Anyone know how to add Quick Launch to the taskbar in Windows 11?

I did it and I found it in this forum so you'll soon be sorted/ I wasn't moving to 11 till I knew I could have QL.
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woldsweather said:

I did it and I found it in this forum so you'll soon be sorted/ I wasn't moving to 11 till I knew I could have QL.
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I'm still testing 11 and ain't moving from 10 until my students force me to! And they're working toward that goal!

If you don't want to go the Explorer Patcher route, you can go with Winaero Tweaker. If you have W11 installed, you will see a Windows 11 section in Winaero's left panel menu. From there, you can enable "Classic Taskbar" after which you can install Quick Launch. This fix even let me drag up the Taskbar to double height - which I really like because that lets me see a 3-line clock with the Time, day of the week and date. The double height also let me have the Windows Taskbar and the Address toolbar sitting over the Quick Launch toolbar - just the way I have liked it since W7.

The below is from my W10 system taken last year, but my W11 desktop looks the same, except (for now) fewer Quick Launch icons.



While in Winaero, you may want to enable displaying seconds on your system clock too - if you are "into time, man!"

I'm going to stick with Explorer Patcher. Seems to do what I need and then some.

What is the big deal with Quick Launch anyway?
There's usually nothing there 'cept Show Desktop and Switch Between Windows..., unless, of course, you allow every installer to create a shortcut there!
Wouldn't it be better to pin the Start Menu folder(s) to the Taskbar?

Edwin said:

What is the big deal with Quick Launch anyway?
There's usually nothing there 'cept Show Desktop and Switch Between Windows..., unless, of course, you allow every installer to create a shortcut there!
Wouldn't it be better to pin the Start Menu folder(s) to the Taskbar?

Click to expand...

With Quick Launch I can pin what I want there; say I need Word, Outlook, Excel, RootsMagic, to be handy, I can pin them to Quick Launch. I need a project folder handy too . . . pin it to Quick Launch. Try to pin a folder to the taskbar? It looks like it's working, but click on it and you get File Explorer, then have to find Documents. Try to pin an external drive to the Taskbar? Yep, File Explorer!

Once Quick Launch is set up, with only a few things to select from, I'm not required to go down the Start Menu list. Even with its shortcuts, the Start Menu is nowhere nearly as fast as clicking on something on Quick Launch.

And the real beauty of Quick Launch is that you can keep your group of apps/folders/disk drives/etc., to a manageable number for quick selection while being able to add and/or remove things you need/no longer need.

Edwin said:

What is the big deal with Quick Launch anyway?
There's usually nothing there 'cept Show Desktop and Switch Between Windows..., unless, of course, you allow every installer to create a shortcut there!
Wouldn't it be better to pin the Start Menu folder(s) to the Taskbar?

Click to expand...

On the Windows 10 taskbar it isn't actually called Quick Launch, as instead it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch due to the simple fact that the user has positioned it in that particular area (by dragging it there, after unlocking the taskbar first). Since it acts functionally the same and looks the same, people still call it Quick Launch. The folder location that people assign to this toolbar is still usually %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch even though it also is possible to create your own folder and select that one instead, like, e.g., %UserProfile%\Quick Launch, in which case you could then copy the shortcut Show desktop.lnk into it, i.e. instead of deciding to delete the other shortcuts because you don't want those.

The reason why you might want to have the Show desktop icon sitting right next to the Start button is, each time when you want to show the desktop, it can tend to be annoying the fact that the button at the opposite end of the taskbar is such a far distance away from the area where your mouse pointer usually is at, and, in some situations pressing Win + D just takes that little bit of extra effort also. And besides... McKinsey said that you have the right to be lazy...

hdmi said:

On the Windows 10 taskbar it isn't actually called Quick Launch, as instead it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch due to the simple fact that the user has positioned it in that particular area (by dragging it there, after unlocking the taskbar first). Since it acts functionally the same and looks the same, people still call it Quick Launch. The folder location that people assign to this toolbar is still usually %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch even though it also is possible to create your own folder and select that one instead, like, e.g., %UserProfile%\Quick Launch, in which case you could then copy the shortcut Show desktop.lnk into it, i.e. instead of deciding to delete the other shortcuts because you don't want those.

The reason why you might want to have the Show desktop icon sitting right next to the Start button is, each time when you want to show the desktop, it can tend to be annoying the fact that the button at the opposite end of the taskbar is such a far distance away from the area where your mouse pointer usually is at, and, in some situations pressing Win + D just takes that little bit of extra effort also. And besides... McKinsey said that you have the right to be lazy...

Click to expand...

I have no idea what you're talking about. I right click the taskbar, then hover over toolbars and Quick Launch is there with a check mark beside it. I did not name a taskbar; I selected it and populated it.

Wynona said:

I have no idea what you're talking about.

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Navigate to 2:00 in the video that you posted in this thread on Monday, pay attention to each step that follows. If you paste %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch instead of what is shown in the video, all you have to do next is click on the Select Folder button. Using the %AppData% system variable produces the same result as %SystemDrive%\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming even though the former is much shorter, and, adding the \Quick Launch part at the end lets you skip that extra mouseclick on the Quick Launch subfolder─this extra mouseclick appears at 2:15 in the video.

hdmi said:

Navigate to 2:00 in the video that you posted in this thread on Monday, pay attention to each step that follows. If you paste %AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch instead of what is shown in the video, all you have to do next is click on the Select Folder button. Using the %AppData% system variable produces the same result as %SystemDrive%\Users\%username%\AppData\Roaming even though the former is much shorter, and, adding the \Quick Launch part at the end lets you skip that extra mouseclick on the Quick Launch subfolder─this extra mouseclick appears at 2:15 in the video.

Click to expand...

I used that video only as far as getting and installing Explorer Patcher. Once that was done, I followed my own yellow brick road to get and populate the Quick Launch Bar.

What I was talking about is this part of what you posted:

On the Windows 10 taskbar it isn't actually called Quick Launch, as instead it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch due to the simple fact that the user has positioned it in that particular area (by dragging it there, after unlocking the taskbar first). Since it acts functionally the same and looks the same, people still call it Quick Launch.

Click to expand...

That's not the way I get there. Because it's the way I've always done it, I take the long route to get Quick Launch: Right click on the Task Bar, hover over Toolbars>click on New Toolbar>Local Disk (C)>Users>User Name>AppData>Roaming>Microsoft>Internet Explorer, then select the already existing Quick Launch.

I just don't get how you can say it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch. Once I select Quick Launch, the toolbar shows as Quick Launch until I deselect Show title. If I right click the Quick Launch Bar, then select Show title, Quick Launch appears.

Wynona said:

I just don't get how you can say it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch.

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Wynona,

I don't disagree with what you've written or what HDMI has written because the difference between you boils down to little more than perspective & terminology.

The mechanisms involved in Quick launch on WinXP were slightly different to the Quick launch you are referring to, the Quick launch we have now [Win7, Win10, Win11].
Its use is the same but, as HDMI said, it is not quite the same thing underneath.

You set your Quick launch up in the same way that you would set up any Taskbar Toolbar. You just have a bit of a head start because your folder exists & has some entries in it; I have to create mine from scratch.
I also use Taskbar Toolbars in Windows 11. Despite creating my own, there is no difference in the way either of us handle them.
If you ever have a problem with your Quick launch then you'll always get people referring to Taskbar Toolbars in their replies if, like me, they regard Quick launch as merely being one example of a Taskbar toolbar.

I didn't use Explorer patcher to allow me to use Taskbar toolbars in Windows 11. I used My Taskbar setup [post #6] - ElevenForum instead.
Once I had the Taskbar toolbar facility available, everything I did was the same as what you did and the same as the posters did in How to add QuickLaunch [my post #25] - ElevenForum
Once I had the Taskbar toolbar facility available, everything I did was the same as I did on Windows 10 - Taskbar Toolbars - Creating and naming, customising, moving [post #20] - TenForumsTutorials

I include my own Taskbar toolbars in my backups as, I imagine, you do. If you get any problems when IE finally bites the dust, you'll just be able to copy your Quick launch folder backup to another folder and set that as your Taskbar toolbar instead.

All the best,
Denis

Wynona said:

I just don't get how you can say it's just a Taskbar Toolbar that mimics Quick Launch.

Click to expand...

Quick Launch was first introduced in September 1997 on Windows 95 and Windows NT 4.0 through the Windows Desktop Update for Internet Explorer 4 and bundled with Windows 95 OSR 2.5 and Windows 98. It is a section of the taskbar and is located next to the Start button, an area from which it can not be moved (although it can be resized by moving the open programs section). The folder location that contains the actual shortcut files the icons of which appear in Quick Launch can not be selected by the user.

By comparison, toolbars on the Windows 10 taskbar are more customizable and the name/title of a toolbar can also be tweaked by selecting a shortcut that points to a folder in lieu of selecting a folder, as changing the folder location that the shortcut is pointing to is still possible by editing the shortcut after the new toolbar in question has already been added first. In practice, aside from the aforementioned customization options the difference mainly boils down to the fact you can have multiple toolbars one of which can be named Quick Launch if you prefer to name it that, but you can also choose whether to hide the title so then the name only appears in the Toolbars sub menu, and, the only real connection between the name 'Quick Launch' and it is the name of the folder/shortcut that you select when you add the toolbar. On Windows XP, though, the Quick Launch toolbar is enabled by default:

Wynona said:

Once I select Quick Launch, the toolbar shows as Quick Launch until I deselect Show title. If I right click the Quick Launch Bar, then select Show title, Quick Launch appears.

Click to expand...

The only reason why the folder still exists on Windows 10/11 is downward compatibility with a bunch of old programs that want to automatically create a quick launch shortcut for you when you install them. It doesn't stop you from being able to choose a different folder (or different title by applying the little trick that uses a shortcut like how I explained).

Long story made short... Microsoft's decision of removing the IDeskBand2 interface from the component that the Windows 11 taskbar uses feels like arriving late for work in the morning due to running out of hot water. That's how I see it.

hdmi said:

the name/title of a toolbar can also be tweaked by selecting a shortcut that points to a folder in lieu of selecting a folder

Click to expand...

I tried that but it adopted the name of the target folder rather than the name of the shortcut.
How did you manage it?

Denis

Try3 said:

I tried that but it adopted the name of the target folder rather than the name of the shortcut.
How did you manage it?

Denis

Click to expand...

Sorry, I meant to say use a junction (not shortcut) and change the target of the junction whenever you need/want. Changing it in this way can easily be done either programatically or via script, whereas AFAIK trying to futz with a toolbar any other way needs to be done manually or by deleting/exporting/importing the blob from the registry key where all the toolbars are stored─and that requires the explorer.exe to be restarted after that─seemingly no one has ever found how to dissect. (I figure that anyone who wants to add more options to manipulate a toolbar's contents would be better off writing their own custom one from scratch: GitHub - dsafa/CSDeskBand: Windows deskband with C# )

OK

Denis

Digerati said:

Umm, no you didn't.

The "Taskbar" is a totally different thing than the Quick Launch "toolbar".

As seen below, this is my "Taskbar" that has been expanded up to double height. This allows for the 3-line clock/calendar. But it also allows me to put the Quick Launch "Toolbar" on the bottom row and the Address "Toolbar" on the top row.

None of that is possible now.

View attachment 12032

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Which programs do you use to get this result?

Betatester said:

Which programs do you use to get this result?

Click to expand...

Which particular result are you asking about?

To be able to have Taskbar Toolbars, some people use ExplorerPatcher, some use StartAllBack, some use OpenShell, ...
There are discussions about each of them in the forum. These are the links I have kept.
New Version of ExplorerPatcher - ElevenForum
Download the latest version of the EP setup program
Public forums closure - Discussion #1068 - valinet_ExplorerPatcher - GitHub

StartAllBack - ElevenForum
StartAllBack
StartAllBack forum-blog


Best of luck,
Denis

^
Open-Shell doesn't have that option.

EDIT: But after you bring back the Windows 10 Taskbar with either one of the other two programs, Open-Shell can be used to change the visual appearance of the Windows 10 Taskbar (e.g., to change its text color).

Thanks.
So that's one Taskbar Toolbar experiment I won't have to do.
I've altered my previous post.

I'm currently using EP. My next experiment will be StartAllBack.

Denis

I seem to have what you are describing (in W11). Don't ask how I got there though. I'd hate to be without quick launch.