Quick Launch with 24H2?

I seem to have the same problem as Allan.
I have a fresh windows 11 install on a brand new laptop, version 24H2.
(I come from a W7 laptop tweaked to look like xp classic which is when the windows UI peaked imho so you can imagine vanilla w11 is quite a setback in usability for me, I can only imagine Windows is successfully infiltrated by Linux ppl trying to sabotage it or something)

Anyway, so far I have the currently latest versions of openshell (4_4_191), windhawk (v1.5.1) and EP (22621.4317.67.1) installed in an attempt to get something usable , but I have no luck getting quick launch back.

I have already selected taskbar style : Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) in EP as suggested by hdmi, but I have no Toolbars option if I rightclick on an empty space of the taskbar, cfr screenshot.

Sanity check before i try to see if this traytoolbar thingie magically fixes the problem for me too: there should be no other step I have to do in EP to get this, correct ?

Update: I tried doing a restart before playing with traytoolbar and lo and behold, that did gave me the Toolbars option !
So I now have a quick launch toolbar.

The problem I am now running into is that after installing EP apparently the windhawk mod to close taskbar icons with a middle mouse button click does not work anymore. Hopefully they get that sorted out in some future update.

Sorry, I should have posted sooner. After installing 24H2 on several more systems, it became clear that in most cases a restart is required to get the QL toolbar.

BramEPC said:

The problem I am now running into is that after installing EP apparently the windhawk mod to close taskbar icons with a middle mouse button click does not work anymore. Hopefully they get that sorted out in some future update.

Click to expand...

Just turn on Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11, here:

allan said:

Sorry, I should have posted sooner. After installing 24H2 on several more systems, it became clear that in most cases a restart is required to get the QL toolbar.

Click to expand...

Lol, oh well, at least the next person that reads through this thread will now know what to :)

hdmi said:

Just turn on Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11, here:

Click to expand...

That worked! (you have to make sure to click save settings after changing it though which i initially overlooked)
Thanks a lot !

BramEPC said:

That worked! (you have to make sure to click save settings after changing it though which i initially overlooked)

Click to expand...

Yeah.. if you don't remember to save your settings, the hawk turns them to bird poop. lol

hdmi said:

Just turn on Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11, here:

Click to expand...

Do you happen to know a trick for the "Taskbar height and icon size mod ", sadly it does not have something similar in the settings.
Or is there another way to resize the taskbar icons with the explorerpatcher version of the w10 taskbar on w11, i would have expected there was a setting for it in EP since apparently w10 supported it out of the box but apparently not or I am looking over it ?
(i assume the method described in the ''Change Size of Taskbar Icons in Windows 11" tutorial wont work with the custom EP toolbar)

BramEPC said:

Do you happen to know a trick for the "Taskbar height and icon size mod ", sadly it does not have something similar in the settings.
Or is there another way to resize the taskbar icons with the explorerpatcher version of the w10 taskbar on w11, i would have expected there was a setting for it in EP since apparently w10 supported it out of the box but apparently not or I am looking over it ?
(i assume the method described in the ''Change Size of Taskbar Icons in Windows 11" tutorial wont work with the custom EP toolbar)

Click to expand...

Almost no one seems to care, but neither Windhawk nor StartAllBack can be used to make the icons small enough, as these are modding the Windows 11 taskbar. As a result, these are still limited by the fact that the Windows 11 taskbar is just another typical abomination from Microsoft that still has bugs even after more than 3 years, just like the new File Explorer with tabs also still has bugs (and actually causes explorer.exe to randomly crash even today).

With the Taskbar style set to Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) and the Taskbar icon size set to Small in EP settings, using 3840x2160 screen resolution with 150% Scale in Windows Settings, on Windows 11 version 24H2 my taskbar looks like this:

hdmi said:

With the Taskbar style set to Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher) and the Taskbar icon size set to Small in EP settings, using 3840x2160 screen resolution with 150% Scale in Windows Settings, on Windows 11 version 24H2 my taskbar looks like this

Click to expand...

Sorry for the delay i responding, I did not get a notification for your reply and I got sidetracked on another quest to replace the 1tb drive the laptop came with by a 2tb crucial one, and that was also way harder than it needed to be (Both crucial SW and their support people are unable to deal with "modern" uefi bioses which don't have sata mode settings like AHCI/RAID but things like VMD controllers. that lack legacy boot modes, and their arconis cloning tools can't deal with oem sdd's with recovery partitions).

Anyway, I finally have this going so now I am looking at the gui annoyances again.
I overlooked that setting in PE, and it it seems to do the job, thank you !

I also saw in your screenshot you had all your system tray icons visible, which i did not manage to do so far.
I only got battery status/wifi status and volume control there, the others are behind a popup thing, even if I had all of them set to on in Personalisation>Taskbar>other system tray icons.
But after some digging and finding an old reddit thread about the same problem, it seems you have to drag and drop them from the popup to the system tray to get them there (which i did not know was a thing until i read it there).

I also see in your screenshot that you have a bunch of icons in the middle of your taskbar, is that a quick launch bar? But you also have the show desktop icon next to your start button so there is also a quick launch bar there... sooooo 2 quick launch bars ?
Or is there something else going on , like pinned apps on a fixed location on the tasbar ?

BramEPC said:

I also saw in your screenshot you had all your system tray icons visible, which i did not manage to do so far.

Click to expand...

BramEPC said:

I also see in your screenshot that you have a bunch of icons in the middle of your taskbar, is that a quick launch bar? But you also have the show desktop icon next to your start button so there is also a quick launch bar there... sooooo 2 quick launch bars ?
Or is there something else going on , like pinned apps on a fixed location on the tasbar ?

Click to expand...

They are Toolbars.
Quick Launch bar was removed by default as of Windows 7, but is still possible to be re-enabled.
The 'Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)' option in EP restores pretty much all of the Windows 10 taskbar's features. If that wasn't enough, it actually even runs more stable for me on 24H2 than the official Windows 11 taskbar from Microsoft. The latter still has bugs and causes the explorer.exe process to sometimes crash. The former works properly for me and still hasn't caused any troubles; been using it on both laptops both of which have been running on 24H2 as of early October.

Ah. I was again looking at all the wrong places for the icon stuff :). I still think it is a systray thing and not a taskbar thing but okay, as long as I know where the setting is hidden :).

hdmi said:

The 'Windows 10 (ExplorerPatcher)' option in EP restores pretty much all of the Windows 10 taskbar's features

Click to expand...

I added the quick launch bar already (how can anyone live without that ?) but I had not realized you can create multiple ones (I hold on to w7 as long as possible so I skipped everything in between).
Don't think I will do multiple ones but still. interesting to know !

Thanks again for all your help. I think I now have an interface that is acceptable.
Fingers crossed some update does not mess it all up ( probably going to disable automatic updates ).

BramEPC said:

Ah. I was again looking at all the wrong places for the icon stuff :). I still think it is a systray thing and not a taskbar thing but okay, as long as I know where the setting is hidden :).

Click to expand...

On Windows 10, Control Panel lets you navigate to Notification Area Icons. On Windows 11, it will just redirect you to the Settings app's Taskbar page so probably that's why the author of EP decided to put these shortcut links under Taskbar instead of System tray. They are:

Notification Area Icons:
explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9}

System Icons:
explorer shell:::{05d7b0f4-2121-4eff-bf6b-ed3f69b894d9} \SystemIcons

BramEPC said:

I added the quick launch bar already (how can anyone live without that ?) but I had not realized you can create multiple ones (I hold on to w7 as long as possible so I skipped everything in between).
Don't think I will do multiple ones but still. interesting to know !

Click to expand...

It's always been a standard feature of the Windows taskbar since Windows 98. Then Windows 11 came out and the feature was gone, but EP saved me from switching back to Windows 10. The Show Desktop shortcut is just so I don't have to move my mouse all the way to the other end of the taskbar (where the Show Desktop button is at). Whereas the toolbar in the center of my taskbar is what I use to eliminate the need to pin multiple items to the taskbar. So, File Explorer is all that I have pinned to taskbar. As a result, I get a clear, non cluttered overview of open apps. That plus the fact that the icons on the toolbar take up less room on the taskbar when compared to pinning items to taskbar.

As an aside, it also is possible (and easy) to write your own script code that, each time when some certain, specific, action occurs in your workflow, changes one or more icons that appear on a toolbar. These changes become visible pretty much instantly. So, it is possible to use simple scripting techniques to replace an icon with a greyed out version of it until another action occurs to trigger your script that will replace the icon back to its original, for example. With a little bit of extra creativity, you can make toolbars behave so much more interactively when needed; a toolbar doesn't necessarily always have to be just an elementary group of icons positioned on a bar.

BramEPC said:

Fingers crossed some update does not mess it all up ( probably going to disable automatic updates ).

Click to expand...

Disabling Windows Automatic Updates is definitely not recommended for most users. Personally, I, much prefer to keep Windows 11 and device drivers always fully updated. To get the latest drivers, I use the official methods from the manufacturers that they publish on their websites. A lot of them provide software tools to periodically check for new updates automatically. In addition, I always install the latest version of EP (EP pre-release version or not). To me, reasons to prevent updates and reasons to revert back to earlier versions have become pretty much nonexistent. Exceptions to this are the Windows 11 taskbar and the Windows 11 File Explorer with tabs. These ones I revert back to their Windows 10 version by using EP so as to prevent Windows 11 from messing itself up in worse ways than most other things that I have seen in a long while.

For anyone coming here: When using startallback, when the taskbar is locked, the option 'Toolbars' is not always displayed. I had to unlock the taskbar to get it to show up. Then, after selecting a toolbar (quick launch), the Toolbar option stays visible, also when the taskbar is locked.

I have 3 questions:
I finally got Explorer Patcher all set up this week, with a Quicklaunch bar on my taskbar (thanks for all the tips on this thread!)… then two updates ran overnight:
2025-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5050009)
2025-01 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5049622)

After the updates, my Quicklaunch bar icons became tiny. I right-clicked on taskbar/View and changed it from Small to Large icons, and they got a little bigger, but were still tiny. Then went into Properties and clicked on Restart File Explorer(*). This made them larger, but now they are too large. Before this, the first 11 shortcuts I had in Quicklaunch only occupied maybe 1.5-2 inches on the left of the toolbar, now they are taking up 3.5 inches (too much real estate on the Taskbar). I tried toggling between large and small icon size under View, but it barely makes any difference. I powered down and restarted the computer, but that didn't help. Is there any way to get them smaller?

Second question:
I've found the QuickLaunch bar can be a bit finicky around maintaining the order I put the icons in on the bar and it sometimes reshuffles the order, especially when I first was adding new shortcuts and arranging them. I then of course locked the taskbar when I was done.
But with these updates, it completely reordered the shortcut icons.

Is there any way to maintain the order you place them in on the Quicklaunch bar such that future updates, etc won't reshuffle them?

3rd question:
I have Explorer Patcher set to "never combine" taskbar icons on the primary and secondary taskbars, which it does. However, instead of placing new files or folders in the order they were opened on the taskbar, it places similar items next to each other.

Is there a way to have new items placed in the order they were opened (7+Taskbar Tweaker used to do this well)?

The attached screenshot shows both the 'too large' QL icons and the ordering I described on the main part of the Taskbar (the second folder titled "Peter's stuff" was opened after Mozilla was, but was place next to the folder "Lenovo.." instead of to the right of Mozilla.



Thanks for any advice and help!

Welcome to the forums!

Peter27 said:

I have 3 questions:
I finally got Explorer Patcher all set up this week, with a Quicklaunch bar on my taskbar (thanks for all the tips on this thread!)… then two updates ran overnight:
2025-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5050009)
2025-01 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5049622)

After the updates, my Quicklaunch bar icons became tiny. I right-clicked on taskbar/View and changed it from Small to Large icons, and they got a little bigger, but were still tiny. Then went into Properties and clicked on Restart File Explorer(*). This made them larger, but now they are too large. Before this, the first 11 shortcuts I had in Quicklaunch only occupied maybe 1.5-2 inches on the left of the toolbar, now they are taking up 3.5 inches (too much real estate on the Taskbar). I tried toggling between large and small icon size under View, but it barely makes any difference. I powered down and restarted the computer, but that didn't help. Is there any way to get them smaller?

Second question:
I've found the QuickLaunch bar can be a bit finicky around maintaining the order I put the icons in on the bar and it sometimes reshuffles the order, especially when I first was adding new shortcuts and arranging them. I then of course locked the taskbar when I was done.
But with these updates, it completely reordered the shortcut icons.

Is there any way to maintain the order you place them in on the Quicklaunch bar such that future updates, etc won't reshuffle them?

3rd question:
I have Explorer Patcher set to "never combine" taskbar icons on the primary and secondary taskbars, which it does. However, instead of placing new files or folders in the order they were opened on the taskbar, it places similar items next to each other.

Is there a way to have new items placed in the order they were opened (7+Taskbar Tweaker used to do this well)?

The attached screenshot shows both the 'too large' QL icons and the ordering I described on the main part of the Taskbar (the second folder titled "Peter's stuff" was opened after Mozilla was, but was place next to the folder "Lenovo.." instead of to the right of Mozilla.

View attachment 122133

Thanks for any advice and help!

Click to expand...

There is no Win10 taskbar with QuickLaunch in 24H2. If you're using something resembling it, tell what you're using.

Anixx said:

There is no Win10 taskbar with QuickLaunch in 24H2. If you're using something resembling it, tell what you're using.

Click to expand...

Yes, as I understand it from this thread, 24H2 removed QL. I am using Explorer Patcher, the latest version 22621.4317.67.1, set to "Taskbar Style: Windows 10 (Explorer Patcher)". This allows one to create a QuickLaunch section for the toolbar. It was working fine until the two updates last night that I note.

Peter27 said:

3rd question:
I have Explorer Patcher set to "never combine" taskbar icons on the primary and secondary taskbars, which it does. However, instead of placing new files or folders in the order they were opened on the taskbar, it places similar items next to each other.

Click to expand...

Lol, i was juuuuust starting to get annoyed by this too, i am glad I am not the only one :).
Even if you move them manually, it moves the entire group of similar items to the new location.
So far I have not found any setting controlling this, i would be very interested as well in a solution.

Anyone ?

Peter27 said:

I have 3 questions:
I finally got Explorer Patcher all set up this week, with a Quicklaunch bar on my taskbar (thanks for all the tips on this thread!)… then two updates ran overnight:
2025-01 Cumulative Update for Windows 11 Version 24H2 for x64-based Systems (KB5050009)
2025-01 Cumulative Update for .NET Framework 3.5 and 4.8.1 for Windows 11, version 24H2 for x64 (KB5049622)

After the updates, my Quicklaunch bar icons became tiny. I right-clicked on taskbar/View and changed it from Small to Large icons, and they got a little bigger, but were still tiny. Then went into Properties and clicked on Restart File Explorer(*). This made them larger, but now they are too large. Before this, the first 11 shortcuts I had in Quicklaunch only occupied maybe 1.5-2 inches on the left of the toolbar, now they are taking up 3.5 inches (too much real estate on the Taskbar). I tried toggling between large and small icon size under View, but it barely makes any difference. I powered down and restarted the computer, but that didn't help. Is there any way to get them smaller?

Second question:
I've found the QuickLaunch bar can be a bit finicky around maintaining the order I put the icons in on the bar and it sometimes reshuffles the order, especially when I first was adding new shortcuts and arranging them. I then of course locked the taskbar when I was done.
But with these updates, it completely reordered the shortcut icons.

Is there any way to maintain the order you place them in on the Quicklaunch bar such that future updates, etc won't reshuffle them?

3rd question:
I have Explorer Patcher set to "never combine" taskbar icons on the primary and secondary taskbars, which it does. However, instead of placing new files or folders in the order they were opened on the taskbar, it places similar items next to each other.

Is there a way to have new items placed in the order they were opened (7+Taskbar Tweaker used to do this well)?

The attached screenshot shows both the 'too large' QL icons and the ordering I described on the main part of the Taskbar (the second folder titled "Peter's stuff" was opened after Mozilla was, but was place next to the folder "Lenovo.." instead of to the right of Mozilla.

View attachment 122133

Thanks for any advice and help!

Click to expand...

1. Try changing the Taskbar icon size to Small in ExplorerPatcher settings first. Then when the taskbar is unlocked, right-click on the separator between the Search icon and the QuickLaunch, choose View, and change it back to Small icons. The result also depends on your Display resolution and Scale, though. (These can be found in Windows Settings > System > Display.)

2. For me, Windows updates do not reshuffle the icons on my toolbar. When you right-clicked on an empty space on the taskbar > Toolbars > New toolbar... > what folder did you pick there?

3. Disable grouping on the taskbar
IMO also check out Taskbar Labels for Windows 11

hdmi said:

3. Disable grouping on the taskbar
IMO also check out Taskbar Labels for Windows 11

Click to expand...

I don't know about Peter27 but i have that windhawk mod for disable grouping active.

And in its settings
"Place ungrouped items together" is disabled,

​

and "Customize the old taskbar on Windows 11" is selected​

But it still places ungrouped items of the same type together ?

Take for example:

If i open a new double commander, it will appear between the second double commander and foobar.
Or if i move a single double commander behind foobar, it moves all of them.

So I can not create a situation with [double commander] [foobar] [double commander]
Is that possible on your system ?

(I don't think there is something in Taskbar labels that seems to influence this ? )