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Where's My Quick Launch?

Toronto Star Fast Forward column for July 5, 2001

Copyright ©, Myles White, 2001. All rights reserved.

It's been some time since I offered a Windows tip and responded to mail. This week, I'm going to do both.

For example, one reader (who is going to remain nameless to save embarrassment) came up with a problem I've heard about from others. She had one of those days when her teenage son decided to "improve" her computer. It doesn't have to be one of your kids, by the way. It could be any other well-meaning relative or friend, or simply the results of your own experiments with the Windows operating system that causes things like this to happen.

In this case, once the smoke cleared, the original "Quick Launch" section of her toolbar, the one that used to nestle happily next to her Start button, had disappeared. "No problem," she thought, "I'll simply right-click on the Start Menu bar, select "Toolbars" from the pop-up context menu, then restore the checkmark next to Quick Launch that has obviously been disabled."

Oops. Instead of her happy Quick Launch bar, with the icon to clear the desktop, launch Internet Explorer and Outlook Express, plus the other items she'd added to it over time, she got a nice, big, friendly Microsoft Error Message instead that said 'Cannot create toolbar for "' No joy. Much sadness and puzzlement.

Before I go much farther, to help those of you who don't know what the devil the Quick Launch section of the Start Bar is, it's actually a part of the changes that occur to older versions of Windows 95 when you upgrade to Internet Explorer 4.0 or higher. It's a standard part of Windows 98, 98SE, ME, and 2000, because those versions of Windows come with newer versions of Internet Explorer.

Restoring Quick Launch

You get the "Cannot create..." message above if the folder on your hard drive that once contained the icons and corresponding shortcuts for Quick Launch has been deleted. Urk.

According to the Microsoft Knowledge Base, here's how Windows 9x/ME users get it back:

Most people will create a folder named "Quick Launch" (without the quotes) at the following location: C:\Windows\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\. To do this, open Windows Explorer, navigate to the folder above, plant your cursor in the folder contents in the right-hand pane, then select File/New/Folder.

However, if you're using Windows Profiles, where each user of your computer can customize the environment, create the Quick Launch folder at the following location: C:\Windows\Profiles\[profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\, where [profile name]is the name of the currently logged on user. (Do not include the brackets.)

Windows 2000 users will put it in C:\Documents and Settings\[profile name]\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\, where profile name (without the brackets) will be whomever is currently logged in.

That was fairly simple, but it's only the beginning. You can now add the Quick Launch toolbar to the Start bar, but it will be empty. Next, you'll want to add items to it.

The easiest way to do this, is to find the program you want to add to the launcher by clicking the Start button, selecting programs, finding the program you want to add on the list, then right-clicking and holding on the program name, then dragging the name to the Quick Launch toolbar and, when you release the mouse button, selecting Copy here. You'll know you've dragged the item to the correct place when the cursor changes shape from a circle with a bar through it, to an "I-beam."

This does work for all Windows applications, including Internet Explorer and Oulook Express (as well as similar programs made by other companies), But it won't work for the Show Desktop or View Channels commands.

Show Me My Desktop!

The Show Desktop command is useful if you need to see your desktop quickly and can't be bothered to rotate through all currently active applications to minimize them. Creating it when it's lost is a bit tedious, but worth the effort. To re-create the Show Desktop icon on the Quick Launch toolbar, follow these steps:

Use any text editor (such as Notepad) to create a file with the following lines:

[Shell] 
Command=2 
IconFile=explorer.exe,3 

[Taskbar] 
Command=ToggleDesktop

All punctuation, capitalization, and spacing are important. Save the new file as a file named Show Desktop.scf in the Windows\System or Winnt\System32 folder. Note that Notepad may automatically append a .txt extension to the file name. Remove this extension if Notepad adds it. These steps do not work if the file is named Show Desktop.scf.txt.

Quit Notepad.

Using Windows Explorer or My Computer, navigate to the appropriate folder, then right-click the Show Desktop.scf file. Select Create Shortcut from the pop-up menu.

Still using Windows Explorer, and if you're using Windows 95, 98, 98SE, or ME, copy the new shortcut to the appropriate folder where you created Quick Launch as described above.

If you're using Windows NT or Microsoft Windows 2000, copy the shortcut to Winnt\System32

Copy? Highlight the file, then choose Copy from the Edit menu at the top of the Windows Explorer window. When you've navigated to your Quick Launch (or Winnt\System32) folder, plant the cursor in the folder, then choose Paste from the same Edit menu.

Rename the shortcut to Desktop. (Either select the file with the right mouse button and choose "rename" from the pop-up menu to edit the name, or highlight the filename and press F2.)

The Show Desktop icon automatically appears on the Quick Launch toolbar.

I Miss My Channels

In the unlikely event that you also want to restore the View Channels icon to the Quick Launch bar, Windows 9X/ME users follow a similar procedure to the one outlined above. Microsoft doesn't explain how to restore this icon in Windows NT or 2000, either because their document is dated or because they realize that people with the "business" versions of Windows don't want to view channels. I know which one I suspect most.

In this case, once you've opened Notepad or other pure text editor, type the following lines (again, punctuation, capitalization, and spacing are important).

[Shell] 
Command=3 
IconFile=shdocvw.dll,-118

[IE] 
Command=Channels

Save the file into the appropriate Quick Launch folder (see above) and name it View Channels.scf. Once in place, it will automatically appear in the Quick Launch toolbar.

Out, Darn It, Out!

Okay. You restored your Quick Launch toolbar; you've added some things. When your back is turned, kind old Uncle Fred (or whomever) comes along and adds a bunch of stuff you don't want. How do you get rid of it?

We don't have to be so drastic as to blow away the Quick Launch folder again (although that will certainly do the trick). Instead, simply grab the icon firmly with the right-mouse button, then drag it to the Recycle Bin. Select Move from the menu that appears when you release the button. Voila! It's banished.