6 Comments

Move IE7′s menu bar back to the top

November 16, 2006 by in Howto,Tech with 6 Comments

Does anyone else think that IE7′s menu bar placement was a little awkward? I know I did. It took me a little bit to adjust to the position of the menubar – being one line lower than that on a “normal” browser. Is it Microsoft attempting to be different? Or a subtle interface tweak designed to improve a browsers user experience?

If you prefer to have the menu bar at the top of the browser (where it naturally should be), simply follow the steps below:

  • If IE 7 is opened, close it before doing anything
  • Open the Registry Editor (Start > Run > type ‘regedit’ and hit enter)
  • Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ InternetExplorer
  • Right-click the right part of the registry editor, select New->DWORD Value ITBar7Position
  • Double-click the newly created value and enter 1
  • Restart IE 7

Much better. No more disorientation for browser users who jump between Firefox, Opera, and IE 7 [via]. Now that Microsoft is rollowing out automatic updates for Internet Explorer 7, I can certainly bet that new users will feel a little disoriented with the new layout.


  • Rob D

    Nice Hack Dan Derek…I hate the postion of the toolbar…blah
    but… you have to go farther into the registry to get it to work…should be this:

    Browse to HKEY_CURRENT_USER \ Software \ Microsoft \ InternetExplorer \ Toolbar \ WebBrowser and be sure that the WebBrowser key is selected

  • Rob D

    Make sure you edit and/or name the DWORD Value “ITBar7Position” (with out the quotes)

  • http://5thirtyone.com Derek

    @Rob D: There’s more than one D here. Thanks for the reminded for the DWORD value.

  • http://www.v0id.net Mark

    You could also do as I did, and change the title to “IE Sucks ” :d
    Use this script

  • http://www.myspace.com/AlexTheMartian Alex B

    Thanks. What was posted didn’t work at first, but when I went a little further into the registry, as Rob D posted above, it worked. So you need to edit the article.

    This makes IE7 a little better, but its not perfect. Now the address bar is at the bottom bellow ALL the toolbars, I rather have Google toolbar (and whatever other ones) be bellow the address bar, so the address bar is between the menu bar and the toolbars.

    But I do admit, this makes IE7 so much easier to use then before.

  • http://xavier.ashe.com Xavier Ashe

    If you don’t want to upgrade, block the automatic update to IE 7 by installing a toolkit from Microsoft.

    http://blog.xavier.ashe.com/blog/_archives/2006/10/19/2429430.html

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