Getting the Address Bar back requires what I would call a small hack. That being said, if your psyche can’t handle a little backdoor manipulation, you might want to weigh the risks of this technique with the safety of leaving it be.
By the way, I cannot take credit for this trick; I saw these steps posted on a Microsoft Community Forum. I am merely expanding on it with some more detailed instructions and some imagery. I also want to thank and acknowledge Kenneth P. Grush who e-mailed me about the controversy this morning and posted a comment in my previous blog entry about Windows XP SP3.
The file modified by Windows XP SP3 is browseui.dll. The trick, put simply, is to replace the SP3 version of this file with an SP2 version of the file. The older version of browseui.dll can be found in the following directory of a non-SP3 Windows PC:
C:\Windows\System32\
Copy the browseui.dll to the root directory of the SP3 machine or to some other location that the SP3 PC can access.
Okay, here is where its gets a little tricky. The browseui.dll file is a system file and is therefore protected whenever Windows is running. That means you cannot just copy the SP2 version over to the SP3 version. You will have to start the SP3 PC in Safe Mode. In fact, I would suggest starting the SP3 PC in Safe Mode with a command prompt.
Here is how you do that:
1. Restart the SP3 computer.
2. When it starts the reboot process and before Windows starts to load, press the F8 key, which will load the Advanced Boot Options Menu.
3. Choose to start in Safe Mode with a Command Prompt option.
4. At the Command Prompt, type this copy command:
xcopy C:\browseui.dll C:\Windows\System32\
5. Reboot the SP3 PC normally.
If all went according to plan, you should now have the option to add the Address Bar to your desktop