Question

I want to enable users to view the windows Quick Launch bar via DLL call (I checked the registry modification option but it’s the route around).

I know the functionality is stored in shell32.dll and it the DLL can be accessed by rundll32.exe.

rundll32.exe shell32.dll

My question is:

Can anyone point me to a through reference of the shell32.dll entry points and arguments, or knows of a program that extracts it from the DLL itself?

Answer 1

Raymond Chen from the Windows shell team discusses this in a blog article.

In short there is no documented, supported way to do this on XP. You’ll need to continue using the hack you’ve found. In Vista you can use ITrayDeskBand. Windows 7 task bar is, of course, different again.

Raymond also points out that programs should not be changing the user’s choice of visibility for the Quick Launch bar.

That’s not something a program should be doing. Whether
the Quick Launch bar is shown or hidden is an end user
setting, and programs should not be overriding the user’s
preferences. Explorer consciously does not expose an
interface for showing and hiding taskbar bands because it
would just be a target for abuse. Much like the program that wants to uninstall other programs, the taskbar would become a battleground among programs that each wanted
to force themselves on and force their opponents off. The user is the arbiter of what goes into the Taskbar.