Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10  

    Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10

    Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10

    How to Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10
    Published by Category: General Tips
    28 Mar 2020
    Designer Media Ltd

    How to Reset and Clear Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10


    Windows includes a special application desktop toolbar called the taskbar that shows on the bottom of a display screen by default. The taskbar allows you to find, see, open, and switch between your apps. You can also see the date and time, system icons, and items running in the background on the notification area. You can make the taskbar look how you want, manage your calendar, pin your favorite apps to it, change the size, change location on screen, and specify how taskbar buttons group together when you have more than one window open.

    You can also add toolbars to the taskbar. The default toolbars include Address, Links, Desktop, and any new toolbars (custom) added by the user or an application.

    If you have more than one extended display connected to your PC, then toolbars will only show on the taskbar on your main display by default.

    The taskbar toolbars you add for your account are saved in the registry key location below.

    The downloadable .bat file below will delete this Desktop key and restart explorer to reset and remove all your taskbar toolbars automatically.

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Streams\Desktop

    This tutorial will show you how to reset and clear all toolbars from the taskbar for your account in Windows 10.

    This can be handy if you are unable to remove a toolbar normally, or just want to quickly remove all toolbars at once.



    Here's How:

    1 Click/tap on the Download button below to download the .bat file below.

    Reset_and_Clear_Taskbar_Toolbars.bat

    Download

    2 Save the .bat file to your desktop.

    3 Unblock the .bat file.

    4 Run the .bat file.

    5 You will now notice a command prompt quickly open and close, and then your desktop quickly flash as explorer is restarted to apply.


    That's it,
    Shawn






  1. apb
    Posts : 94
    win 7 64bit
       #1

    A couple of questions:

    1. Will this also work for win 7? I note that that registry key exists and based on posts elsewhere stores related if not identical info.

    2. I read elsewhere that to remove an individual 3rd party toolbar item, one need "only" unregister its "band." Any idea what that means or how to do it? This would be a feature of windows API, but I'm not a windows programmer.

    3. I assume there is no way to uninstall any individual toolbar? Or equivalently, that no one knows how to parse the data in that binary-valued key?

    Thanks.

    --peter
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 68,652
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #2

    Hello Peter, and welcome to Ten Forums. :)

    Q1) Yes, this will work with Windows 7 as well.

    Q2) I'm not sure about that either.

    Q3) I'm not sure about how to manually clear a specific toolbar other than the usual way using Option 1 or 2 below.

    Remove Toolbars on Taskbar in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
      My Computers


  3. apb
    Posts : 94
    win 7 64bit
       #3

    Thanks. I'm an interloper from sevenforums.

    The problem with turning off a toolbar the "standard" way through the UI is that it stays installed, just not displayed. I have 2 3rd party toolbars that I don't even want mentioned. This is a typical losing feature of the windows UI -- it fails to allow the full range of operations on an object, in this case uninstalling something where it allows installing it.

    I will end up using the method you've described here, but then I need to re-install the toolbars I do want.

    The most important thing I learned here being that killing that registry item is benign, other than removing the existence of the optional toolbars.

    Thanks.

    --peter
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 68,652
    64-bit Windows 11 Pro for Workstations
    Thread Starter
       #4

    Peter,

    If you like, you could create a backup of your toolbars once you have them set how you wanted after resetting. This way you will easily be able to restore the backup as need if you should want to reset them again in the future.

    Backup and Restore Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 10 Windows 10 Tutorials
      My Computers


  5. apb
    Posts : 94
    win 7 64bit
       #5

    Thanks.

    Yes, it occurred to me I could just export that reg key in case the change went awry. It's a good idea, though, also to save it after I like it so I can revert if some other prog decides it needs to fix it for me.

    BTW, thanks for being a one-man infinite resource for windows. Please be careful crossing the street.

    --peter
      My Computers


 

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