Member Avatar for piglet48

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Yesterday when my virsus scan updated and windows updated, I rebooted and when I got back on my quick launch toolbar had disappeared. I did a search for Quick Launch and found the folder- so it was there- sent it to the desktop and dragged it down. When I right clik on the toolbar and try to check mark Quick launch I get a message that says 'cannot create toolbar'. When I dragged the folder down there it shows up but as another 'quick launch toolbar' when I right clik on the toolbar/toolbars--there are now 2. the old one gets the error message and the new one works. It looks different and actually says "quick launch' but it does work. What happened anyway? NO virus. :o

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— The behaviour you describe (Quick Launch folder still exists; dragging it back creates a fresh, working toolbar while the original Quick Launch entry says "cannot create toolbar") usually means Explorer's saved toolbar metadata got out of sync during the update. The actual shortcuts are fine, but Explorer is holding a stale/corrupt toolbar entry that it cannot instantiate.

Check and repair the folder itself first. On Windows XP the Quick Launch folder lives at:
%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch
Enable "Show hidden files and folders" and "Show protected operating system files" in Folder Options, open that folder and look for a desktop.ini. If desktop.ini looks corrupted (weird text, wrong CLSID, etc.), rename it to desktop.ini.bak or delete it. Make sure the folder has the system+hidden attributes so Explorer treats it correctly — from a command prompt:
attrib +s +h "%APPDATA%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch"

Refresh Explorer next. Save work, then end explorer.exe in Task Manager and start it again (File → New Task → explorer.exe) or simply log off/reboot. That flushes in-memory toolbar state. You already have a working toolbar copy; if the old, broken Quick Launch still appears in the Toolbars list after a restart, it means the stale entry is stored in your user settings. Safe recovery options: remove the broken toolbar via the Taskbar Toolbars UI if possible, rebuild Quick Launch from your backed-up shortcuts, or create a new user profile and copy the Quick Launch contents there.

If none of the GUI fixes work and you’re comfortable with advanced repairs, the stale entry can be removed by clearing Explorer’s saved toolbar/layout entries in the user registry — but only after exporting a registry backup. As asked, confirm the OS before applying XP-specific paths; and as suggested, restarting Explorer is the least-destructive first step.

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Member Avatar for alc6379

What OS are you running?

It sounds like something corrupted it. If you're running ME, you might be able to do a System Restore. If it's 98, you could try running sfc /scannow from Start -> Run.

Member Avatar for mikeandike22

just right click and say add toolbars or if it is an explorer.exe problem just go to task manager and restart it.

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