right-click on an empty area in the right pane and go to New > Shortcut.

On the first screen of the Create Shortcut dialog box, enter the following path into the “Type the location of the item” box. Then, click “Next” to continue.

The name of the shortcut defaults to the name of the folder Quick Launch. If you want to change the name, type in a new one. Click “Finish” to create the shortcut.

The Quick Launch shortcut is added to the SendTo folder. Don’t close the Explorer window quite yet.

Add an Application to the Quick Launch Bar

Now, we’ll add an application to the Quick Launch bar. To add an application to the Quick Launch bar, we want to send that application’s shortcut to the Quick Launch bar. In File (or Windows) Explorer, find the executable (.exe) file for the application you want to add. Generally, you’ll find .exe files for programs in either C:Program Files or C:Program Files (x86). When you find the .exe file, right-click on that file and go to Send to > Desktop (create shortcut).

NOTE: Follow the procedures in this section for each application you want to add.

Rename the new shortcut to what you want displayed on the Quick Launch bar (if you decide to show text on the items). Then, right-click on the shortcut and go to Send to > Quick Launch.

You will now see the application on the Quick Launch menu. If it doesn’t display in the part of the Quick Launch menu that displays on the Taskbar, click the double arrow button to see the rest of the Quick Launch menu.

If you want the application displayed on the Taskbar instead of in the popup list of remaining Quick Launch items, you can drag and drop the application item from the popup list to the Taskbar.

Remember, you can show more applications on the Taskbar portion of the Quick Launch bar—you can see how in our guide to adding the Quick Launch menu back to Windows 7, 8, and 10.

If you decide to remove an application from the Quick Launch bar, simply open File (or Windows) Explorer, navigate to the Quick Launch folder.

Select the shortcut for the applications you want to remove and press the Delete key.

Now that you’ve added the application to the Quick Launch bar, you can go back to the shortcut you created for the application on the Desktop and delete it, if you don’t want it. You can now quickly access your applications without cluttering up your Taskbar or Desktop.