Taskbar toolbars - how to get them back? Windows 11 Taskbar sucks!

[t8769]

Is there an app or anything that will return taskbar toolbars?

The new Toolbar is really bad.
I navigate to all my files using toolbars or right clicking an item in the Start menu search.

If anyone knows how to get these toolbars back, or something similar, please let me know.

 

[davehc]

I don't use it as you do. Bu, would it not be the same if you pasted your shortcuts for programs to the Taskbar?
Or us the menu, as is. Just add you own icons to the panel.

Just a thought!

 

[t8769]

I do not understand this.
I want to put expandable folders in the Taskbar or start menu, toolbars.

thanks

 

[EdS817]

I too miss the toolbars. I hide my desktop icons & had the desktop toolbar on the Taskbar to access what's there.

 

[davehc]

At the present time, it is impossible to delete the large " Reccomend" square in the start menu. Possibly, reading this thread and several others on the same subject, it is Microsoft's intention to use that spce for all of your shortcuts, hence eliminating the requirement for the taskbar/toolbars. - Two clicks and you are in what you want? - just a thought?

 

[tannenba]

I've had to put my quick launch folder on my desktop. No, won't let it be pinned to the taskbar. Hate the new menu, who the H... does the recommending? I can't do my own recommending? Microsoft has gone from bad to worse. I've supported computers since Dos 3 days and Microsoft doesn't care how we use our systems, they want you to use it their way. The way of the desktop workstation is over for them even though that is not true for many of us/

 

[chronos55]

use Winaero Tweaker portable.changes taskbar to same as windows 10

 

[Mickey52]

I wondered that myself I used hidden commands better know as power strip a lot using Win 10. It is still there in Win11. Simple right click the start button on tasks bar all are there as they were before. Start button is four divided squares looking button in case you have not figured that out yet.

 

[Guybrush1966]

Is there an app or anything that will return taskbar toolbars?

The new Toolbar is really bad.
I navigate to all my files using toolbars or right clicking an item in the Start menu search.

If anyone knows how to get these toolbars back, or something similar, please let me know.

I use the following -

StartAllBack to fix all Windows 11 deal-breaking UI issues

StartAllBack restores taskbar, start menu, context menus, explorer, sanity, style and order!

www.startallback.com

I have a fully functional Start Menu, Old style Taskbar, Quick Launch, Old style context menus and the Explorer ribbon back. Makes Windows 11 functional again

Guybrush

 

[Neily135]

ExplorerPatcher will replace the windows 11 taskbar with Windows 10 Style Taskbar. Toolbars can then be added the same way as Windows 10

 

[t8769]

That's great to hear, thanks for letting us know.
I'll stick with Win10 for a while, I didn't see any real improvement with WIn11

 

[alan sh]

I use the following -

StartAllBack to fix all Windows 11 deal-breaking UI issues

StartAllBack restores taskbar, start menu, context menus, explorer, sanity, style and order!

www.startallback.com

I have a fully functional Start Menu, Old style Taskbar, Quick Launch, Old style context menus and the Explorer ribbon back. Makes Windows 11 functional again

Guybrush

Does Quick Launch get enabled with startallback or did you do something else?

Alan

 

[t8769]

Does StartALlBack bring back Win10 taskbar toolbars?

I tried it and could not get it to do this.

 

[Trouble]

Does StartALlBack bring back Win10 taskbar toolbars?

Technically, none of these third party shell overlays "bring back" anything.
It requires some considerable tweaking within each of these options to get anything even remotely similar to any previous appearance and behavior.
I own licensed copies of both StartAllBack as well as Start11, and...
I wasn't very happy with the results that they produced although I tried them both very early in their development and I expect new versions of each have fixed some of the early issues.

There is a suggestion above from another member regarding Explorer Patcher which I have found to be the simplest to use and tweak.
AND
While I have never found any use for the Quick Launch toolbar (ever) I thought I would see what I could do with it and it seems to be easy enough to put in place and populate.
My taskbar overall is more manageable as I can resize it, relocate it to the top or either side of the monitor.
I've got my start menu oriented to the left when it opens and defaulted to "All Apps".
Got the Quick Launch Toolbar (I kept title and text on, which you can adjust as you wish).
Got the Ribbon back on File Explorer

Simply run the file, don't freak out because it puts a single file into place and then downloads a few extra from Microsoft so your screen goes BLACK for a few seconds and Explorer.exe restarts.
Afterwards, simply right click the Taskbar and choose "Properties" and you'll see an interface that you can peruse and decide what you want to tweak.

Best of all it's free Open Source and apparently quite easy to Uninstall, although I haven't tried it yet, still playing around.

Release 22000.348.39.1 · valinet/ExplorerPatcher

Tested on build 22000.348. New features Built-in support for build 22000.348. Implemented option to toggle taskbar auto-hide when double clicking the main taskbar (#389) Running ep_setup.exe again...

github.com

 

[t8769]

Thanks for the info but will these put Toolbars back in the Taskbar?

 

[Guybrush1966]

Does Quick Launch get enabled with startallback or did you do something else?

Alan

Sorry Pal, missed this. Yes in that it adds Windows 10 Taskbar, so the option to "Add New Toolbar" is back

 

[t8769]

 

[coover]

ExplorerPatcher is wonderful and it does bring back the Windows 10 taskbar, changing nothing else. And it has several options, one to go back to the Windows 11 taskbar with one simple click of the mouse, and then back to the Windows 10 taskbar, again one click of the mouse. It is much better than StartAllBack and is FREE

 

[t8769]

Will check it out

 

[alan sh]

It looks like a combination of Open Shell and the ExplorerPatcher gives me back everything I need. I get resizable taskbar (size and height), quicklaunch and WIndows 7 menu style.

Good news so far.

Alan