Quick Launch Toolbar Problem 1

[GeekBros]

Greetings fellow Techies,

This one's got me by the short-hairs! I have done a fair amount of research for this particular problem, including the MS Knowledge Base, other forums, etc., and can not find the solution. Hopefully my search will end here in this forum with the help of the many superb individuals who lurk and participate herein.

With that said, I present the following:

I recently built 2 identical systems for a customer. Both have the exact same makeup - both hardware and software. Both are running 98SE. On one of them, the Quick Launch (QL)Toolbar will not display. It shows that is indeed enabled, and when I attempt to place an icon in the QL area, I am asked if I want to replace the existing shortcut with the new one. Standard stuff right? Not so fast... 2 weird things happen. First, the dialog box containing the question listed above should show two icons. One next to the part about "existing shortcut" and one next to the part about the "new one". It only shows the icon for the "new one". Also the "existing shortcut" is always shown as being 403 bytes in size no matter what I attempt to drag there. So continuing on, I answer to the affirmative confirming that I want to replace the shortcut, blah, blah, blah... The dialog box then disappears as it should and Presto! nothing appears on the QL Toolbar. Every other type of toolbar displays correctly when selected from the taskbar\toolbars menu. I have ensured that IE4 stuff is enabled correctly. The system is new enough that I was able to retrieve the original Registry .cab file from the day I installed the OS, thereby restoring it as the current Registry. Still no luck. When I delivered these PC's to the client, the QL Toolbar was working properly on both of them. I know because I showed the client how to access the desktop using the QL on the very system that is now my nemesis. Many thanks in advance for any help you may have with this. The client is beginning to get frustrated (as am I) and even starting to doubt my abilities because of this.

Regards,

Steve McLean
Owner
Geek Bros. Computers

 

[Latefersupper]

1. Have you looked in the "C:\WINDOWS\Application Data\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch" folder to verify and/or delete the existing links?
2. Have you dragged the taskbar to a larger size to be sure the quicklaunch toolbar is still inside it? (It's possible to completely disconnect it from the taskbar and dock it elsewhere. Enable auto-hide and look under it... could be there. Hell, there could even be two of 'em... play around with it & you'll see what I mean.)
)

 

[GeekBros]

Hi Latefersupper,

Thanks for your quick reply. Unfortunately, I have done all of the things you suggest to no avail. This one's really got me stumped. I suppose the next step is ultimately going to be a re-format and reload unless a solution is found pretty quickly. The thing that sucks about this situation is, not knowing the why's and how's of the problem to begin with. I hate the kind of pesky little problems which you never quite figure out before finally giving-in and wiping the hard drive. Knowudda mean?!

Steve

 

[gargoil1974]

Hello

I do not have Win 98 infront of me at this time but you may want to try to update IE to 5 or 6.

Also take a look to see if your customer has TweakUI installed. They may have made some changes.

These links may help:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q273785&ID=KB;EN-US;Q273785

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=KB;EN-US;Q199059&ID=KB;EN-US;Q199059

Hope this helps.

 

[GeekBros]

Thanks for your reply gargoil.

IE is Ver. 6.01 w/ service patch. Tweakui isn't installed. Thanks for the links to the articles in the MSKB, but already had searched and found them with no help from them either. I appreciate the time you took to offer assistance.

Regards,
Steve

 

[gargoil1974]

The only other thing I can think of is Right-clicking on the Quick Launch bar and selecting "Refresh".

I wish I had more for you.

 

[Latefersupper]

I forgot the obvious..... have you tried restoring a previous copy of the registry?
If you're not familiar with the procedure:
Since, by default, the system only saves 5 backup copies (and it deletes the oldest one of the five when you do this), it would be prudent to copy them to the desktop 'til you're finished, so.....
Restart in MS-DOS mode, then type the following commands, each ending with the 'Enter' key.

c:
cd\windows\sysbckup
copy /b rb*.cab \windows\desktop\*.*
scanreg /restore

Choose the oldest backup that was started successfully and when it's done, reboot.

 

[GeekBros]

Greets Latefersupper,

Your suggestion to restore a prev. version of the Registry is Marvelous...., however, as I stated in my original post, I already tried that.

Perhaps I should have stated in my original post that I am a former Issue Tracking Specialist for issues related to and originating from the Windows 95/98 OS Platform. The only reason I'm stating it now is to relay to some extent the level of expertise I have in dealing with the virus we call Windows

No offense intended, and believe me, I do indeed appreciate the time taken by all who post replies to this thread.

Regards,
Steve

 

[Latefersupper]

Sorry Steve, didn't mean to offend.... missed the "original Registry .cab" blurb in the very first paragraph.... regards to Evelyn Wood. Your expertise is probably far greater than my own, and this bug IS a stumper!
What value do you show in the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Policies\Explorer\NoSaveSettings key?
Once had a problem with a ql bar (as well as the task bar) that would return to an unacceptable size & shape upon each reboot no matter to what condition it was set & found that changing '01 00 00 00' to '00 00 00 00' in that key fixed it. (STILL don't know how the '0' bit fell into the bucket.)
I'll keep my eyes peeled & if I wake up in the middle of the night with an inspiration, I'll post it. If you find a solution short of backup/wipe/reinstall, PLEASE post it!
)

 

[GeekBros]

Greets Latefersupper,

You didn't offend in any way, believe me. On the contrary. After re-reading my last post in this thread, I realized how "uppity" it made me sound and with the sincerity of a thousand monks, that was not my intention. I merely wanted to let you guys know that I too had a higher level of expertise than the average bear, and that we were all thinking along the same lines. As for finding the cause or the fix, well, we'll have to wait 'til the next time it manifests itself, 'cause the preverbial slate has been wiped clean. Another one of those pains in the A** that make you go "What the F**K?!" I think things like this are built in to the OS just to keep us techie types humble (or slightly insane).

Thanks to you and to all for posting your suggestions and ideas. It's nice to know that this forum exists and that the individuals who are in the know are standing-by eager to help a fellow Geek-in-need!

Regards,

Steve