In Windows Vista, Microsoft has do away with classic menu bar with familiar File, Edit, View, Tools, Help and other pull down menus, in preference for a neater and simpler toolbar-like Tasks bar with various command buttons and icons. Users can easily reveal and show the classic menu bar, but sometimes, the menu bar has peskily and stubbornly appeared and refused to close and go away into hidden or disappearance.

Typically, classic menu bar in Windows Vista can be turned off and made hidden by uncheck the Menu Bar option in Layout setting of Organize pull down menu. With the persistent menu bar showing problem, the menu bar still can’t be hide by unselecting menu bar from Windows Explorer layout.

One possible reason on why the classic menu bar is been displayed ignorance of layout configuration is that user has enabled and turned on classic folders of Windows feature to revert back to older style and look. To ensure that classic folders is not been enabled, go to Organize menu to click on Folder and Search Options. In the Folder Options window General tab, ensure that radio button for Show previews and filters is selected, and not “Use Windows classic folders”.

If unchecking Menu Bar from Layout and selecting “Show previews and filters” in Folder Options do not help to remove or hide the menu bar, try the following workaround instead.

  1. Close and exit from all Windows Explorer and Internet Explorer windows.
  2. Run Registry Editor (regedit).
  3. Navigate to the following registry key:

    HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Internet Explorer\Toolbar\ShellBrowser

  4. Under the ShellBrowser registry hive, locate and delete the ITBar7Layout registry value data.
  5. Exit from Registry Editor.

Rerun the Windows Explorer, and now the classic menu bar should be gone. If not, try to unselect the Menu Bar on Layout and turn on the showing of previews and filters.