Windows – How to change the Windows 7 taskbar position (overriding GPO, Registry Editor, Admin. Rights)

taskbarwindows 7windows-registry

I run the computer center of my Faculty and the problem is that users manage to change the Windows 7 taskbar position. I don't really know how they do this as far as I have applied many group policies that are specific to the taskbar (like locking it). I have also disallowed users from entering new registry keys or executing the command prompt (or employing scripts). They have regular user rights and many Windows 7 tweaking programs need administrator rights to make changes to the GUI. So in other words, the taskbar is locked, there is a policy that sets its position to the lower part of the screen, users can't see the control panel, add registry keys, use the command prompt and don't have admin. rights.

How do they keep moving the taskbar position to the upper part of the screen?

Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Best Answer

I run a LAN cafe and I also have problems with the taskbar either going up or to the left. The account used by clients is locked down through group policy and registry edits so clients have very limited access. I am using Windows 7 x64. I think in my case this has something to do with some old (early 2000s) full screen applications (games) that do not support widescreen resolutions, or the culprit may be the lockscreen of the cafe management software that I use - or both. I have searched extensively for this before but found no answers.

My solution was to use a registry file with the correct taskbar settings. So every time the taskbar moves, I log out the client account, log in to the administrator account, load the registry hive of the client account, run the .reg file, then unload the client registry.

I found the registry settings here: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/1066-taskbar-move-location-desktop-screen.html.

This is for placing the taskbar at the bottom: Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_USERS\client02\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Explorer\StuckRects2] "Settings"=hex:28,00,00,00,ff,ff,ff,ff,02,00,00,00,03,00,00,00,3e,00,00,00,2e,\ 00,00,00,00,00,00,00,82,04,00,00,80,07,00,00,b0,04,00,00

Load/unload a registry hive: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc732157.aspx Heed the warnings about editing the registry. Registry backup and restore: www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/4230-registry-backup-restore.html

How do I check if a key is present in the Windows registry?

This can be done using reg query key:

This command will set %errorlevel%.
errorlevel=0 means the key exists.
errorlevel=1 means the key does not exist.

How do I add a key to the windows registry?

To add a key if it is not present use reg add key.

Example batch file

@echo off
reg query mykey >nul
if %errorlevel% equ 0 (
  echo "mykey exists- do nothing"
) else (
  echo "mykey does not exist - add the key and give it a value"
  reg add mykey
  reg add mykey /v value ...
)

Best Answer

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Example batch file

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