Windows 10: Missing taskbar shortcuts on startup

2

As my title suggests, I am missing all my taskbar shortcuts on startup of Windows 10. I have fount my own workaround for now: When I pin/unpin something from the taskbar the rest of the pinned shortcuts show up.

OS:

Windows 10 Pro - Version: 1703 - OS Build: 15063.13

Since this is my first question here, and I can't post multiple links, I've gathered my screenshots of the error and the workaround here:

screenshots

Have any of you experienced this? And possibly have a better solution for it than my current workaround..?

Dennis Jensen

Posted 2017-06-18T10:30:38.867

Reputation: 23

Are you in Tablet Mode? Have you installed Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware? – harrymc – 2017-06-18T11:30:30.853

No, I am in Desktop mode, and yes, Bitdefender's Ransomware Protection is running. – Dennis Jensen – 2017-06-18T11:52:15.907

Go to this folder "%AppData%\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Quick Launch\User Pinned\TaskBar", how many shortcuts do you see? Also see the Favorites registry value in "HKCU\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\Taskband", do you see all the shortcuts path? – Biswapriyo – 2017-06-18T12:57:34.667

When looking in the folder I saw all but two shortcuts - Chrome and Mail. I tried unpinning those two and rebooting, but no change...

How do you read the value from the registry? All i see is the hex value... – Dennis Jensen – 2017-06-18T13:46:17.987

Try disabling Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware - it had a problem in this domain (I don't know if that problem is fixed by now). – harrymc – 2017-06-18T16:00:14.013

@harrymc Yep. That did it! I've tinkered with it and it seems to be an issue with the "Protect at boot" option... Turning that off solved the issue. Thank you! :D (If you wanna write up an answer I'll mark it as correct) – Dennis Jensen – 2017-06-18T16:52:20.693

Found this forum post: https://forum.bitdefender.com/index.php?/topic/74118-sent2devel-protection-at-boot/

If you remove Desktop from protected folders it will leave the taskbar alone, even with "Protection at boot" on.

– Dennis Jensen – 2017-06-18T17:02:19.107

@DennisJensen: Done as requested. – harrymc – 2017-06-18T18:32:39.690

Answers

0

Bitdefender Anti-Ransomware is known for causing problems with the taskbar.

The first report of this problem seems to date from January 2016 :
Windows 10 Quick Launch Icons Disappear Upon Reboot.

The accepted workaround that was found says:

This "disappearing" task bar icon issue only happens when the "Desktop" folder is being protected by the Bitdefender 2016 Anti-Ransomware module. If you remove the "Desktop" folder from the list of protected folders, the problem is resolved.

For more information see the Bitdefender article
How to add exclusions (exceptions) in Bitdefender 2016.

The poster has also found that turning off the "Protect at boot" option also solves the issue.

harrymc

Posted 2017-06-18T10:30:38.867

Reputation: 306 093

Asked: 2017-06-18T10:30:38.867

Viewed: 3 076 times

Active: 2017-06-18T18:35:55.227